About the book, from the publisher:
Human beings are information omnivores: we are constantly collecting, labeling, and organizing data. But today, the shift from the physical to the digital is mixing, burning, and ripping our lives apart. In the past, everything had its one place — the physical world demanded it — but now everything has its places: multiple categories, multiple shelves. Simply put, everything is suddenly miscellaneous.
In Everything Is Miscellaneous, David Weinberger charts the new principles of digital order that are remaking business, education, politics, science, and culture. In his rollicking tour of the rise of the miscellaneous, he examines why the Dewey decimal system is stretched to the breaking point, how Rand McNally decides what information not to include in a physical map (and why Google Earth is winning that battle), how Staples stores emulate online shopping to increase sales, why your children’s teachers will stop having them memorize facts, and how the shift to digital music stands as the model for the future in virtually every industry. Finally, he shows how by “going miscellaneous,” anyone can reap rewards from the deluge of information in modern work and life.
From A to Z, Everything Is Miscellaneous will completely reshape the way you think — and what you know — about the world.
Among the early praise for the book:
"The world is messy, like it or not, and it's only going to get messier as the Web destroys rules and rule-makers. You can either complain about the chaos and wish for the good old days of order, or you can buy this book and understand why delirious disorder will soon make us all smarter."
—Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail
"David Weinberger attacks the complexity of the real world, not by making it simple, but by making it clear. Once he explains how things can be in more than one place at a time — and make sense — you'll never look at a humble index card the same way again."
—Esther Dyson
"From how information is organised, to the nature of knowledge and how meaning is determined, this book is a profound contribution to understanding the impact of the digital revolution."
—Richard Sambrook, director, BBC Global News
“Everything Is Miscellaneous is a rare and mesmerizing mix: one the one hand, it's an essential guide to latest information age trends, one that will be extremely useful for businesses and consumers alike. But the book is much more than that as well: it's a probing and profound exploration of how we create meaning in the world.”
—Steven Johnson, author of The Ghost Map and Everything Bad Is Good For You
"Just when I thought I understood the world, David Weinberger turns it upside down -- and rightside up -- again. Everything Is Miscellaneous explains the radical changes happening in digital information--and therefore in society as a whole."—Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia and chair, Wikia.com
David Weinberger is the co-author of the international bestseller The Cluetrain Manifesto and the author of Small Pieces Loosely Joined. A fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for the Internet and Society, Weinberger writes for such publications as Wired, The New York Times, Smithsonian, and the Harvard Business Review and is a frequent commentator for NPR’s All Things Considered. In 1994, he founded Evident Marketing, a strategic marketing firm on technology issues, and he served as the senior Internet adviser to the Howard Dean campaign.
Read an excerpt from Everything Is Miscellaneous, and visit the Everything Is Miscellaneous website.
The Page 99 Test: Everything Is Miscellaneous.
--Marshal Zeringue
Read an excerpt from Everything Is Miscellaneous, and visit the Everything Is Miscellaneous website.
The Page 99 Test: Everything Is Miscellaneous.
--Marshal Zeringue
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