Online Gravity: The Unseen Force Driving the Way You Live, Earn, and Learn

by Paul X. McCarthy

The Freakonomics of the digital economy, offering fascinating insights into the new rules that are reshaping the online worlds of business, education, and leisure.Are you concerned that technology and the web are moving too quickly for you to keep up? Are you worried about the future of your career in the face of an increasingly global and competitive workforce? We all worry about change. And the changes being brought about by unseen forces in the global economy are profound. Do you know someone who has lost their job in the last five years working in IT, media, finance, or retail? These industries and many others are already feeling the pinch of online the invisible forces of the online world that govern its role in the global economy—and its effect on you. Industry expert Paul X. McCarthy reveals how online businesses are fueled by a starkly different set of economic rules than those existing purely offline. He calls these forces “online gravity,” which favor the creation of planet-like super-businesses (such as Amazon and Google) from surprising and unpredictable quarters. As more and more traditional industries such as media, music, travel, photography, and even banking are steadily consumed and transformed by giant online enterprises, more and more of the world is feeling online gravity’s increasingly powerful pull. For anyone interested in the future of global technology, economics, or business, Online Gravity is an indispensible book that explains how you can harness these forces to improve your career, your health, your wealth—and even the prospects of the next generation.

Genres: Technology, Nonfiction, Business

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 19, 2015

About the author

Professor Paul X. McCarthy is a leading online business expert and technology entrepreneur who grew-up learning to pull apart and program home computers that stored their information on regular music cassette tapes as a series of screeching sounds. At University in between studying Sculpture, Physics and Economics, he enjoyed listening to lots of screeching guitar bands. By this time computers, had also begun screeching down-the-telephone at one another and the internet revolution had begun in earnest.

After University, McCarthy worked at IBM to help establish an award-winning digital media business unit and he began to see how all this worldwide screeching was combining to create its own resonance. A new set of unseen economic forces McCarthy terms Online Gravity that are transforming the way we all work, play and learn. His new book of the same name explains and how he has turned this to his advantage and shows how you can too. Online Gravity is being published by Simon and Schuster in New York, London and Sydney in June 2015.

McCarthy has interests and a background in media, technology and entrepreneurship having studied and worked in Fine Arts, Computer Science, Design and Financial Services. McCarthy is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales home of Australia’s leading School of Computer Science and Engineering and in 2015 was awarded the AIMIA Outstanding Achievement Award - Australia's Top Digital Industry Honour.

Reviews

[Annoe]

this is going on hold cause its overdue so i gotta return to the library first

[Ken Dray · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read, extremely clear and entertaining insight into the nature of business and society in the online world.

[Roshan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anybody who has not experienced the apple falling off a tree like Sir Isaac Newton did, would love this book in the Modern Era of Online Gravity. To start with, the title generates a lot of curiosity for the readers as it has a highly creative meaning associated with it. The author is exquisite in his expression while comparing the whole phenomenon of Physical Gravity to the Information Technology industry and other associated realms for an enthusiastic citizen, who believes in the concept of Global Citizenship. I link this book titled, "Online Gravity: The Digital Giants Driving the Way You Live, Earn and Learn", to the nuances of Global Citizenship in a way as to suggest that the concepts or rather the Modern Day Technologies that find its mention in this book provide a larger dimension of scope for expansion over a wider geographical and global area, than limiting itself to the developed nations or the technically advanced nations. It strikes me that such a book wherein the author has faintly managed to draw analogies between the real world gravity and the virtual world gravity, the physical gravity and the logical gravity, the force of gravity and the force of Online gravity is in itself, a commendable endeavour, irrespective of whether the book is a bestseller or not. For, not only are the creative ideas involved in framing the sentences and paragraphs in the book perennial in its nature, but also leave an everlasting impression on the minds of its curious readers. This venture of the author, Paul X. McCarthy, is indicative of the fact of the fact that he's a novice in the field of authoring, for he fails to bring to light, the effective implementations or applications of the latest technical and technological buzzwords, he has repetitively used in this compilation. Wait, before you jump to an inconclusive conclusion! It does not disappoint you as a reader of the book, but it certainly is not above par from the point of view of a technologist who reads this book. He covers various technical jargon, but fails to establish a tangential link between the various technologies. On the hindsight, he's extremely elaborate in his approach towards writing this book. An overview on this book, would suggest to its readers that the author is no more than a technologist, who has ventured into taking up writing. He makes a mention of several impacts of Online or Internet revolutions such as the World Wide Web, the e-commerce industry, the automation in the Web Enterprise Applications, the e-tailing portals and most recently the gain of momentum of Cognitive Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Cloud Computing among others, in addition to the negative consequences or in more simpler terms disadvantages such as Unethical Hacking, Phishing etc. which are fulfilling the essentials and timely requirements of the ever evolving Information Technology industry. The author's insight on the way technology has invaded the private, professional and social lives of the modern people commands respect. The positives of technology engulf the entire script, in a way, no common man may ever be able to anticipate. The interlinked concepts of managing finance, making big money along with staying ethical in our acts seems to be the essence of this technology oriented book. 'Online Gravity', as the name itself suggests, makes an impact on the lives of modern people, who most of the times are caught unawares of the influence, these new advanced technologies are having on the mindset and lifestyle of the people. A few see technology as a boon, a few perceive it as a bane, but in reality, technology just like any other new discovery or invention in any other sector has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Moreover, finding glitches in the practical application, implementation and usage of these newer technologies help us, as an individual to learn and improve our level of understanding of the machines, that apparently look all set to conquer us in the near future. However, the mastery over such a technology by human beings may possibly avert the danger of human beings perishing from the surface of our planet Earth. The bottom line however is, that the quicker we understand the complexities of technologically evolving and changing world, well placed we are to survive the storm of Artificial Intelligence. We cannot take away the credit from the author, for his honest expression of the disadvantages of an entity called Online Gravity in countries with poor, poorer and poorest infrastructure. Online Gravity was a challenge, is a challenge and is likely to become overly challenging for human beings to cope with it. For now, it is time for me to appreciate the writing of this author, who has managed to coin a phrase such as, 'Online Gravity' for the better understanding and henceforth, betterment of human races for good. Live technology, love technology. A four star for this creatively well written book on technological impacts on the lives of the people living in the Modern world. It is an essential, if not a necessity; mainly for the simple insight it provides online life changing establishments. Enjoy reading.

[Sonya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book!