Understand the 2.0 World: Read The Big Switch

The Big Switch: Rewiring the World from Edison to Google is both fascinating and frightening. My first realization: desktop software is being replaced with web-based applications. At SCORE Chicago, we already use web-based templates for appointments, workshop registration and our website itself, so I now understand why. Now I understand why Microsoft is buying Yahoo.

My second realization: many new web-based programs I am using are free for good reasons. First it is relatively costless to add users to web-based applications. And second, costs incurred are likely to be covered either in by ads or by small user fees. So I can use WordPress for this blog or Photobucket for my slideshows or Facebook to explore business implications, all for free because I will be asked to pay for excessive storage, as in WordPress, or to view ads, as in Photobucket.

Third realization, and reality check: this freedom comes at the price of privacy. Some? many? of these cyberspace tracks are likely to be aggregated and analyzed by future marketers, governments, researchers and more. Is this paranoa or an emerging truth?

My favorite analogy from the book: that the electric grid becomes the information grid. Companies in the 19th century built their own power plants, then abandoned them for central electricity. Likewise, 20th century companies built their own IT departments, and are now coming to depend on the central feed of the web. One benefit may be that individuals may no longer have to be their own amateur computer technicians.

My take-aways:

1. Enjoy free while it lasts. Continue to seek out and use web-based apps.

2. Expect to pay later. Assume I will eventually have to pay for storage or intensive use of certain software .

3. Give up some privacy for all these new toys. Watch what data I put out there, but expect to lose some? control over my information. The flip side of sharing is distribution, is it not?

This is an important book to understand what’s coming. Don’t miss it.