Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Gorbis, a futurist and consultant, describes a new era she calls socialstructing, in which individuals use technology and the collective intelligence of a large group of people, their social network, to take on jobs previously done by big businesses and organizations. She cites the values in these networks, including open collaboration, independence, and the ability of anyone to rise to an endeavor. The author observes that empowered by computing and communication technologies that have been steadily building village-like networks on a global scale, we are infusing more and more of our economic transactions with social connections. She offers chapters describing how social structing will impact education, government, scientific research, and health. Gorbis suggests that young people need to develop new skills and capabilities for this self-driven and self-directed world with resources and content available on personal devices to increasingly acquire more knowledge and consume more rich content, or they will be left behind. This is a thought-provoking, excellent book for a wide range of library patrons.--Whaley, Mary Copyright 2010 Booklist

Choice
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.

Gorbis heads the Institute for the Future, a nonprofit organization based in Silicon Valley. This book is based on her personal experiences and observations; this is not the usual report of analytical social-scientific research. Rather, Gorbis discusses how advancing technology and use of the Internet by almost everyone is changing society. What she calls the "socialstructed" society has emerged. She urges everyone to understand the potential of this new socialstructed world and participate in it. The author profiled many people who have started a variety of projects for gathering information and seeking solutions, such as MyLifeBits, QS, BodyMedia, and SpaceHack. When a project gets started, an enormous number of people respond and offer information, solutions, etc.; a socialstruct develops. As a consequence, those who contribute do so voluntarily and freely, and the contributors do not receive any payment. That impact will lead to a no-currency society, the author anticipates. However, she does not deal with the rest of the economic activities of society, such as manufacturing, construction, agriculture, and mining, let alone the rest of the social institutions on which that society operates. So, would the author's vision of a money-less economy, etc., be just her conjecture? Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries. M. Y. Rynn emerita, University of Scranton