The Death of Distance: How the Communications Revolution Will Change Our Lives - Hardcover

Cairncross, Frances

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0875848060 ISBN 13: 9780875848068

Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press, 1997

Synopsis

Examines the ways in which advances in telecommunication will change the way companies do business, governments are run, and families and friends interact

About this title

About the Author

Frances Cairncross is a senior editor at The Economist. She is the author of Costing the Earth (HBS Press), and the winner of the first Reuter's - Alp Action media award.

From the Back Cover

If you want to know what is going on now in the information and communications technologies, and how they will impact the industry and our society in the not so distant future, this book is essential reading. --Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive, The News Corporation

"The Death of Distance is a terrific book. Cairncross brings an easy-to-read style, a historical perspective, and cogent research and analysis to the communications, media, and computer industries. Whether discussing the monopolistic nature of these businesses or the effect of new media on U.S. and world economies, or on democracy itself, she covers her topics thoroughly." --Michael R. Bloomberg, CEO and Founder, Bloomberg L. P.

"With compelling detail and insight, the author beckons us to the 'sunny uplands' of the Communications Revolution. She makes us redouble our efforts to change laws and encourage business onward to the hopeful tomorrows that she lucidly describes." --Reed E. Hundt, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission

"Cairncross extrapolates advances in telecommunications and sees a world in which everyone is everyone else's neighbor in some respects. But she sees the complications as well. Meals (and steels) will still come on wheels, not via Internet. Competition will be enhanced in some areas and monopolies may thrive in others. From the future of work to the future of politics, Cairncross is a thoughtful and perceptive guide." --Robert M. Solow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"As markets open, as technologies converge and as our industry reshapes itself, everyone in telecommunications knows our only certainty is that nothing will ever be the same again. The Death of Distance captures the fundamental--yet exhilarating--changes we are experiencing and gives an insight into the ever more profound impact communications will have on our lives in the future." --Sir Iain Vallance, Chairman, British Telecommunications PLC

Reviews

"Cairncross accurately describes why the Internet is so important, how it will challenge today's concepts of the telephone and television-and how it will be the catalyst for carrying out most of her predictions."

A noted journalist, author, and senior editor at the Economist, Cairncross gives a provocative explanation of how the world will change over the next 50 years. She sees the speed of communication as the most important economic force shaping the upcoming century and addresses the enormous changes sweeping through the process of communications. Cairncross predicts that distance, location, and company size will be overtaken by customization, brand awareness, niches, mobility, and loose-knittedness as major factors in business. A deluge of information will occur alongside a loss of privacy, business will operate in an inversion of home and office, and national authority will decline with reduced immigration and a rebirth of cities and a rebalance of political power. With less emphasis on taxation in a cultural community of world peace, markets will be near-frictionless and global yet with more local provision. Light on jargon, this perceptive, easy-to-read book is highly recommended for a broad audience.?Joseph W. Leonard, Miami Univ., Oxford, Ohio
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0875848060
• ISBN 13: 9780875848068
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 302