“Steve Lohr lays out the promise, the personalities, and the perils of big data in an entertaining and enlightening book.”
Data-ism
Inside the Big Data Revolution
Steve LohrCoal, iron ore and oil were the fuel of the Industrial Revolution. Today’s economies and governments are powered by something far less tangible: the explosive abundance of digital data.
Steve Lohr, the New York Times‘ chief technology reporter, charts the ascent of Data-ism, the dominating philosophy of the day in which data is at the forefront of everything and decisions of all kinds are based on data analysis rather than experience and intuition. Taking us behind the scenes and introducing the DOPs (Data Oriented-People), the key personalities behind this revolution, he reveals how consuming the bits and bytes of the masses is transforming the nature of business and governance in unforeseen ways. But what are losing in the process and what new dangers await?
Reviews
Hal Varian, chief economist at Google
“Big data has the potential to make us healthier and more effective. Learn why, and what will happen, in Steve Lohr’s important new book.”
Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google
“The digitization of business has created staggering amounts of data and unprecedented opportunities for data-driven decision-making. If you want to understand this new territory, Steve Lohr is the trusted, insightful guide you need.”
Erik Brynjolfsson, co-author of The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies
“If you want to understand where our world is headed, you need to read this book. It goes beneath the surface of Big Data to provide a penetrating view of the people exploring the edges of how to extract more value from the data.”
John Hagel, Co-Chairman, Center for the Edge
“Chock full of anecdotes, insights, and behind-the-scenes profiles of modern-day data gods such as Cloudera’s Jeff Hammerbacher and IBM’s Michael Haydock, Data-ism is a must-read for understanding Big Data’s impact on society and in your own life.”
Oren Etzioni, CEO, Allen Institute For Artificial Intelligence
Steve Lohr
FROM NY TIMES WEBSITE
Steve Lohr reports on technology, business and economics. He was a foreign correspondent for The Times for a decade and served brief stints as an editor, before covering technology, starting in the early 1990s.
In 2013, he was part of the team awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting “for its penetrating look into business practices by Apple and other technology companies that illustrates the darker side of a changing global economy for workers and consumers.”
He has written for magazines including The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly and The Washington Monthly. He is the author of a history of computer programming, “Go To: The Story of the Math Majors, Bridge Players, Engineers, Chess Wizards, Maverick Scientists and Iconoclasts — The Programmers Who Created the Software Revolution” (Basic Books, 2001; paperback, 2002).
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