NetSlaves: True Tales of Working the Web - Softcover

Lessard, Bill; Baldwin, Steve

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0071364803 ISBN 13: 9780071364805

Publisher: McGraw-Hill, 2000

Synopsis

Exposes the dark side of the booming technology industry which has thousands of poorly-paid employees working extended hours in cyber-sweatshops.

About this title

Review:

Authors Bill Lessard and Steve Baldwin neatly summarize the operating principle behind NetSlaves: "People are nuts, no matter what profession they're in, but people forced to work like dogs with the carrot stick of stock options and 'untold' wealth dangling under their noses are especially nuts."

If all you know about the Internet business is what you've read in the financial press, then NetSlaves provides a cold slap of reality. For every headline-making company like Yahoo! or Amazon.com, there are hundreds or perhaps even thousands more like the ones Net vets Lessard and Baldwin have worked for. These are the startups that never finish up, companies that hire hundreds of programmers and Web-site designers and techies of all stripes, then merge or downsize or go out of business before anyone can cash in. The authors take the reader on an anthropological expedition through what they call the New Media Caste System. At the bottom rung are the "garbagemen," the guys who have to get the server up and running when it crashes, who have to rush to help the digital morons who can't figure out how to open their e-mail. At the top, of course, are the "robber barons," the guys who really do get mind-blowing wealth and profiles in Wired magazine. For each level, the authors tell an instructive, cautionary tale of life in the new economy.

Although Lessard and Baldwin clearly set out to create revenge journalism, enjoyed by all those who've lived on pizza and Mountain Dew for months on end only to end up with pink slips, those outside the tech universe should enjoy it, too. Revenge may be a dish best served cold, but it's easy to warm up to NetSlaves. --Lou Schuler

From the Back Cover:

"A Silicon Valley book for the rest of us." - USA Today

"NetSlaves is entertaining and nearly unbelievable. Based on personal interviews with Web workers, it offers humorous and not-so-humorous accounts of long hours, abysmal management skills, and unnecessary pressure on the e-business frontier." - Library Journal, Best Business Books 1999

"Readers who can't bear another glossy magazine profile of Internet IPO kids will welcome this tour through the writhing underbelly of the tech biz...this insider's look at the industry offers an amusing antidote to the media's chronic case of Internet hype." - Publisher's Weekly

NetSlaves offers eyewitness accounts of grueling hours, gross mismanagement, and chronic backstabbing in an industry with no real rules. The truth is not only strager than fiction, it's stranger than "Dilbert" on acide or a Hunter S. Thompson nightmare. This is Studs Terkel's Working for the Web era - jolted with caffeine and spiked withsardonic Michael Moore-ish humor.

About this edition

• Publisher: McGraw-Hill
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0071364803
• ISBN 13: 9780071364805
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 246