Review of "Wikinomics"

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams (Portfolio Hardcover, 2006)

This book intends to show how new collaborative technologies are changing the way things work in business. It stresses the point that people and corporations need to adapt or be left behind. It speaks about things like the Open Source movement and how Web 2.0 requires some new perspectives on business and success. It contrasts archaic ways of doing business with the new "open" ways that are powering current developments in the market. It covers many case studies about businesses that have shown remarkable ability to adopt and embrace this new collaboration.

I found myself part way through this book with very negative feelings about it. It all seemed rather hype-driven to me. The authors talk very optimistically about the new "Golden Era" of Wikinomics and collaboration. It is loaded with platitudes and strange usage of words such as "huckstering", "ecosystems", "consultantese", "successism", etc. It seemed to be a large pile of "purple prose". I also found some technically inaccurate statements, such as the part about XML and tagging. There is also some questionable usage of the term "open source", even to the point where the book at one point states that Microsoft is adopting open source. I don't remember the exact words, but that is basically what they implied. That is not true. Microsoft is, in reality, trying to appear more transparent about what they are doing and are releasing some source code. From what I understand, the Windows source code has always been available to whoever is willing to sign a draconian contractual agreement. But that is not open source. Open source involves releasing source code on some very specific terms, which mere distribution of sources doesn't necessarily satisfy. Even Microsoft marketing moguls know enough to distinguish between this and "open source". They "share" source, but don't consider it "open". While generally the author's portrayal of the open source movement is pretty good, at a few critical points the authors show misunderstandings about what "open source" actually is.

Now that I've finished the book, I must say that those criticisms still apply. However, my perspective on the book has evened out a bit. I am now more appreciative of what the authors have produced. I do really think it is a valuable work for those who want to find out why applying old business techniques to the Internet will not work. What is needed are new strategies to accomidate changes that have been in the works for many years now. One can not depend on secrecy, "locking things down", and tying in the customer in order to succeed in today's environment. Competition and the necessity of rapid development requires that many minds, inside and outside of particular firms, need to collaborate to accomplish things that one firm's employees could not. By fostering openness and community innovation, large companies can leverage this community in ways that their own staff never could and they can focus on other areas which are more important to their core business. This applies to various extents to both sheer production and knowledge-based markets such as scientific research. As the open source movement has proven, the values of openness and sharing have really pervaded the current culture. People want to be able to "tweak" and "mix" the things they use. In order to succeed, businesses must start to actively seek out opportunities to collaborate, to contribute to the community and also reap the benefits of community contribution. If the only way a business can succeed is by what it hides from its customers and how it restricts its customers, it is doomed to failure. Companies need to embrace openness and find ways they can leverage these changes to accomidate win-win situations. These are just a few of the points that the authors make very forcefully.

There is much that is valuable in this book for technologists and business people. As I've mentioned, there are some annoying aspects about this book, but now seeing the book as a whole I conclude that the good outweighs the bad. I find it plausible to assume that some of the "errors" may have been moreso miscommunications than outright errors and are perhaps not very serious blunders in light of the entire scope of the book. This is a book worth getting if you have a stake in developing, marketing, or even using technology. The authors wisely broaden their presentation of the new "Wikinomics" to include all sorts of disciplines and industries. I'd particularly recommend this book to decision makers in companies that are struggling with the old mindset of "locking things down in order to stay competitive".

Review of "Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah

Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Solider by Ishmael Beah (Douglas & McIntyre, 2007)

It seems that many people in the West, including myself, are largely unaware of what has transpired in Sierra Leone. This is a touching account told by a skilled storyteller. Lighthearted content, such as the author's musical tastes, is skillfully mixed with the grim realities of being a 12 year old solider in Sierra Leone. He portrays his involvement in the civil war in a fashion that is very compelling. The account is personal but also very maturely composed.

Ishmael was thrust into this war when rebels killed his family. He then proceeds to slaughter and fight, and eventually discovers that revenge can be an endless cycle only leading to chaos and ugliness. After many adventures which seem unfit for a 12 year old, he was chosen to go to New York to speak at a UN children's conference. He is totally awestruck about New York and puzzled by the white things falling from the air. He then returns to Sierra Leone to more chaos, and then eventually moves to the U.S.

