Product Description

From Amazon.com

David Weinberger's Small Pieces Loosely Joined does not merely celebrate the World Wide Web; it attempts to make a case that the institution has completely remodeled many of the world's self-perceptions. The book does so entertainingly, if not convincingly, and is a lively collection of epigrammatic phrases (the Web is "'place-ial' but not spatial"; "on the Web everyone will be famous to 15 people"), as well as illustrations of these changes. There are intriguing assertions: that the Web is "broken on purpose" and that its many pockets of erroneous information and its available forums for disputing, say, manufacturers' hyperbole, let people feel more comfortable with their own inherent imperfections. At other times the book seems stale: it declares that the Web has disrupted long-held axioms about time, space, and knowledge retrieval and that it has dramatically rearranged notions of community and individuality. Weinberger's analysis, though occasionally facile and too relentlessly optimistic and overstated, is surely destined to be the subject of furious debate in chat rooms the cyber-world over. --H. O'Billovich --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Weinberger (coauthor, The Cluetrain Manifesto) mixes popular philosophy and middle-aged-white-male experience to explore his simple Internet thesis: the Web permits people to connect based on soul, not body, and the importance of the Web is not economic, but spiritual. A philosophy professor turned marketing guy turned writer, Weinberger boasts an extremely likable mainstream intellectual persona, flashes of insight and genuine literary talent. But the aspect of his personality that drives this book his first solo effort is his tendency to question. "Yes, I am undeniably a 45-55 white suburban male, but it's demeaning to see it put down on paper as if that made me like every other 45-55 white guy trapped in the suburbs," he says, in a passage about demographics gathered by scheming marketers. "And while it may be statistically true that we 45-55 white suburban males will boost our spending on erasable pens if we see a sexy babe touch one to her lips in an ad, we resent the notion that we're programmable." With touchy-feely chapter titles like "Perfection," "Togetherness," "Matter" and "Hope," Weinberger leads readers through an exploration of the Web's implications beyond Amazon.com. And if his concepts at times smack of New Age sensitivity, they are, in a way, accurate. Weinberger, a frequent commentator on NPR's All Things Considered, celebrates the Internet's gift to its users: permission to be an individual in a virtual world we can tailor to our passionate, idea-driven taste. In writing about the Web, Weinberger has written about himself his own soul and his own unwieldy and evolving comprehension of the world.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

22 Reviews

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4.1 out of 5 stars (22 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Everything is connected, Jun 7 2004

By	Will Rodriguez (Wellington, FL) - See all my reviews

This is a great book that helps define what the internet is and how it is effecting our lives. This book provides great insight and gets you thinking about what we do every day on the internet. Are we being more social or anti-social if we spend more time on the internet? We are creating the internet with every web page and every weblog. It's like writing a book that never finishes.

This book looks at the internet by looking at Space, Time, Perfection, Togetherness, Matter and Hope.. This really gets you thinking about what the internet is and what it will become...

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5.0 out of 5 stars Philosophy of the 'Net, Sep 23 2003

By	Gary Scott (SC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory Of The Web (Hardcover)

More a look at society as bounded by the Web than a look at the Web itself, as someone described this book. That's true, for it seems to offer more insights about modern humanity and the weird situation we've created for ourselves than about the Internet itself. Topics include knowledge, time, matter - the stuff of philosophy, and not of a book about the Net.

Everyone who uses the internet should read this book. Anyone interested in modernity should read it as well, even if she doesn't have a computer.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful look at what the web has taught us, Sep 1 2003

By	Mark Lee - See all my reviews

The reason that I chose to read this in the first place was that I was seeing it listed in sidebar after weblog sidebar, so it seemed like the "in" book to be reading right now. I quickly discovered that there is good reason for all the buzz. This book will probably be solely remembered for its spin on the Warhol quote that "on the Internet, everyone will be famous to 15 people" (loose paraphrase), and that's a shame, because it's so much more than that. Weinberger asserts that the advent of the Web has forced us to take a hard look at our assumptions about things like space, time, relationships, and what really matters to us. The Web, rather than something that is inherently good or bad, is a fairly accurate reflection of who we are as a society. Weinberger's style is both enlightening and disarming. I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants to learn more about where we've come since the Web's introduction, and (perhaps) where we're going.

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Most recent customer reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars If ya gotta ask, you'll never know...
In reading David Weinberger's "Small Pieces Loosely Joined", his thesis of how the Web works and impacts our lives, I couldn't help but recall Louis Armstrong's... Read more

Published on Aug 22 2003 by B. Pomeroy

1.0 out of 5 stars A waste of money
Don't buy this book.

This book is a 2003 version of a 1995 "links page". Lots of places to go, none of them very useful. Read more

Published on May 15 2003 by ab

5.0 out of 5 stars The Web's first Cosmologist
If John Perry Barlow is the Internet's prophet and Sherry Turkle is its anthropologist, by writing "Small Pieces, Loosely Joined," David Weinberger has become its first... Read more

Published on Jul 14 2002 by Harvey Ardman

5.0 out of 5 stars A survey of Internet language & experience
Small Pieces Loosely Joined is a survey of Internet language, experience, and relationships between reality and Web sites makes for intriguing discussions of media and it's... Read more