Remarkable Reading #8: Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen's THE NEW DIGITAL AGE and Matt Mason's THE PIRATE'S DILEMMA

The aim of this section Remarkable Reading is pay a tribute to the books that taught, share trends & insights into where our world in the 21st century is heading in a technology enabled world, and ask the right questions.

Bolded and italics quotes and references do not belong to myself  and belong directly to the author.  The focus is to share valuable insights and teachings from the book to win business for the authors.

Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen’s THE NEW DIGITAL AGE: RESHAPING THE FUTURE OF PEOPLE, NATIONS AND BUSINESS is a must-read for all students of the Internet.  It’s a very topical, bold, provocative, insightful and endearing take on the the Internet and the crucial benefits it has for our future.  As a ardent student and fan of cinema & television, I find the impact of the technological age (and specially Google) profoundly interesting. I think it will be one of the top 5 companies that will have a longer-term impact on the future of AI & Robotics. I'm an avid fan of the work the team at Google do, and find Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Sundar Pichai, and Eric Schmidt inspiring and forward-thinking business innovators in the 21st Century.

One of the key trends I found interesting was on Page 24 - “Entertainment will become a more immersive and personalized experience in the future”

What does that mean to you?  Can you envisage yourself utilizing your smartphone in the cinema to interact with a) the movie or b) those in the cinema with you at the same time?

Also can you imagine television shows coming to cinema?  Certainly if they are of the same cast and magnitude as say GAME OF THRONES or TRUE DETECTIVE.

And lastly,  what price point would you pay to watch classics in cinema again?

On News, Journalism and Reporting, I found the following two take-outs promising.

Page 48 - “News organizations will remain an important and integral part of society in a number of ways, but many outlets will not survive in their current form - and those that do survive will have adjusted their goals, methods, and organizational structure to meet the changing demands of the new global public”

Page 49 - “Of course, the chance for error increases, in the inclusion of new, untrained voices - many respected journalists today believe that a full-bodied embrace of citizen journalism is detrimental to the field, and their concerns are not unwarranted”

On every aspect of the advancements currently happening online, I highly recommend THE NEW DIGITAL AGE: RESHAPING THE FUTURE OF PEOPLE, NATIONS AND BUSINESS  and it may prove to be a valuable reference point in coming years.

Matt Mason’s THE PIRATE'S DILEMMA - HOW THE YOUTH CULTURE IS REINVENTING CAPITALISM is a thought inducing romp through the impact of punk culture and piracy on the modern day culture and entertainment business.  It goes out of its way to prove that pirates have often done more for progress, than against, and in this era of mash-u’s, the fight for copyright and plaigairism will take new turns and avenues. Matt is a seamless writer who understand the piracy scene comprehensively and is able to shed light on the real finer intricacies of entertainment content in the 21st Century. Sharp, snappy and honest, THE PIRATE'S DILEMMA - HOW THE YOUTH CULTURE IS REINVENTING CAPITALISM is brilliant.

As Mason fluidly writes on  Page 66 -”From the birth of America to the birth of the Internet, it is often left to pirates to chart the winds of change, and plot better courses for the future”

And…

Page 59 - “Steve Jobs of Apple backed up Disney's sentiment, telling Newsweek, “If you want to stop piracy, the way to stop it is by competing with it”

Remixing and mash-ups form a large crux of what makes the internet work.

Page 71 - “Remixing is about taking something that already exists and redefining it in your own personal creative space, reinterpreting someone else’s work your way”

I agree with Matt on the two notes below strong.  Evolvable business models for existing media industries including newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and billboards in an ever changing technological age of fast pace will be vital

Page 157 - “A business model will come out in this new century, he said. “It won’t destroy the old companies, but reconfigure their ways”

Page 161 - “Movies, video games, magazines, and newspapers have all suffered losses as they make the transition to business models based on electronic distribution”

You can visit Matt Mason's website here, follow him on Twitter here and purchase a copy of THE PIRATES DILEMMA - HOW YOUTH CULTURE IS REINVENTING CAPITALISM here.

Youi can visit the website for The New Digital Age - Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business here, follow Eric Schmidt on Twitter here, follow Jared Cohen on Twitter here, and purchase a copy on Amazon here.

Thank you.

Praz