| Welcome to Esther
Dyson's provocative and visionary new book, Release 2.0: A Design for Living
in the Digital Age. In this eagerly anticipated book, Dyson -- an entrepreneur,
high-tech industry analyst, government adviser, and the "most powerful woman
in the Net-erati," according to the New York Times Magazine -- presents
a fascinating exploration of our new digital society. She offers a detailed view
of the rapidly expanding digital environment and provides a framework that will
allow all of us to think intelligently about its effect on every aspect of our
private and public lives. Written with an insider's knowledge
and a ready wit, and filled with anecdotes about the movers and shakers behind
both products and policy, Release 2.0 provides readers with a full understanding
of the new world of cyberspace and shows how it is transforming the way we work
and live. With a perspective at once authoritative and totally accessible, she
outlines the choices and questions readers face as active citizens helping to
define and shape a new social contract for the digital age. As Dyson explains,
"The Net gives awesome power to individuals -- the ability to be heard across
the world, the ability to find information. But with this greater ability to exercise
their rights, or abuse them, individuals will need to exercise greater responsibility
for their own actions and for the world they are creating." In
Release 2.0, Dyson charts the implications of the internet for business,
government,, education, communities, and individuals, and illuminates the fundamental
conflicts in the spread of digital communication: conflicts between personal privacy
and society's interest in openness, between security and freedom, between commerce
and community, between government oversight and personal autonomy, between flourishing
creativity and the protection of intellectual property. As
Dyson makes clear, the digital society will bring profound shifts in the balance
of power between producers and consumers, governments and citizens, the mass media
and their audiences. Now the challenge, and the opportunity, is for citizens to
resolve these conflicts and trade-offs in their own public and private communities.
Throughout, Dyson's message is prescriptive and proactive: If
we want to make the world a better place, with the advent of the Internet we have
both the opportunity and the power to shape the new rules we want to live by.
And, to demonstrate, Dyson shares her own short list of rules for being a citizen
of the Net -- from "Use your judgment," and "Ask questions"
to "Be a producer" and "Always make new mistakes" -- and invites
each of us to create our own rules. Lively, informative,
and always challenging, Release 2.0 will speak to all readers looking to
understand and design our new digital society. Long
regarded as one of the most powerful thinkers in the computing industry, Esther
Dyson is president and owner of EDventure Holdings, a company focused on emerging
information technology worldwide. EDventure Holdings publishes Release 1.0,
a respected monthly newsletter, and sponsors the annual PC Forum for the high-tech
industry's leading players. Named one of the fifty most influential people in
the New Establishment by Vanity Fair, Dyson is in constant demand as a
public speaker and has written articles for The New York Times, Forbes,
Harvard Business Review, Wired, and the Washington Post.
She lives in New York City. |
