Rating: 
Summary: A must read
Review: Like anything Bill does, it is closely followed by a good proportion of the planet (possibly others!). This is no exception. Because of who he is and what he has done this is A MUST READ, but at the same time a usefull one, for the CEO and the student.
Rating: 
Summary: The future is hearing
Review: New vistas of shellfish splatter before our digitized brains, trying to absorb the Johnny-Come-Latelies of networked dental abscesses, and what to do? Well, Gates is onto something, but it sure isn't the Gettysburg Address. Reading through the book I kept getting images of Gates doing the cha-cha while trying to play the violin AND read Dostoyevsky's "The Idiot" all at the same time. Have no fear, he pulls it off, offing whatever doubts you may have had about the utter irrelevance of sitars to Bill Gates's life. There is a book to be written and that book should be called: The Mind of Leibniz. However, I doubt that Gates is really the one who will write that book and I suspect that it would do nothing clarify the road ahead as he keeps locating on the digital future map. Goodness. A map of the human genome would be clearer to me, even though I haven't studied genetics in 20 years. Be that as it may, you'll find his tales about shooting spitballs at his employees in the Microsoft cafeteria very insightful. And you may even want to upgrade your wardrobe with salami sandwiches: a digital age beckons. Can you lend me a dime?
Rating:
Summary: if anyone has a right to criticize this book...
Review: If anyone has the right to criticize this book it would only have to be Gates himself. If you found it useless, consider yourself closed minded. A truly intelligent person will take what they want and put it to use. Bill puts his business philosophy right in your lap and says if you want to make money, here's how to do it.To anyone who believes other wise, he's made over 3 billion dollars, can you do better? He's has made over 300,000 millionaires in Microsoft, lock, stock, and barrel. If you have 50% of the gumption to make it work, then you have 50% less than you could ever make. Bill has put 99% on the line for all to see. Of course he can't give out just anything, and of course he's a little arrogant, but if you want to make money, then you have to do it your way, or not at all, just like he did. If you don't like how he borrows great things from great people, consider where you got YOUR morals from. (Possibly you thought your parents are great people too.)
Rating:
Summary: A Good Starting Point
Review: Unless you already know everything there is to know about the internet, this is a good book to help you set your business on the right path.Maybe not for the "tecno-elite", but definitely worthwhile for everyone else.
Rating: 
Summary: Not useful!
Review: Well, Bill Gates hits us again with a book that didn't need to have been written. Read Fast Company and Wired for a month to learn more about the emerging digital world. Even the venerable WSJ is more cutting edge, taken as a whole. In short, if you've lived in a cave since 1993, then this is the book for you. Otherwise, skip it.
Rating: 
Summary: SOFTWARE STALLS
Review: BUSINESS @ THE SPEED OF THOUGHT clearly shows the risk of creating even more harm from GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT. The electronic revolution will create reinforcement for all of the bad habits that organizations have. If they now use obsolete analyses in some areas, the new technology will be sure that everyone does this. If the organization is now ignoring some areas in its measurements, new software will be certain to keep that in place. If you have old-style accounting rather than Activity-Based Costing, you will be able to manipulate the wrong numbers faster. And so forth. Many organizations will totally fail in this new environment because the new technology will become disabling rather than enabling. For example, the new technology will cause you to be much more intimate with your customers. In that process, you may totally ignore those who do not buy your product (a vastly larger group), and your catering to current customer needs may make it harder to gain market share with new customers who have different needs. I think Gates is right about what he is forecasting, so you had better first work on getting rid of your organization's bad habits, and replace them with better ones. Then you should eliminate as much as you can, simplify the rest, outsource all but the key tasks (and even those if someone can do them much better than you can), then automate what remains. If you want good advice on how to do this, you should read "The 2,000 Percent Solution" before you implement Microsoft's view of the future.
Rating: 
Summary: more rhetoric of the "technological sublime"
Review: The central message in this book -- "empowering knowledge workers through technology" -- is, at this point in the game, already dated. And, in this book, like his last, Gate's mostly provides more of what Leo Marx has called "the rhetoric of the technological sublime" -- hymns to progress that rise "like froth on a tide of exuberant self-regard, sweeping over all misgivings, problems and contradictions." Creating a corporate culture that can leverage the inherent potentials of a corporate intranet/extranet is much more difficult than Gates allows. For a better, more pragmatic roadmap for change, check out Dr. Jennifer Stone Gonzalez's "The 21st Century Intranet" which was published last year. (See especially Chapter 11, which includes a critique of Microsoft's intranet strategy and a warning to intranet champions about Gates's reliance on the term "digital nervous system.") It is entirely possible to achieve radical change in organizations through the use of new technologies. The requirements, however, are not merely new technologies, the identification of new digital markets, nor visionary mandates from senior-level management, but rather systematic changes in person-to-person communication. Gates gives us the enticing and exciting 50thousand-foot visionary view -- but we need to look elsewhere for the "how to" roadmap for the journey ahead.
Rating:
Summary: WE ARE STALLED BY TOO MUCH COMPUTER POWER!
Review: Computer systems and software are developing so rapidly that it has become hard for the average business to keep up with the latest technology. Mr. Gates suggests in his book that IT has become so pervasive that the speed of doing busness has increased dramatically because of the widespread availability of information. My experience is that very few companies have changed their business practices. First, they suffer from the Tradition Stall described in THE 2,000 PERCENT SOLUTION by Mitchell, Coles and Metz. People do things the way they have always done them. How many companies still circulate the same paper reports monthly that almost no one reads? Second they suffer from The Bureaucratic Stall, because there is so much information on IT systems, people cannot find what they need or even know where to look. Other stalls create serious delays to progress too. You can identify your own and learn how to solve them in THE 2,000 PERCENT SOLUTION. The other major problem not addressed in BUSINESS @ THE SPEED OF THOUGHT is that computers today come "loaded" with capabilities that few use and need. Instead of increasing the speed at which we get things done, they acutally cause us to keep adjusting what the computer did! What so many buisnesses need to make more rapid progress is a "smart typewriter combined with the features of a good HP calculator with lots of memory and decent speed". When hardware and software designers and manufactuers realize this, matching the customers' needs with the products, the market will explode. That's when we will see BUSINESS @ THE SPEED OF THOUGHT!
Rating:
Summary: Welcome to the obvious!!
Review: If you think you knew everything about the internet, Bill confirms it. A book about what has been, and the future that everybody already talks about. Although, he doesn't seem to understand much of what may come. written in the way MS developed it's software, copying the best from others, change the format, and release it with the Microsoft logo on it. He did it with windows, word, excel, explorer and now with this book. If you really like to know what the net possibilities are, buy "Customers.com" from Patricia B. Seybold, maybe she should become our next MS CEO. Don't forget, that this is the guy who forgot about the net, and had to change his company around because he was missing out on what other companies were already working on.
Rating:
Summary: Can you say total lack of personality and vision?
Review: Boring!!!, Even though I don't like the guy at least he could have put some personailty into the book, but all we get the same fake marketing personality we have always seen. What can I say about the content. If you have any clue what the Internet is about this book is more then obvious. If you are a CEO and you need this book then you should not be a CEO because you have no clue! nuf said!
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