The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google - Softcover

Nicholas Carr is the author of The Shallows, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and The Glass Cage, among other books. Former executive editor of the Harvard Business Review, he has written for The Atlantic, the New York Times, and Wired. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.

“Starred Review. Carr created a huge rift in the business community with his first book, Does IT Matter?, challenging the conventional wisdom that information technology provides a competitive advantage. Here he examines the future of the Internet, which he says may one day completely replace the desktop PC as all computing services are delivered over the Net as a utility, the Internet morphing into one giant 'World Wide Computer.' ... Carr warns that the downside of the World Wide Computer may mean further concentration of wealth for the few, and the loss of jobs, privacy, and the depth of our culture.”
- Booklist

“Quick, clear read on an important theme ... Scary? No doubt. But as we prepare for the World Wide Computer, it's not a bad idea to consider its dark side.”
- Business Week

“[W]idely considered to be the most influential book so far on the cloud computing movement.”
- Christian Science Monitor

“'Information is born free, but everywhere is found in chains.' So Nicholas Carr―in his latest and characteristically stimulating challenge to conventional thinking about technology―might have paraphrased Rousseau.”
- Democracy

“Carr is one of the more cogent writers on the economic and social implications of the changes sweeping through corporate data centres.”
- Financial Times

“An enjoyable and thought-provoking read.”
- GigaOm

“The Big Switch explains the future of computing in terms so simple I can understand them.”
- Ed Cone, Greensboro News-Record

“Carr stimulates, provokes and entertains superbly.”
- Information Age

“A leading technological rabble-rouser prognosticates a world beyond Web 2.0. [Carr's] broader sociological observations are punctuated by a pair of ominously prescient chapters about privacy issues and cyberterrorism.”
- Kirkus Reviews

“Carr may take a somewhat apocalyptic view of the vast technological and social issues which a move to utility computing will raise, not least those of privacy, ownership and access, but he makes a compelling case for its desirability in a world where the network is pervasive. Whether we go gently into this world is, of course, up to us, but with the insight offered here we will at least be prepared to understand the consequences of our choices earlier in the process rather than later.”
- New Humanist