The countless kids who get drawn into the war either by force, necessity, or familial revenge are all deeply impacted by the things they experience. It is hard to imagine what sort of horrible scars this sort of experiences leaves in the life of a 12 year old. And as if the emotional trauma wasn't enough, the author also documents the heavy use of drugs such as cocaine.

There aren't really any sort of explicit religious, spiritual, philosophical, or theological statements in the book. Implicit in the book is a tension between pessimism and optimistic humanism. There are passing references to Muslim clerics and the religious practices of other people, but religion is not a central theme and there are no personal reflections that are obviously religious. The book leaves a few seemingly unfinished trains of thought. I sort of wish the author would have filled in a few of the blanks, but it did add a bit to the intruige.

Ishmael has not only profound experiences to share, but also a great amount of talent as a writer. This is a memorable book. I highly recommend reading it.

A Review of "Truth with Love" by Brian A. Folis

Truth with Love: The Apologetics of Francis Schaeffer by Brian A. Folis (Crossway Books, 2006)

Having read nine of Francis Schaeffer's books and listened to some L'Abri tapes, this book was naturally attractive to me. I was further impressed by the sharp cover design and the great endorsements it has received. I must say that the book met my high expectations. This is one of the most engaging and dynamic books I've read in quite some time.

The book seems to be wrapped up in three main pursuits: 1) Outlining Schaeffer's approach, 2) Outlining and responding to critiques of Schaeffer and 3) Reflecting on Schaeffer's methods and suggesting how to adapt them to our present day.

For the first two pursuits, the author does a fantastic job on outlining the thought of Calvin and later Reformed theologians on apologetics and reason. This was very important so that the reader will be better equipped to understand where Schaeffer (and his detractors) are coming from. He then proceeds to outline Schaeffer's approach, and afterwards he has some frank and helpful interaction with Schaeffer's critics. As this book states, Schaeffer has been criticized for being too rationalistic, not rational enough, too presuppositional, and not presuppositional enough. The author fairly represents these critiques and provides some very convincing responses. Many critiques of Schaffer's work involve ignorance of the full range of Schaeffer's work. Others involved taking for granted (or ignoring) what Schaeffer's mission and purpose really was. The clear lesson is that you can't understand someone if you do not understand the whole range of his work.

Many of the critiques reviewed seem to be clearly wrong and baseless, such as those from Clark Pinnock. The author still deals with them sensitively. However, the author shows a remarkable deal of care in regard to the controversy with Van Til. The author is clear that Schaeffer is not strictly speaking a presuppositionalist. Further, he shows that Schaeffer was eclectic, drawing both on Princeton evidentialism and Van Tilian presuppositionalism, though strictly speaking, he was not a follower of either. Schaeffer was not intent on producing an apologetical system. He was primarily an evangelist at heart and he saw apologetics as means to an end and presuppositions, not as axioms, but as verifiable (or falsifiable) basic ideas. This put him at odds with Van Til, though they both respected each other a great deal.

A discussion of Schaeffer's apologetic that focused only on the controversies with other Christians would be quite useless, though I must say the author did a fine job of that part of the book. To Schaeffer, apologetics is ultimately about evangelism. His ministry ultimately revolved around community, prayer, and the final apologetic--love. Hence, "the final apologetic" is the heading of the concluding chapter, which brings us to the last pursuit of the book. I must say that this section is packed with a few too many semi-related things, and is sort of overwhelming, but I don't want to detract from its value! This section is perhaps the most compelling part of the book. I found it to contain excellent thoughts and helpful advise. It is ultimately concerned with reflecting on things of utmost importance to Schaeffer such as love, community, prayer, etc. It also discusses the relevance of Schaeffer's approach in our day, the progression from modernism to post-modernism, the emerging movement, etc. However, it is ultimately concerned with how we can apply and revise what we learn from Schaeffer so it has an impact today.

There is so much written by and about Francis Schaeffer that it is hard to believe that this book could provide something meaningful, let alone valuable. But Brian Follis has done a fine job, and I believe he has accomplished just that! I highly recommend that you get this book and read it if you have any sort of interest in the apologetics of Francis Schaeffer. And if you don't already have that interest, who knows? This book may spark a new interest in you!

