是的。互联网流行才十多年，我们的生活有了多大的改变啊。不仅我们查找资料，购物通信都方便了很多，而且我们的社交，娱乐方式也随之变化。至于企业，则更是每天面对着互联网带来的机会和挑战。弗里德曼（Thomas Friedman）的畅销书“世界是平的”(The World is Flat)，就把二十一世纪以来的全球化趋势归因于信息技术发展而带来的“平坦化”。互联网给我们这个世界带来的变化是全方位，多层次的。这里要介绍的一本书，就从一个独特的侧面来讨论这些变化和我们的因应之策。
“What Would Google Do?” 是Jeff Jarvis2009年的新书。它在Business Week畅销榜上名列十三。Newsweek在2009年1月刊登了独家采访。作者Jeff Jarvis在媒体行业做过多种工作，也经营着一个相当热闹的博客。他目前是纽约市立大学的副教授，主持一个媒体课程计划。
“What Would Google Do”主要是从商业上（着重于媒体和广告业）来考察互联网的影响。当然，互联网对我们生活的影响远非如此。我最近在想的，是互联网对于社会权力结构的影响。人们常说的是互联网给了大众力量，因为大众有了获取信息和协调行动的渠道。政治的“进入壁垒”也降低了。任何人都能在网上发表政见，吸引追随者。但另一方面，互联网也对领袖的特质有了新的要求。按照韦伯的理论，权力有三种来源：法理，传统和个人魅力。西方政治体系通常注重法理基础上的权力（当然个人取得这个权力的方式可以是通过传统和个人魅力）。但在互联网上，呼风唤雨的“权力”却和法理无关：没有明确的选举挑选程序，也没有“任期”。追随者可以被吸引，也可以随时被失去。当“网上社区”在现实生活中发挥越来越大的作用时，“个人魅力”型的领袖是否会改变西方的政治体系？这次奥巴马总统竞选过程中facebook等互联网工具大显神通，是不是反映了一个趋势？
“What Would Google Do”声称揭示了互联网新时代的新规则和新规律。但这是如此宏伟的任务，任何人都无法完成。Jeff Javis当然也有其局限性。他的所谓“普遍规律”，其实只限于他经验所及的那部分工业。但是这本书对我们生活和社会的很多问题提出了思考的框架。对于在互联网时代寻找生存发展之道的人，我认为这是一本很有价值的书。
I'm under the weather since Sunday and was really busy on Monday - but I didn't forget my promise to visit your book review:))! Fortunately it's not a very long one:).I think this author was the same one I mentioned at NPR news program, but I didn't know he's a professor at CUNY, and is also a blogger:)! Very interesting points he made, but "what would Google do" reminds me of another familiar "slogan", and the implication is a bit unnerving to me.
I just saw the CEO of Digg (an online news company) Jay something at Fox Business this afternoon, and although I knew about this new program, I didn't know much about its business model. It's very interesting to know that this small start up is self sustainable and has no plan to go public anytime soon. Jay said that he doesn't really need the kind of "public capital" to keep his business going, unless they decide to expand dramatically or going international. It's another good example of "grass root" movement of the Web 2.0 businesses.
