The author’s premise is that the nature of the workforce and society is changing rapidly – due to a number of factors:

1. The younger workforce is not interested in “permanent” employment – they’ve much more self-centered, many of their parents have worked from home and technology has changed permanently the way they interact with people (growing up with Facebook, Twitter from a young age?).  They are not likely to want a traditional full-time job nor expect that to be in their future.
2. The world keeps changing faster and faster – and traditional corporations have a hard time adapting. To re-organize hundreds of full-time employees into new organizational structures can be very painful and expensive, much less time consuming.
3. The world is becoming increasingly global -with new consumers coming on board every day across the whole world – in places many of us have never heard of.
4. Therefore the complexity of relationships of the business environment in the world to come will be much more significant.

So the author makes the point that the traditional corporation isn’t flexible enough for the future – but a completely decentralized corporation isn’t good either -as it has no identify – no sense of who it is – which can lead to a lot of trouble. Therefore the author proposes that a new structure be created  - one with a core set of employees (full time with job security) that set the values of the organization – with another set of employees, contractors, vendors, etc. – that have less and less commitment to the organization.  This “cloud” is then the flexible and dynamic part of the organization – whereas the core is the stability.

The core is also a balance against the CEO – even though they can’t set business strategy themselves.  They can actually advise a new CEO against taking a path that would be folly given the corporate culture.  They also will help develop the tools to educate the “cloud” with the corporations values, standards, etc. – to avoid potential problems.  This also then makes the board of directors more important – as they become the arbiter between the CEO (business leadership) and the core (corporate continuity).

The author really doesn’t seem to be trying to promote this corporate structure for it’s own sake – but as a method of handling the changes in society and business that he feels are inevitable.  Interestingly enough the author also indicates that the federal government should consider re-organizing into something other than the monolithic organization that it is – the massive bureaucracy. Instead consider moving toward more of a “cloud” model itself – which is an interesting idea.

The overall writing of the book is good – but it wasn’t spectacular either.  I would recommend reading this book as food for thought – not as a blueprint for how to re-build a corporation.  I do think many corporations  need to start looking at themselves in terms of how they are organized – in order to adapt better for the future.  The economies of scale of old may not be as effective in the future as they are today – which are a specialization of many large corporations today.

One of the challenges for America will be the current coupling of health insurance and retirement with an employer.  If a larger percentage of employees are no longer full-time employees somehow these employees will need to obtain affordable health insurance and plan for retirement.  These may require some structural changes in how our society is organized – I’m just not sure how.  I sometimes wonder though if those items were taken out of the equation if more people would go work for themselves – if that is what is tying them to a full-time job.  It will also require Americans to get off their debt binge – as to work on a contract basis will require individuals to actually have savings – so they can go between contracts.

1. Google announced today they’re planning on testing out a new 1 gigabit internet service (http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi) – so they could be in the neighborhood soon.
2. Google has a DNS service (http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/) – the magic thingy that translates the names we type in into the numbers that define the internet.
3. Google has Gmail – it’s free web-based e-mail service.  It has a corresponding calendar, contacts, etc. service.  One concept of calendars is you can share them – have group calendars, etc.
4. Google has it’s Google Docs – word, processing, spreadsheets, presentation, etc. – so you can do those basics online.
5. Google has it’s own “Groups” concept – for communicating information, sharing documents, etc.
6. They have their “apps” concept – which can be used by organizations, businesses, etc  to put much of their company online – e-mail, calendaring, collaboration, documents, etc.
7. Google has Picasa – a photo sharing site  - with face recognition.
8. Google has YouTube – which means they are the leader in video on the web – of which some of that technology seems to be migrating into the “app” concept.
9. Google has it’s powerful Google Maps – which brings location to the web.
10. Google has Google Voice – which is communication on web – integrated communication.
11. Google has Wave – a collaboration tool.
12. Google even now has it’s own social network – Buzz (http://www.google.com/buzz)
13. Google has a 411 service (which it apparently used to improve voice recognition).
14. Google has Android – it’s mobile phone operating system.
15. Google has it’s own browser (I’m using it now) – to speed up our web experience.
16. Google is designing a new kind of computer – one where the browser is the computer (Chrome OS)

I’m sure I’ve missed quite a few items – as they keep adding them all the time.  What was interesting to me was not just a few interesting tools here and here – but how they seem to be covering the scope of how we interact with computers – pushing us toward their view of the future.  This can be a little disturbing – due to the power they wield.  Ultimately my hope is that by creating more competition they will make for better products and services for us.

• This 1 gigabyte Internet Service – will this help drive down Broadband Prices and bring up speeds?
• Does anyone else think that having Android Phones compete with the iPhone will be better for consumers?
• Does the existence of Picasa potentially force Yahoo to make Flickr better?
• Does the existence of Buzz in Gmail push Facebook to make their messaging concept even better?
• Is the threat of Google making Apple and especially Microsoft improve their “cloud” services?

So I don’t know if we can trust Google – but we can be vigilant in keeping them honest.  Fortunately for us now their business model works in our favor – as when they make the Internet better for their sake – it becomes better for us…

In theory it could save us money to buy the phone up front and get a cheaper monthly rate – and it could give use the freedom to change carriers.  For me I can’t see how I could afford a $500-600 phone – that’s a lot of money to lay out.  But paying $200 for a phone seems more feasible – even if it means a higher monthly rate (as I don’t have the cash to pay more money).  I wonder now if that’s really a form of financing for the masses – as we can’t manage our money enough to possibly save money.  As a society we’re addicted to financing – to the small monthly cost that ends up costing us more money.  We like to max out our money to the point there’s no margin anymore – so putting down that amount of cash seems insurmountable.