Condensed Book Reviews #3

More mini-reviews..

"The Dilbert Principle"
- Great business humor

"The Diaries of Adam and Eve" by Mark Twain
- What I would expect from Twain

"Reformed Pastor" by Richard Baxter
- Tremendous!

"The Kingdom that Turned the World Upside Down" by David Bercott
- More aptly titled "The Book That Turned The Gospel Upside Down"

"God Centered Evangelism" by R. B. Kuiper
- Great!

"Back to Freedom & Dignity (L'Abri Pamphlets)" by Francis Schaeffer
- Schaeffer skins Skinner

"How to Respond to Muslims (How to Respond)" by Ernest Hahn
- Short/balanced/useful

"Forensic Discovery" by Dan Farmer
- Interesting look at computer forensics, but most parts are beyond me

"The LSD story" by John Cashman
- Interesting early 1960's journalistic account of the psychedelics

"What Belongs to Caesar?: A Discussion on the Christian's Response to Payment of War Taxes" by Donald D. Kaufman
- Where all pacifists would arrive if they were consistent.

"Will the Real Heretics Please Stand Up: A New Look at Today's Evangelical Church in the Light of Early Christianity"
- Ugh

"The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control" by John D. Marks
- Fascinating look at the psychedelics and cold war American espionage research

"Entrepreneurs of Life" by OS Guinness
- Inspiring!

"Did God Create in 6 Days?" (edited) by Joseph Pipa
- Interesting debate book!

"Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga (Modern Library)" by Hunter S. Thompson
- Typical of Hunter: entertaining but very vulgar

"Modern religious liberalism;: The destructiveness and irrationality of modernist theology" by John Horsch
- A pretty good Anabaptist assesment of the growing menace of modernistic theology

Review: Albert Camus and the Minister

"Albert Camus & the Minister" by Howard Mumma (ISBN: 1557252467)

I'm no stranger to reviewing books. I normally find it easy to write a brief one or two assesment of a book. But my feelings about "Albert Camus and the Minister" by Howard Mumma are very complex and I struggle to write a descent review of this book.

The first 90 pages which cover a growing friendship between Camus and Mumma is clearly the most interesting part of the book. The rest is a collection of life experiences that were meaningful to Mumma. These experiences are not dull, but I found them to be a bit disconnected from the first 90 pages. One of the most entertaining points of this book is where Camus asks for baptism, but Mumma rejects it on the grounds that (A) Camus had already been baptised as an infant and (B) he wasn't willing to join the church or make it a public event. He ends up regreting that stand a bit, especially on reflecting on the fact that it was his final meeting with Camus. It was also neat to read about Camus' enthusiasm in studying the Bible.

Mumma holds a view of the Bible which relegates The Fall to allegorical tale and he certainly doesn't have an evangelical view of the inspiration of scripture. While coming from that platform might have made agreement with Camus a bit easier, I believe Mumma would have had some more meaningful answers to Camus' questions if he actually had a view of the Bible which validates using it as an authorative source. In some senses, from a thoroughly evangelical Christian prespective, Mumma wasn't offering Camus something much better than he already had. Sure, Mumma presented some God talk, but did he present the gospel to Camus as something that is "true truth" not just "religious truth"?

I sympathise with the views of other reviewers on Amazon who are quite critical of this book. While I hope and trust Mumma has recorded things accurately, there are a few things which make me wonder. First, some of his recollections (he admits plainly that they are recollections and may not be 100% accurate) portray the conversations as rather simplistic--with most of the dialogs turning out to be more "gentle" and successful from Mumma's perspective than one would expect when an Existentialist and a Christian minister would get together. Second, I don't know enough about Camus to verify it, but some other reviewers bring up interesting comments that Mumma seems to have gotten some of Camus' biographical details wrong. Third, Camus seeking truth is quite believable, but requesting adult baptism? That seems a bit far fetched. As another reviewer noted, it is notable that the accuracy of first 90 pages of the books can not be verified. This problem is further compounded by the fact that Mumma shares that Camus was secretive about it--he requested specifically that his inquiries be kept secret (this make this book a betrayal of sorts).

