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Rating: 
Summary: Can you believe it?
Review: Can you believe that the publisher expects us to pay the same price for an electronic version of the book that we can only read on one computer as for the hard back version that we can read, pass along to friends, and then donate to a library? This is absurd, and the only possible response is for readers to boycott this title and McGraw-Hill Publishing, the publisher, until it dawns on the publisher that economies should be passed on to the readers, just as economies were passed along when paperback books were introduced. Doing so is just good business since lower prices will spark a lagging publishing industry and electronic publishing will allow publishers to see their back list with virtually zero marginal cost. Wake up and smell the coffee.
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Read!
Review: Five years from now, your refrigerator should be talking to you. Your television set won't just offer you the usual slew of cable channels, but thousands of streaming Internet channels that will fill every conceivable market niche, need or want. Transmission paths will include DSL modems, cable modems, possible fiber optic links to the home and even transmission through power lines. Executives should start thinking now about how broadband will change the way their businesses work, the authors explain. So, if you're trying to figure out how your business can benefit from the inevitable expansion of fat pipes, we from getAbstract recommend this book to you. Read it quickly, before the fridge asks for something to drink.
Rating: 
Summary: Holds up after another read.
Review: Having originally read this book for work when it first came out, I have since had the need/opportunity to go back and re-read the numerous parts that are relevant to me. It has only grown more useful and informative. I cannot understand the other reviews I've seen here claiming that it's too superficial or only for novices. Let us not forget that this book is out to fulfill a specific mission which, in my opinion, involves making the idea of Broadband more accessible to non-tech heads like myself. In this respect, it is an unbelievable tool for me. To knit-pick about the way the two authors spell "Kozmo" differently seems to miss the point - one typo does not invalidate an entire book. To those who remain interested in Broadband and want to read something more fresh and enjoyable than your typical internet tome, this is still one of the best choices out there. Give it a try.
Rating:
Summary: Broadband for Me!
Review: I was quite surprised how much of a dry, uninformative, redundant book this was. I realize that there were two authors, I don't believe they communicated with each other as many subjects were absolutely repeated several times. In fact the first author referred to Kosmo and the second author referred to Kozmo (both referring to the same company). I brought very little new knowledge from reading this book and would recommend something written by people informed a little more about the subject. Authors were obviously very excited about the subject (and their old company macromedia) however they veered off into subjects that basically repeated any other internet related business book that exists. We get it, the internet is changing the world, you're a little late to the dance! I have to say that they didn't use the book to tout their organization and try to win business (if they did mean to do that, they did a very poor job), which is admirable.
Rating:
Summary: Can you believe it?
Review: I was really disappointed by this book. It did a poor job of going into detail (I wasn't looking for too much detail) of broadband technologies in use today. It also barely even touched wireless broaband to the home or to enterprises. Furthermore, the information was dated even though the hardcopy version I bought had a copyright date of 2001. Clearly, the book must've been written in late 1999 or early 2000. In this rapidly changing industry, that's too long ago. I also have to agree with another reader that I can't tell who this book was intended for? What was the target audience?
Rating:
Summary: Great Resource!
Review: The Last Mile is one of the books I keep multiple copies of at the office to give out, this book helps our clients understand the what broadband means to their business model, the technologies used, and to gain a better impression on where broadband is heading. The authors clearly have their fingers on the pulse of an industry that's on the threshold of changing the internet as much as the internet has changed communications.
Rating:
Summary: Great read!
Review: The Last Mile is the first book I've read that presents the future of broadband in a coherent, readable way. In particular I loved the case studies, the unpretentious writing and the great diagrams. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the future of the Web/broadband.
Rating:
Summary: How many times can you state the obvious?
Review: The Last Mile was written by two former Shockwave employees, now with March First's interactive division. Let me start by stating that I consider March First one of the few interactive agencies that truly "get it." However, after reading The Last Mile, its obvious that someone at March First should start reviewing books before they go to press with their name attached. For starters, the writing in this book is extremely poor. For example, this excerpt regarding the complications involved with DSL installations; "The next day a real service guy showed up, wearing an open shirt with the gold chains and a serious leather tool belt that the customer said looked like the one he had bought because he just loved his job so much (huh?). The customer thought to himself "this is the man." He looked as if he was ready to start a fight with anyone that talked bad about DSL. This guy came in like Mr. Spock in the original Star Trek movie and rewired the warp drive engine. He rewired the setup and told the customer that he was ready to make the jump to light speed." The passage rambles on (including run on sentences, and grammatical errors) and concludes with; "He thought of some technical reason as to why this might be normal and forgot about it, until he asked his wife if she ever tried using both her DSL and Powerbook modem. "Yup, all the time," she said. For the love of God, he thought" PLEASE - who is the target audience of this book? CEO's interested in understanding broadband capabilities and positioning their business for the broadband revolution don't want to read writing in the style of "Spot goes to the Park". The Last Mile also (conveniently) features a case study on Shockwave.com - although I find the site entertaining, how this fits into helping CEOs to understand business applications based on broadband is beyond me. (It's also nice to see that the book gets kudos from the creative officer of Shockwave.com) The book continuously repeats itself (obviously written by two different writers with no editor) and jumps around; confusing the reader as to what is the message of each chapter. The Last Mile is mainly geared towards justifying the need for interactive designers (coincidentally the writers' are interactive designers) and using interactive elements such as video and flash animation because the bandwidth will be available. When developing strategies around positioning businesses online, interactive elements should be only used if they make sense to the target audience and are necessary to help solve business problems; not simply because the technology is available. This is never mentioned in the book. I was extremely disappointed with the unprofessional approach taken in writing (and editing) this book. The Last Mile book was painful to get through. I hope someone at March First is reading this. I want my money back.
Rating:
Summary: Gushing Superficial Intro to Broadband for ?e-life?
Review: `The Last Mile' is a colloquial, gushing, superficial and repetitive introduction to US broadband presenting basic "e-life" brainstorms (i.e. work and play). In three parts, the unreferenced and poorly structured chapters span: + Part one: the broadband revolution- building the foundation for broadband; what is broadband; the last mile deployment studies; and Palm case study. + Part two: the impact of broadband- the world economy with Kodak case study; changing culture with TBWA/Chiat/Day case study; and the changing culture with shockwave.com case study. + Part three the changing landscape- new business networks with Columbia Tristar Interactive case study; the changing technologies with ReplayTV case study; and final thoughts on reaching the last mile. Unfortunately, the strengths are limited to the enthusiasm of tone, and brevity of the book. Non-techies can do much better than reading this. Weaknesses include: the extreme repetition between sections (perhaps 40% of a short book!); a very shallow treatment of subject; textual "slips" always representing US significantly more favorably than the case (compared with actual figures given in book itself) as well as mostly US focus; the scrappy illustrations, typos, missing illustration & inconsistencies; a seemingly Macromedia-advert focus; a lack of analysis or justification for "broadband will come" beyond assumption that everyone wants latest technology (but what about the business benefit?); little concern for the global business environment & wider society (and those non-wired countries where broadband will be irrelevant for foreseeable future); little evidence of understanding of any "real" office work processes and technologies; and an "interactivity" focus seemingly of "flaming car graphics" kind satirized in old IBM e-business adverts, rather than anything of benefit to user or company. Better alternatives include: Siegel's Futurize Your Enterprize (for e-life mindset and enthusiasm primer), and Mitchells' E-topia for a more rigorous view of wired technology impacts including broadband on the built environment. Overall, a quick web-search reveals more than this disappointing "throwaway" book- so perhaps only of use to those not yet using the Internet (who yet may be put off by the "tech-nerd-appeal" bookcover).
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