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Rating: 
Summary: Complete and easy to read
Review: I have just leafed through the book---cannot say that I have really read it yet. However, I know some of this history and some of the people. This account appears to combine careful datagathering with solid analysis and clear exposition. For anyone who is interested in either (1) the economics of standardization or (2) the history of moderning computation, this book rates somewhere on the scale ranging from Must-have to Extremely-desireable." A little nit, the controversy regarding the Soderblom's token ring patent is restricted to a footnote.
Rating:
Summary: Complete and easy to read
Review: I have just leafed through the book---cannot say that I have really read it yet. However, I know some of this history and some of the people. This account appears to combine careful datagathering with solid analysis and clear exposition. For anyone who is interested in either (1) the economics of standardization or (2) the history of moderning computation, this book rates somewhere on the scale ranging from Must-have to Extremely-desireable." A little nit, the controversy regarding the Soderblom's token ring patent is restricted to a footnote.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent tale,and framework telling how innovations spread
Review: I read this book after I had read 'Where Wizards Stay up Late', and I think this helped. Von Burg' book tells the tale of how the Ethernet protocol for connecting computers in an office building (a 'local area' as opposed to a 'wide area' e.g. across town) became the de-facto accepted standard over the decade of the 1980's. His case is that widespread adoption of the standard created a 'community' of users and developers who were able to rapidly overcome any deficiencies in the standard, and that the wider this community the faster the developments, therefore the more rapid the advances over competing standards (in this case Token-Ring, backed mainly by IBM). The book builds the story quite well, and pulls no punches about the deficiencies of Ethernet - very cumbersome cabling, initially quite narrow bandwidth. He comes up with the best explanation of the Hub versus Bus configurations of connections which I have come across ( remote maintainability - but read the book). As well as a fascinating layout of the story of Ethernet and its many iterations and close shaves on the way to becoming the de-facto LAN (local area network) standard Von Burg puts together a wider theoretical basis to describe the diffusion of innovations. In this process he links the triumph of Ethernet (mainly its widespread developer 'community') with the open source movement (e.g. Linux developers), and ends up stating that the movement which attracts the widest 'community' must ultimately win. There are holes in this argument (e.g. how does a voluntary community produce a working, commercially-usable, supportable product on time, every time), but it is the first time I have seen this argument so persuasively articulated. On this technology-communitarian theory, the individual firm, no matter how bigger, can no longer compete with a diverse community of developers. Its very current when you see Linux and Microsoft slug it out for space in corporate computer rooms.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent tale,and framework telling how innovations spread
Review: I read this book after I had read `Where Wizards Stay up Late', and I think this helped. Von Burg' book tells the tale of how the Ethernet protocol for connecting computers in an office building (a `local area' as opposed to a `wide area' e.g. across town) became the de-facto accepted standard over the decade of the 1980's. His case is that widespread adoption of the standard created a `community' of users and developers who were able to rapidly overcome any deficiencies in the standard, and that the wider this community the faster the developments, therefore the more rapid the advances over competing standards (in this case Token-Ring, backed mainly by IBM). The book builds the story quite well, and pulls no punches about the deficiencies of Ethernet - very cumbersome cabling, initially quite narrow bandwidth. He comes up with the best explanation of the Hub versus Bus configurations of connections which I have come across ( remote maintainability - but read the book). As well as a fascinating layout of the story of Ethernet and its many iterations and close shaves on the way to becoming the de-facto LAN (local area network) standard Von Burg puts together a wider theoretical basis to describe the diffusion of innovations. In this process he links the triumph of Ethernet (mainly its widespread developer `community') with the open source movement (e.g. Linux developers), and ends up stating that the movement which attracts the widest `community' must ultimately win. There are holes in this argument (e.g. how does a voluntary community produce a working, commercially-usable, supportable product on time, every time), but it is the first time I have seen this argument so persuasively articulated. On this technology-communitarian theory, the individual firm, no matter how bigger, can no longer compete with a diverse community of developers. Its very current when you see Linux and Microsoft slug it out for space in corporate computer rooms.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent--combines history and economic analysis
Review: I read this book carefully. I think the great strength of this book is that the author carefully compares the predictions of economic theory with the actual outcomes. When the two diverge, he uses the divergence to illuminate shortcomings of the economic model. Some economic studies of standardization issues failed because the authors did not understand either the technology or the market well enough to properly compare actual events with model predictions. I also found the history enjoyable-but then I am a computer nerd not an economist. This account combines careful datagathering with solid analysis and clear exposition. For anyone who is interested in either (1) the economics of standardization or (2) the history of modern computation, this book rates somewhere on the scale ranging from Must-have to Extremely-desireable.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent--combines history and economic analysis
Review: I read this book carefully. I think the great strength of this book is that the author carefully compares the predictions of economic theory with the actual outcomes. When the two diverge, he uses the divergence to illuminate shortcomings of the economic model. Some economic studies of standardization issues failed because the authors did not understand either the technology or the market well enough to properly compare actual events with model predictions. I also found the history enjoyable-but then I am a computer nerd not an economist. This account combines careful datagathering with solid analysis and clear exposition. For anyone who is interested in either (1) the economics of standardization or (2) the history of modern computation, this book rates somewhere on the scale ranging from Must-have to Extremely-desireable.
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