I will not go to the length to say I think Mumma invented the dialogs (as some reviewers have suggested), but I think I reader should approach it with some caution and be prepared to accept that at the very least some of the dialogs may not have been recorded completely accurately.

So, if you have been following me so far, you should find that my response to this book is both positive and negative. I don't regret having read it, though. The first 90 pages are interesting even if we are to suppose that they are totally fictional. This book might be worth getting if the reviews so far intruige you. I'll just advise you that you shouldn't expect Mumma to be an evangelical nor should you expect any of the recollections in this book to be easily verifiable.

I'm left wondering what would be the outcome if Camus had spent this time with an evangelical (such as Francis Schaeffer or OS Guinness) instead of one who has accepted most of the doctrinal positions of the "liberal" movement.

More Condensed Book Reviews

Believe it or not, this is rather fun..

"The Stolen White Elephant" by Mark Twain
- Entertaining but not exceptional

"George C. Wallace: triumph of tragedy?" by Rodolphe J. A De Seife
- Sheer propaganda, a smear campaign in reverse

"Everybody's Business Is Nobody's Business" by Daniel Defoe
- A raging rant

"The Beekeeper's Apprentice" - Laurie R. King
- At last! A highly creative Sherlock knock-off

"The Gospel According to Rome" by James McCarthy
- Nice!

"Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman" by Richard Stallman
- Good introduction to Stallman, eccentricities to be expected

"We the Media : Grassroots Journalism By the People, For the People" by Dan Gilmor
- Excellent

"KJV 1611: Perfect! A Conviction, Not a Preference" by Roy Branson
- Rubbish, and mean/uncharitable rubbish at that

"On Jesus" by Douglas Groothis
- Excellent

"Spirits In Bondage: A Cycle Of Lyrics" by C.S. Lewis
- Lewis in Angst mode

"Python Cookbook" by Alex Martelli
- Tasty

"L'Abri" by Edith Schaeffer
- Excellent

"Art and the Bible" by Francis Schaeffer
- Wonderful

"The Believer's Conditional Security" by Dan Corner
- A misguided rant in every regard, more bold type than good sense

"Diary of a Nobody" by George Grossmith
- Seemingly unsophisticated, but good!

"The Friendly Dictatorship" by Jeffry Simpson
- Not without faults, but interesting!

"The Negro revolt" by Louis Lomax
- Interesting

"A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" - Mark Twain
- Wonderfully humorous

"Behold the Man" by R. Kent Hughes
- Good

Condensed Book Reviews

I got this idea from Doug Wilson's book log. The idea is to give a review of a book in a few words or less.

"The Kingdom that Turned the World Upside Down" by David Bercot - Has a few good points, but also some rubbish.

"Fables For The Frivolous" by Guy Whitmore Carryl
- Hilarious.

"In the Presence of My Enemies" by Gracia Burnham
- Fascinating

"Easy Chairs, Hard Words: Converstions on the Liberty" of God by Douglas Wilson
- Brilliantly simple defense of Reformed theology

"Opposing Viewpoints Series - Technology and Society" by Auriana Ojeda
- The pinacle of editorial laziness, cut and paste with no interaction

"The Language of God" by Ron Julian
- Creative, but tedious and generally a failure

"Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life by John Calvin"
- Outstanding

"The Dust of Death" by OS Guinness
- Outstanding

"The Winds of December: The Cuban Revolution of 1958" by John Dorschner
- Oustanding and well rounded

"Exploits of Sherlock Holmes" by Adrian Conan Doyle
- Good spinoff

"A Lifetime Of Church" by Tom Speicher
- Rather long, but great!

"Tiananmen Diary: Thirteen Days in June" by Harrison Salisbury
- Short and fascinating

"The Rise, Corruption and Coming Fall of the House of Saud" by Said K. Aburish
- Outstanding

"Secure Architectures with OpenBSD"
- Good not great, title is a bit deceiving

"The Holy War" by John Bunyan
- Outstanding

Counter Culture and The Dust of Death

In the early 70's, Christian Os Guinness published a tome entitled "the Dust of Death". On the back cover it says "With the dust of death slowly settling over all of Western culture, Os Guinness charts the journey of of a generation--out from the technological wasteland and into the Promised Land of radical politics, Eastern religion, psychedelic drugs and the occult. Rejecting both the technological society and the counter culture, he calls clearly for a Third Way".

