I Sing the Body Electronic : A Year With Microsoft on the Multimedia Frontier

Moody chronicles his year observing a young and inexperienced team of Microsoft developers working on a children's multimedia project under the dictatorial leadership of Bill Gates. For general readers. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Freelance writer Moody spent the year from December 1992 through December 1993 with six members of a Microsoft unit that was developing a children's multimedia reference product named Sendak. As he was given virtually unlimited access to the group, Moody is able to present a week-by-week account of the trials and tribulations of each team member as they try to make Sendak a viable product. In describing the inner workings of Microsoft, Moody reveals a company not immune to the corporate politics and personality conflicts that afflict huge companies, but one that nevertheless is willing to push the boundaries of technology, driven by chairman Bill Gates's obsession with staying ahead of the competition. Indeed, Moody's accounts of meetings with Gates are compelling. A fast-paced read that does not get bogged down in technical jargon, the book suffers from one flaw: Sendak was far from finished when Moody's year with Microsoft was up, so he describes its completion and launch?the product was shipped in November 1994 under the name Explorapedia?in relatively few pages. 50,000 first printing.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Much as Tracy Kidder did when he set the standard for this type of narrative nonfiction with his engrossing The Soul of a New Machine (1981), Moody goes behind the scenes at a major company in the computer industry to follow the development of a new product. Like Kidder, Moody captures the tension, turmoil, and excitement of the struggle to create something new. For two years, he follows the project team assigned to develop a children's multimedia encyclopedia at Bill Gates' Microsoft Corporation. The result of the team's efforts is Explorapedia, early releases of which have received mixed reviews. Moody's book is fascinating on a number of levels. He illuminates not only the creative process, but also the dynamics of teamwork; he captures Microsoft's unique corporate culture; and he shows what it is like to work for Bill Gates, now the richest man in America. Given Microsoft's prominence and the curiosity surrounding Gates, as well as the growing attention given to multimedia, Moody's book should generate interest. David Rouse