I don’t know if this will change over time – as if these devices become more like computers we may be willing to pay more in order to keep our phone and ditch our service.  I’ve had a palm phone for years (not the new Web OS but the original Palm OS) and have worked hard to keep all my data and applications.  I’ve gone from Sprint to T-mobile and back to Sprint.  I’m actually one of those strange Sprint customers who’s happy with my service and the costs.  I’ve kept most of the same apps and data from one phone to the next – using the palm Desktop to synchronize (my data is not in the cloud – but is backed up locally on my computer – that is when I sync it…).

Then again with the growth of the cloud will all the data eventually be in the cloud?  Will the phone just be a UI into common data in the cloud – that moves from my phone to my tablet to my PC, browser, etc.  Will the phone eventually be a light computer – possibly using an OS like Chrome?  Will Apple or some other company come up with some UI that will blow us away – will the hardware change to the point the phone part is basically the size of a bluetooth headset (anyone seen Minority Report?).

I also remember just listening to Windows Weekly (TWIT broadcast) and they made an interesting comment – that we’ve gotten to the point where a computer is not worth using if there is no Internet.  I think that’s pretty profound – as  that’s not the way it used to be – even for me.  I wonder if this will be a new kind of digital decade – where the entire decade is based around computers, the Internet, etc.  We’re putting our lives online – banking online, etc.  With the growth of broadband connectivity there’s a whole new realm of content becoming available.  I wonder if the by the end of the decade TV will be changed as we know it – no tuning to cable, etc. – but it’s all content on the Internet.  We see our media rapidly changing – newspapers are dying in front of us.  There is a fight right now over whether content that has traditionally been free should be charged for – even broadcast TV.

For the US it’s not been that great of a decade overall – but the Internet charged forward full-steam with the growth of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.  Google has grown in it’s reach – well beyond just search.   Microsoft is no longer dominant like it was – even though they make plenty of money.  Netbooks have come into being – pushing PC sales – Apple has made a comeback and is a dominant force in the industry (got an iPod?).  Cell phones are rapidly make the “home” phone obsolete, texting has replaced talking for whole segments of the population.  Microsoft released an operating system I can recommend, Google proposed a browser as an operating system….

So what will things look like at the end of the next decade?  Can we imagine it?  Will it make us better as a people or worse?  Will talking in person become retro?

The other trend involved here that my influence the tablet is the move to cloud computing.  As we move more and more toward our apps on the web (not locally) the form factor of a tablet may become a lot more popular.  Google’s “Chrome” operating system is essentially recognizing that trend – with the browser being the operating system.  I personally still have some reservations with this trend – because of the apps I use.  That said, the appeal of having my stuff anywhere I want it is fascinating.  I’m not sure that broadband connectivity is there yet – as it can be challenging at times to get a good connection.

So I wouldn’t invest too much in tablets yet – as event the one from Apple is a mystery as of now – but would watch and see how the work out.  I do love my laptop (even though my back sometimes doesn’t) – so maybe there’s the start…

I agree with the author – that Google’s timing was great – with the growth of cheap, but plentiful hardware, the explosive growth of web and the failure of it’s competitors.  The book points out what I’ve heard before – that Google has and still values it’s engineers.  Google seems to be a different company – less focused on money and shareholder value than other companies.  It helps that their core search business is a major revenue source – simple but very profitable.  This gives them a ton of cash to pursue other ventures – a luxury most companies don’t have.

It’s hard to estimate the effect Google has had on our world – much like Microsoft has had.  I’m personally fascinated by them – by a company that just behaves differently.  In fact, there is a culture of the web now that making money is secondary to making a product – build it and then figure out how to pay for it.  Of course, this doesn’t always work – but Google has the money now.

As Google expands beyond just search it hints at the future of Cloud computing – of moving away from silos of data to having you data available anywhere you want it.  If you think about – this has been a tension in the computing world for some time – remember mainframes?  At work my e-mail is not on my PC – even though my e-mail client is.  Do you store files on the PC or on the network?  I think one of the original drivers for moving away from the mainframe was flexibility – as it’s not simple to develop anything in the mainframe environment – versus a PC is easy (but not as mature).  Many companies live in the tension of centralizing vs. distributing – which has led to the growth of Virtualization.  That said, I do agree that the cloud seems to be the future – as the concept of having your data whenever you need is appealing.  And Google may be in the lead in this effort.

The book hints at it – and I agree -that the growth of the collaborative web is a challenge to Google.  They wrote the book on search algorithms and like to keep things in house (decided by data).  Wikpedia contrasts strongly with Google – as it’s a user driven approach.   This is different than what Google is doing with it’s book scanning – as it’s doing it by itself – and not collaborating with others.  I also know about Open Street Maps – why isn’t Google Maps using Open Street maps as a source – collaborating with the user community to improve data.  I wonder if the goal to digitize books could be better accomplished by having individuals volunteer to scan the books in (check them out one by one) and contribute to a community pool.  Then companies like Google could pull in that data and index it for searching, distribution, etc.  I wonder if it might go quicker that way – and would be less of an issue with everyone.

Overall I’m glad I read the book – as I learned about Google.  I think there are other books to read that would help me understand more (I think Jeff Jarvis has one).  It’s only 200 pages – so it didn’t take that long to get through (that’s short for me – ever read Battlefield Earth?)