Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live

by Jeff Jarvis

Overview

A journalist and visionary internet optimist's compelling argument for increased openness online in the digital age.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781451636000
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	09/27/2011
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	9.48(w) x 6.44(h) x 0.99(d)

About the Author

Jeff Jarvis blogs about media, news, technology, and business at Buzzmachine.com, and appears weekly as a co-host on Leo Laporte’s “This Week in Google.” He is associate professor and director of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism. The author of What Would Google Do?, he lives in the New York area. Join the conversation at buzzmachine.com/publicparts and on Twitter (@jeffjarvis and #publicparts).

Editorial Reviews

A refreshing take on a topic often covered by people who feel that the Internet…threatens to imperil our children and undermine our society.”—Jessi Hempel, Forbes.com

"This is a superior work. Not only is it well researched and elegantly argued but he makes some original observations about how digital technology is changing the nature of human self-expression."—John Gapper, The Financial Times

"Jarvis offers a persuasive and personal look at why sharing things publicly on the Web should become the norm... Jarvis works methodically in Public Parts to unravel long-held beliefs about why openness online is dangerous... Jarvis' message of openness will be provocative to many, but what he explores is only the beginning of a revolution that will continue to change how we use the Web—and how the Web uses us."—Mark W. Smith, Detroit Free Press

"The author of What Would Google Do? returns with another thoughtful look at the Internet age. A welcome and well-reasoned counterpoint to the arguments that social-networking sites and the easy availability of personal information online are undermining our society and putting our safety at risk... A must-read for anyone interested in the issue of connectivity versus privacy."—David Pitt, Booklist

"It's important and will become more so, and I'm very glad Jeff has written his valuable book."—Stephen Baker, author of The Numerati

"How do we define what is public and what is private? What are the benefits and dangers of living a life in which everything is shared? Jarvis explores these questions and more in his immensely readable, chatty style... No one knows what's going to happen next. But people like Jarvis are having fun making sense of these confusing early years."—Niall Firth, New Scientist


"Jarvis makes a powerful case for re-framing the way we think about privacy, and for better appreciating the benefits of “publicness” in the information age."—Adam Thierer, Forbes.com

From the Publisher

Jarvis (What Would Google Do?) takes a comprehensive look at the core element undermining so much of the technology and services emerging today: the ever-increasing public nature of life online. Overjoyed by what the Internet has accomplished thus far and the opportunities it has made possible for business and personal life, Jarvis feels passionately about privacy and security issues, which he believes could threaten this new sphere. With the many online privacy advocates dominating the public conversation about information sharing, Jarvis champions openness. His book covers only the benefits of Internet publicness happening today or coming in the near future. All of the negative consequences of the Internet's social connectedness are ignored, dismissed as something society needs to resolve, or justified under the guise of current laws and norms that may not match a majority of people's beliefs. Intellectual property infringement, a core battle area, never comes up. VERDICT Jarvis's argument is one-sided, but he presents a wonderfully focused read. A great contextual book for social media advocacy. [See Prepub Alert, 4/25/11.]—James A. Buczynski, Seneca Coll. of Applied Arts & Technology, Toronto

Library Journal

In which we learn the meaning and use of the word "publicness."

Tech blogger Jarvis (Entrepreneurial Journalism/CUNY Graduate School of Journalism; What Would Google Do?, 2009) came to social media later in life, so he has an appealing, wide-eyed view of the online world. His writing has an intellectual, professorial tone, but with a sense of populism that makes it intriguing—plus he has enough juice to land interviews with both Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter founder Evan Williams. As such, readers may assume that a book filled with his take on the plusses and minuses of the publicness of social media would be at least somewhat vital. While the author provides interesting, often fun reading, he is not enough of a futurist to make it resonant beyond the next few months. The primary problem with writing about the Internet's speedy effect on culture is that the material is time-sensitive to the point that much of what Jarvis explores has already been examined to death, an inherent problem with blog-centric books. That isn't to say that the author isn't an engaging writer—his relationship with his techno-savvy son is enjoyable in a young-dude-showing-his-old-man-the-tricks-of-the-computer-trade sort of way, and he is clever with his use of old-school philosophers and authors to support his new-school theories—but his material already feels outdated. Ultimately, the book is an enjoyable, occasionally insightful 200-page magazine article.

With his second examination of the Internet, Jarvis delivers a readable, interesting package that probably won't be relevant enough to make an impact.

Kirkus Reviews