Staff Book and Media Recommendations

Makers

Cory Doctorow

The world may not be flat, like Thomas Friedman says. The way Cory Doctorow describes it, the world is more like a motorcycle stunt sphere, with new ideas spinning around. The only way these guys can survive is to accelerate and ignore the dizziness.

Like a cage-rider show, the book starts out interesting but not crazy. "New Work" is a micro-manufacturing movement that repurposes e-waste into helpful and entertaining new gadgets, and whole communities spring up to support the work and workers. Then the movement goes global and changes the whole structure of the economy. Unintended mayhem emerges, but new creativity corrects the problems. And then another thing, and another thing, like one motorcycle in the sphere defying gravity isn't enough, so let's have two! Now let's have two, and a ring of fire!

I was immersed and intrigued, then just as I was beginning to get a little bored, there was a new twist and I was interested again. The popularity of some of the inventions puzzled me, but fads often puzzle me. Then of course there were the familiar Doctorow themes like his fixation with Disneyworld, rage against bureaucracy, and adoration of hacker culture and squatter lifestyle. I was offended by Doctorow's bigoted attitude toward overweight people, but even with these caveats, I think you'll enjoy the show.

Related books by Cory Doctorow:
For the Win - 5 stars! This one's about efforts to unionize online game workers around the world; full of fascinating Big Ideas. My favorite: a contract worker monitors an online game looking for players who do unexpected things or cause errors. The worker contracts for 90 seconds to fix the blip. He doesn't get paid for the time he spends waiting for an anomaly, only for the time he's actively working. The implications are immense.

Little Brother - I haven't read this one, but it has a vocal and loyal fan base.

P.S. You can download Doctorow's books for free at craphound.com His opinion about e-books may be the most subversive and cool idea among all his ideas. ~ Abbey Warner

Reviewed April 2011