To be properly digested, this nearly 400 page volume needs to be read from cover to cover.

In commenting on how Christians are to understand supernaturalism and mysticism, Guiness states: "..there are for the Christian two supernatural areas. The first is a genuine experience of God and the second is an experience of the occult powers, the devil and evil spirits. While both are real and supernatural, only the former is legitimate; the latter is real but wrong. Understanding this, we can see that for the Christian there are still two legitimate mystical experiences. The first is natural mysticism including nature mysticism and aesthetic mysticism; the second is supernatural mysticism, a genuine experience of God. Both are legitimate forms of mysticism, but it is common error to mistake the natural mysticism for the supernatural and give it connotations that are spiritual...It can not be stressed too strongly, especially in the climate of a growing and dangerous vogue for contentless religious experience, that the mystical experience is only a part of the Christians total experience."

Then, continuing, Os Guinness responds to Timothy Leary's charge that "Every religion in world history was founded on the basis of some flipped-out visionary trip". Guinness responds by saying that "the Christian's supernatural experience of God is always in terms of truth. This judgement runs counter to much current theology let alone mysticism..There was a content to [Apostle Paul's] experience. Paul did an about-face and headed in a direction totally antithetical to that in which he had been traveling before. Clearly his was no undefined experience...Paul mentions with fascinating attention to detail that Jesus had spoken to him 'in the Jewish language'...the biblical account clearly indicates an experience that was mystical; much of it was beyond words. But it was also personal and propositional."

The Christian worldview embraces the reality of the supernatural, but at the same time the Christian message is not centered around a "trip". Christianity, as Guinness clearly expounds, is not contentless mysticism, but embraces mystical elements in a proper perspective grounded in truth and reality, with personal and propositional revelation. This, when rightly understood, provides a robust answers to the dillemas faced by the rise (and fall) of the 60's counterculture and psychedelic movement. The "trip" did not provide answers, it only raised more questions and left its adherents without a solid base to stand on. Unfortunately, many times modernist Christians have done no better, only offering yet another 'trip' (ie. religion bathed in mysticism without any sort of concept of personal and propositional revelation). Humanity does not hunger for another "trip" bathed in religious language (contentless religion), but it needs to be presented the gospel, and a gospel with propositional content.

Guinness ends the book in a powerfuly way, saying:

"The present erosion of Christian culture means the removal of the last restraining influence of the Reformation. The striptease of humanism is simply the logic of the Renaissance held in check by the Reformation for four centures but now exposed in all the extremes of its consquences. If the last twenty-five years presuppose the tensions and questions of preceding centuries, it is little wonder that the counter culture [of the 60's] is not equal to its task. Christianity has proved itself a genuine counter culture once before. It is the hour for the Third Race once again.

The second reaction will be from thoes who will say, How come? All this is very well in theory, but how can it be translated into action? As Bertrant Russell remarked in one of his more tolerant moods, 'The Christian principle, _Love your enemies_ is good...There is nothing to be said against it except that it is too difficult for most of us to practice sincerely.' His emphasis was not strong enough. The Christian life is not juts difficult for man; it is impossible. But it is exactly here that humanism leaves off and Christianity begins.

That is also why this uniquely 'impossible' faith--with a God who is, with an Incarnation that is earthy and historical, with a salvation that is at cross-purposes with human nature, with a Resurrection that blasts apart the finality of death--is able to provide an alternative to the sifting, settling dust of death and through a new birth open the way to life."

This book (and the citations I give here) are definately not interesting to everyone. However, to anyone who, from a Christian perspective, wants to analyize where we (as a civillization) are right now, we need to understand some of these concepts. The 60's counter culture has had a large impact on where our society is at right now. When correctly understood, the counter culture should be seen to have been responding to REAL problems (injustice, violence, unchecked rationalism, materialism, 'plastic' culture, ossified traditionalism, etc.), however the response was launched from a WRONG basis (they provided no, or at least very few satisfactory answers to the problems they saw). We are left with the shadows of that turbulent era. Do we understand it? Are we seeking to respond to the dilemas that are facing our society in 2006? Are we prepared to communicate the gospel faithfully AND understandibly to those we rub shoulders with?