The following resources are for those of you who are worried about catching up with the history behind New Technologies. I know that in every class, there's a group of people who feel overwhelmed by all the lingo that flies in the classroom. Fear not. It's all about personal effort and personal interest.
Do you like this topic? Do you want to give it a good, hard shot? Do you want to create something "insanely great"?
If you said "yes" to all three questions, then this course is for you, regardless of your background. Period.
"The 21st Century Economy" - This is from a special issue of Business Week (August 24/31, 1998). This provides a thumbnail sketch about how the new technologies impact our economy. This reading is found in the online reserves.
Discussion questions are provided to assist students with getting a jump in classroom discussions.
1. Which of the new technologies really catches your eye? Explain.
2. With the article, "You ain't seen nothing yet", Business Week takes a very optimistic stance about the impact of new science and technologies. What forces are identified as driving this incredible growth? In what ways do you agree with them? In what ways to you disagree with them?
3. How come Business Week calls the next wave, the "Century of Biology"? What's driving innovations in biotech?
4. Though question: How do you think these new technologies will change our lives? How will they change the ways we do business?
These readings will acquaint you with a quickie overview of the main industries that comprise the New Technology & Emerging Markets World: Biotechnology, Computing (Hardware & Software), Networking, and Communications.
Introduction to Biotech - This is sponsored by Genentech, the first successful public biotech company. Project groups which are interested in Biotech projects might want to surf this site.
Triumph of the Nerds: A History of Computing - From PBS, a website that condenses the famous PBS special and best selling book. The author, Robert X. Cringely, also puslishes an online computer industry gossip column: it's saucy, it's brutal, and it's everything you love to hear about the digiterati (i.e. rich geeks and brainy scientists).
A Short History of the Internet - This is an article written by Bruce Sterling, a popular science fiction writer. It avoids much of the technospeak seen in other internet histories. It also focuses on the "early years" at it was published in early 1993.
Computer Industry Timeline (PDF File) - This is a photohistory and so you should not activate this link if you are hooked to the web through a phone modem. I recommend viewing this through the on-campus computers.
I tried to find books that are entertaining. Most of those books are centered on the computing industry. All can be found within our UW library system. Let me make a few comments about some of the books.
The book by Jim Clark...well...the more I find out about that man, the more I want to read about him. If you attended the first lecture, you will have heard my summary of his biography. It's inspiring.
For just fun reading over the history of the Silicon Valley, read "Accidental Empires" by Robert Cringely. I don't watch soap operas, and I'll never admit to reading trashy novels. Who needs them? Not when you have such tawdry real life examples in high tech business! The same gossip format is in "Apple Confidential" and "The Difference between God and Larry Ellison. Trashy, Trashy, Traaasssshhhy! The Larry Ellison book is a real "kiss-and-tell" book. The author interviewed more than a dozen of his ex-girlfriends.
None of you can use the excuse that this is dry reading.
Lastly, there is a charming book on Cisco, and because of the nature of that company, it really takes you into the present and future of computing and telecom. More so than the other books.
Linzmayer, Owen W. Apple confidential : the real story of Apple Computer, Inc. No Starch Press, 1999. (Can be found in the UWB Library) "Numerous books have been written about Apple, but Apple Confidential offers the most entertaining and complete picture . . . For Apple fanatics, not reading this book would be like a music major never listening to the Beatles. The same is true for anyone else remotely interested in the history of the PC and of Silicon Valley." (New York Times Review)
Cringely, Robert X. Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley make their millions, battle foreign competition, and still can't get a date. HarperBusiness, 1996 Edition. (Can be requested from the UW-Tacoma Library) Cringely is the pen name for the Barbara Walters of the computer industry. Disgruntled Dilberts (engineers) and executives would email their gripes to Cringely providing the digital industry with their first and best gossip column. I personally think a few of the corporate castrations written by Cringely are naive and unfair. Company Dilberts may be unhappy, but Dilberts are sometimes naive about business reality. Nevertheless, I cannot think of a better introduction to the digital age. And so what if it's written by a digital Barbara Walters? Cringely is smart and his book is fun to read.
