Summary: In the book The Big Switch the author Nicholas Carr, begins the reading talking about Bill Gates the creator of Microsoft. In this section of the book the author begins talking about how Bill Gates sends out a memo to the Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington expressing his fears about the company’s future. “The memo was intended to sound an alarm, to warn the company that the rise of utility computing threatened to destroy the traditional business.” The rise of utility computing was beginning to rise and Bill Gates being one of the most successful computer genius’s in the world was threatened. “Google, the dominant Internet search company was rapidly becoming Microsoft’s most dangerous adversary.” Google was developing a vast amount of new technologies that would put their business at the top. “What Google was building was a vast data-processing plant, by all accounts the largest and most sophisticated on the planet. Designed to house tens or even hundreds of thousands of computers, all working together as a single machine.” Google’s corporate computing system was top of the line no one could compete with them. “Google’s dynamo makes Bill Gates and other technology executives so nervous. It encapsulates the full disruptive potential of utility computing.” Along with Google also came the rise of Salesforce.com and Amazon. Salesforce.com was launched by Benioff, and Parker Harris. “The company would provide a common type of business software called customer relationship management, or CRM, which helps corporate sales forces keep track of their accounts.” This system was a hit amongst many companies. “The companies that bought the systems rarely earned back a return on their investment.” There prices were good and they were known as being very reliable. “Salesforce ensured that people could continue to work even if they were temporarily disconnected from the Net during a plane flight. And by using cutting-edge data encryption techniques, Salesforce was able to maintain the integrity of each customer’s information.” Amazon, was another hit when it came to utility computing. Amazon allowed companies to “run a Web site or a corporate software application, or even operate an entire Internet business, without having to invest in any server computers, storage systems, or associated software. Amazon was different than the other companies such as Google because it was more flexible. “Instead of being based on parallel processing, it built on a technology known as virtualization, a technology that will be crucial to the future development of utility computing.” Due to the success of these companies’ gates was concerned because “the future of computing belongs to new utilitarian’s.” In my previous blog I discussed Samuel Insull and his contributions to electricity. In the following chapter the author discussed the advancement in Electrification since Samuel Insull. “Samuel Insull was a visionary, but not even he could have imagined how profoundly, and quickly, the electric grid would reshape business and society.” This chapter continues on talking about the ways in which electrification has changed the world. Due to this rise people developed a vast amount of new electrical technologies that were used in people’s homes, and businesses. These electrified machines changed the ways in which businesses were run and the utilities in houses were much more advanced. These advancements allowed for there to be a wide range of new technologies that society would find useful. In this chapter the author touches a great deal on how the rise of electrification “changed the nature of “women’s work” within the home. The book mentions that “the home wasn’t just a setting for recreation and relaxation. It was also a place of work, work done mainly by women.” Therefore the rise of electrification allowed the work within the home for women more enjoyable. Critique: In the book The Big Switch, the author shows that people have the ability to expand further the inventions made by others. It seems as though the overall concept used in this section of the book is the idea of progression, and how it has played a major part within our society today. People make new technologies and then others build off of their inventions. This is shown throughout the sections of this book. The author did a good job at showing that this is true. In one chapter it talks about the ways in which people developed utility computing, Bill Gates was the number one “linchpin of Microsoft’s success,” but other companies such as Google, Salesforce, and Amazon furthered his inventions making way for greater and bigger success stories in utility computing. Bill Gates was still in the PC age but these other companies furthered his idea and developed faster and more feasible ways of developing the computer industry. Once the environment begins to change and people begin to long for better technologies new ones our invented. In the book it states, “computing and communication technologies have dramatically and progressively improved to enable viability of a service-based model.” Due to this Bill Gates also had to hop on bored and take Microsoft out of PC age into the utility age. Samuel Insull was also a key individual in this section of the book. The book talks about the ways in which others developed Samuel Insulls inventions of electricity; these inventions were made available to many more people and businesses. The car industry flourished due to the rise of electrification, “companies expanded adopted more complicated processes, and sold their good to larger markets, they had to recruit more managers and supervisors to oversee and coordinate their work. The progression of electrification played a major part in the new middle class. “The new middle class in turn helped extend electrification’s reach and amplify its impact.” “Both blue and white collar workers spent their wages on the new electric appliances being produced by the electrified manufacturing companies that employed them.” Along with these progressions it also developed the use of modern technologies within the home by the new inventions of the “washing machines, vacuum cleaners, sewing machines, toaster, coffee makers, egg beaters, hair curlers, and somewhat later, refrigerators, dishwashers, and clothes dryers. As you can see people developed a great deal of new technologies. The author of the book did a good job at expressing these ideas to the audience. The idea of technology progressing forward is very prevalent in our society today we are always looking for the next best thing and companies are looking to improve their companies by developing these new technologies. The author shows that this is true within the book in this section. In our reading in class, when looking at the history of communication it shows that throughout history new technologies were constantly being developed. This is seen with the development of the telegraph at first it wasn’t driven by electricity, but then later on it advanced into the electric telegraph. This shows that people are always looking to develop the new best thing. That is what the author shows within this book. One person may invent something such as electricity and computers, but others flourish their ideas making them more advanced, and once people see that things our advancing people begin to start looking at even greater ways to advance technology. It is an ongoing cycle that I believe may never end. Progression was one of the author’s strongest points within this section of the book, but I felt as though the author lacked in expressing some of the bad affects that these inventions had upon society. It seems as though the author expresses all of the good outcomes, but none of the outcomes that are sometimes not pleasing to talk about. As learned in class advancements in technologies can sometimes have negative effects upon society. In class we learned the differences between the time periods of orality, literary, and secondary orality, and the differences in the effects they had within our culture. One of the biggest effects it had upon us was community within society when moving from orality to literary. Society was much more community orientated during the time of orality but when moving into the time of literacy society did not indulge in much community because they got their information from reading. These are the sorts of effects I would have liked to see more from the author; he states all of the good effects these inventions had upon society, but what about the bad ones. Own understanding: I enjoyed reading this section of the book it was exciting to see the progression and affects these new technologies had upon our society. This idea of progression as I stated earlier is always in affect today. One day you hear about the I phone 3 being made and before you know it in the following year the I phone 4 is being made technology is always moving forward. I think that this will always be the case.

