Rating: 
Summary: Ginger a great insight into process and turmoil
Review: "Ginger" is a terrific insight into the real day to day process of innovation. It appears that it doesnt come easily.
Great things never do.
The book makes you feel like you are along for the ride.
You feel the frustrations and embrace the challenges the team encoutered along the path to innovation(I am a Segway owner and have met Dean).
I think Dean has nothing to be embarassed about with this book. It exposes his incredible talent,humanity,kindness,and unwillingness to fail. It showcases his ability to pick the right people-most of the time....and build a great team.
He still is truly amazing in my book.
It has given me new respect for just how hard it was to bring this kind of innovation to market.
I just wish the process of following it didnt end where it did.
A great read ...left me wanting more.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: A unique insight into the development of not only a new product, but a new industry. Whether you like the Segway or not, the book gives you behind the scenes look that most people never get to see, and it's a type of revolutionary technology (maybe not the application) that only comes around every few decades.
Rating: 
Summary: The Book Dean Kamen Doesn't Want You to Read
Review: Code Name Ginger was an excellent profile of Dean Kamen as well as the engineers who brought Segway to market. Even though I had been following the Ginger/IT story since January 2001, this book revealed a darker side of Kamen that I didn't know existed before -- a side that elicits the imperfect humanity of this technological genius. Kamen is depicted as a benevolent patriarch, hero, paranoid control freak, liar, and a genius inventor. The story of Segway's former CEO and marketing people is aptly told as well. They were believed to be incompetent dunces by Kamen and his investors, but Steve Kemper depicts them as unfairly treated leaders. The most exciting chapters in the book were "West Coast Ambush", "The Leak" and "The Reveal". There were parts of the book that were a little dull, due to the fact that I seem to be one of those unfortunate people that isn't able to "get [understand] IT." While reading the endless discussion between the engineers as they worked on Segway's most intricate details, I couldn't detach myself from the belief that the Segway HT falls far short of a truly exciting/revolutionary invention. Had it really been something as important as the first TV, or PC etc. I think I would have been more intrigued by such dialogue. Paragraphs about an LCD screen on the handlebars were enough to put me to sleep. Moreover, the well read Ginger/IT fanatic would be disappointed to find no mention of Bob Metcalfe's (apparently bogus) claim that Segway wasn't the true IT invention, among other oddities that occurred over the past few years. However, perhaps such details are unnecessary, since Steve Kemper did a fine job of zipping up the IT mystery for any stragglers that still believed IT would be something more than just a new kind of scooter. Possibly the most gripping and heartbreaking part of the book is watching Kamen and the venture capitalists unravel and attempt to rewrite history as the rug is torn out from under them on January 9th 2001.
Rating:
Summary: Nice Read!
Review: Enjoyed the book. Would have liked to have read a bit more about the engineer's and the engineering process, and it would have been nice to have seen some rough sketches of Ginger at different stages. Nonetheless, I think Dr. Kemper did a nice job.
Rating: 
Summary: I Want More Dean and Less Kemper
Review: For a book supposedly about Dean Kamen and his quest to change the world, it is suprisingly more about the author. I was waiting to hear the realy story of Dean Kamen and the Segway, but instead all I got was the story of Steve Kemper (who doesn't really seem interested in the rest of the world). Dean has changed the world (or at least a part of it) through his FIRST ... orgnaiztion, byt Kemper barely mentions it. I recommend waiting for the real story.
Rating:
Summary: I Want More Dean and Less Kemper
Review: For a book supposedly about Dean Kamen's quest to change the world, it is surprisingly more about the author and less about his subject. I was hoping for a great book about Dean Kamen - his work with FIRST (www.usfirst.org) and how he truly has changed at least a part of this worold. Instead I got the story of Steve Kemper. Wait for the real story.
Rating:
Summary: A peak under the curtain
Review: I am not an engineer nor businessman and thought that I would have trouble with the book keeping my interest. This was clearly not the case. I became interested in part because of Mr. Kamen's proximity and power within our state.The way that the story of the development of Ginger plays out with the mismanagement, ongoing funding needs and continual tweaks makes it a fine read. The meetings to which Mr. Kemper was privy must have been wondrous and he provides the reader with a truly unique perspective of product development in an easily readable and interesting fashion.
Rating:
Summary: terrific book, even if you are not a techie
Review: I am only half way into this book, but I have to recommend it. It makes me want to run right out and buy the Segway to become part of the new world order. (Only trouble is, the thing is too expensive.) But reading about its creator is exhilarating, and it manages to be a page-turner inspite of the fact that it is "real world". If you know an inventor or wish you were one, this entertaining book can give you a flavor for the life of the real thing.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: I don't own a Segway, but I find it (and DEKA) interesting from an engineering perspective. This book is a largely non-technical view into the process of creating it. Is it a good read? Yes. Would I recommend it to others interested in the topic? Yes. Could it be improved? Yes. I wish it were more technical, which seems to be a reasonable request since the readership should be largely engineers and business people, not a general audience. It also needed a section of photos and/or diagrams of Ginger as the engineering progressed and to illustrate various features discussed in the book. (For example, the handle is described as W-shaped and then it becomes redesigned as M-shaped, but it wasn't clear if that was from the perspective of the rider or looking at it head-on.) I also thought that the writing was awkward in places, and found the few transitions from third-person observer to first-person participant to be jarring. I do recognize that the author's presence was key to those few events, but it was jarring to the flow of the page nonetheless. So, overall, I liked it, but given that it will probably be the only book on the topic, I wish it were better...
Rating:
Summary: Ginger a great insight into process and turmoil
Review: If Edison or Ford had allowed us a peak inside their laboratories, what would it have been like? Clearly visiting one of the various museums dedicated to them does not do justice to the events that went on there. While Dean Kamen?s legacy is not yet assured to be within this group, we fortunately will have a chronology. Kemper has captured the mystique of the engineering marvel in a book that reads more like a novel than a traditional business book. The various, frank participant comments that he recorded allow us to gain insight into the engineering and management challenges that Segway has overcome. Many within the startup and capital space suggest that every founder should be cognizant of when it is time to step down and allow others to run more of the show, and Kemper paints Kamen as no exception to this. The book illustrates how Kamen?s micro-management may have caused the project to take longer and cost more than it may have needed to. It also shows how Kamen?s belief in Ginger along with his charm and salesmanship may be what ended up making Segway a success in the end. The book?s only shortfall comes from Kemper?s expulsion just prior to the Segway?s announcement and launch. Due to his loss of access to the project?s participants at this point, we are prevented from hearing reflections and thus being able to evaluate the success of the project?s culture and management style. Hopefully others from the Segway team will choose to codify their commentary on their experience at some point. Code Name Ginger will allow you to understand what goes on from idea to creation. It would be difficult not to be drawn in to the engineer?s & manager?s struggle to overcome obstacles to bring the Segway to fruition. It is a look inside the whirlwind ?
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