Bunnell, David & Brate, Adam. Making the Cisco connection : the story behind the real Internet superpower. Wiley& Sons, 2000. (Can be found in the UWB Library) Making the Cisco Connection deftly traces the networking giant's path to success, from it's founding couple, Sandra Lerner and Leonard Bosack, to current CEO John Chambers. Beginning as a tale of two college sweethearts at Stanford University who cofounded the company fifteen years ago, the oft-told Cisco legend has all the makings of a great novel -- love, money, a villain or two, corporate coups, and the sweet taste of victory. But mostly, the Cisco story is a very unusual tale of corporate success. Despite the struggle of passing through several regimes, Cisco managed to hit all the crucial spots of its business.
Clark, Jim Netscape time : the making of the billion-dollar start-up that took on Microsoft. St. Martin's Press, 1999.
(Can be found in the UWB Library) Jim Clark is one of the founders of Netscape. He's also the founder of three multi-billion dollar companies: Silicon Graphics (now gone), Netscape (swallowed by AOL), and Healtheon (known as WebMD). In Netscape Time, Jim Clark, tells the fascinating story of how he, Marc Andreessen, and a core group of programmers turned an esoteric computer program into a visionary new technology used by hundreds of millions of people around the globe. Challenged from the start by competition, a seemingly bottomless pit of expenses, and a need for secrecy from the roving eye of Microsoft, Clark's programmers spent days at a stretch in front of their computer screens, rushing to produce their revolutionary Web browser under the enormous pressure of time. The success of Netscape, as most people know, ended up attracting the dreaded attention of Bill Gates and Microsoft, and Clark recounts his battles against the giant software company. Far from a fan of Gates and his tactics, Clark portrays a ruthless enemy bent on smashing any competition, presenting an image of his rival that only became apparent to the rest of the world during the government's prosecution of Microsoft. In a particularly fascinating epilogue, Clark provides his view of the case and his predictions of its impact on technology and society.Wilson, Mike. The difference between God and Larry Ellison : inside Oracle Corporation. Morrow & Co, 1998. (Can be found in the UWB Library). A recent Forbes listed Ellison as the fifth richest man in the world, and the second richest active player (behind Gates) in the technology world. Oracle Corporation, of which he is founder and CEO, is the fastest-growing software database company in the world, and the darling of technology investors. If you withdraw cash from an ATM, make an airline reservation, hook up your TV to the Internet, then you're using Oracle. All of this makes Ellison the man investors, techies, and people-in-the-know want to know more about. But he's a ruthless businessman who has used misdirection and half-truths to create one of the great high-tech success stories. He is also a daredevil sportsman with a 78-foot yacht, a number of fast jets, and beautiful women on his arm. In June 2000, Oracle was caught hiring detectives to do "dumpster diving" around the nation to find out any incriminating information on Microsoft. Larry Ellison promptly went on Television to ardently defend the practice. (Wanna know the difference between God and Larry Ellison? God doesn't think he's/she's Larry Ellison)
We've heard the news bytes. "Digital Economy!" "Information Economy!" So-called New Paradigm economists proclaim that recessions are a thing of the past. The cycle of bull and bear are permanantly changed. Traditional economists claim little has really changed.
The Long Boom This article says we're in no ordinary economic boom. The world is in the early stages of an unprecedented global boom that will continue to surge and transform the planet in the next 25 years.
Thurow, Lester The Future of Capitalism Penguin Books
Encylopedia of the New Economy From "adhocracy" to "zero sum," the terms that define 21st-century business.
1. Do you agree with the new economists? Are we ushering in a golden age for the world economy? Or would you agree with the traditionalists that little has really changed? ....Or do you take an intermediate view? State your reasons.
Christensen, Clayton The Innovator's Dillema Harvard Business School Press
Grove, Andrew Only the Paranoid Survive Currency Doubleday
Fahey, Liam Learning from the Future Wiley
Hamel, Gary & Prahalad, C.K. Competing for the Future Harvard Business School Press
Schwartz, Peter The Art of the Long View Currency Doubleday
Frigstad, David Industrial Market Research & Forecasting Frost & Sullivan