Com-tech Book Report Part 1

Com-tech book report

Part 1 Summary:

The Book "The Big Switch" by: Nicholas Carr The start of this book is an overview of chapters to come. It starts off talking about the rise of technology and how technology has made breakthroughs in electricity and computing. The first chapter describes the effects "The Burden Wheel" has had upon electricity, and it then goes on to describe the ways in which electricity has grown. The first chapter also talks about the growth of computing and the ways in which it has affected our society. The book states that electrification along with computerization, led to the complex, far-reaching, and often bewildering changes for individual companies and entire industries. Computing and electricity have had affects upon our economy, and the ways in which we work and live are being rewritten. The second half of the reading talks about Thomas Edison and his invention of Electricity. The book describes the steps that Thomas Edison took to reach his goals. It then goes on to talk about Thomas Edison’s secretary Samuel Insull, and the affects he had upon the growth of technology. Insull was the first to realize that, with the new technologies, electricity supply could be consolidated in immense central stations that would be able to meet the demands of even the largest industrial customers. The Last section of the book explains the growth and the affects computing have had upon our society. Before computing there were punch card tabulators used for the US Census. These tabulators grew into alphabetic tabulators, card sorters, card duplicators, and printers. This led to the invention of the computer. The book then goes on to describe the development of the computer and key individuals who contributed to its growth such as Bill Gates the creator of Microsoft.

Critique of the author’s argument:

Technological Determinism is a term used to describe the ways in which technology shapes the future, spurs the growth of the economy, culture, and drives history. In the book “The Big Switch”, Carr talks about the ideas Lewis Mumford had upon technological determinism. Lewis Mumford’s book, “The Pentagon of Power”, made an eloquent case against the idea that technological progress determines the course of history. Carr states that Mumford failed to see that the path of technological progress and its human consequences are determined not simply by advances in science and engineering but also, and decisively, by the influence of technology on the cost of producing and consuming goods and services. Technology shapes economics, and economics shapes society. This is a subject of cause and effect, the growth of technology spurs the economy, and in return it drives the course of history. I agree with Carr’s idea, when the economy is in good standing it gives our society the advantage of making new technologies. With the growth of new technologies it enables us as a society to move forward into a more complex world.

Henry Burdens invention of the waterwheel was a successful invention, until after turning nonstop for fifty years; it was no longer needed along with other private waterwheels, steam engines, and electric generators. Manufactures could now run their own machines with electric current generated in distant power plants by big utilities. Henry Burdens invention led to even greater inventions which in return led to a series of engineering breakthroughs. This shows that the advancement in technologies leads to even bigger advancements moving our society forward.


In the chapter on Thomas Edison, it describes the development of electricity made possible by Thomas Edison and his secretary Samuel Insull. Throughout the chapter I found myself impressed by the dedication Samuel had to Thomas and his growing invention of electricity. Samuel’s ideas that he had pertaining to the advancement of electricity, proved to help many and spur the growth of the economy. Samuel was the first to realize that, with new technologies electricity supply could be consolidated in immense central stations that would be able to meet the demands of even the largest industrial customers. Before Samuel’s ideas, many manufactures produced their own power by using their own utilities. This process costs a great amount of money. Samuel’s ideas would lower the cost and not only provide power for big manufactures, but also for businesses and homeowners. This would allow them to run all kinds of machines and appliances. Samuel was looking at the “big picture” which in return would benefit many. Manufacturers could deliver power to their factories for a lower price than they could achieve by running their own private dynamos, and businesses and house owners would have the opportunity to also have electricity. This was a great idea in my opinion; in Samuels’s memoirs he stated, “and I knew that unless I built the most economical power station possible, that opportunity would be lost.”

Own Understanding:

I enjoyed reading about the advancement of technology overtime. It was exciting to read material that reiterated the things I have also learned in class. The connection helped me to understand the book and the things learned in class even better. I am excited to learn more about the growth of technology and how it has affected our society in the rest of the book.