Rating: 
Summary: A fair work that has aged quickly.
Review: This is a very dry guide as to how businesses can get into the online business. Published in 1997, it is written in consultant speak, ie most of the prose is buzzwords that quickly became outdated or their own cutesy phrases to describe aspects of the online community. If the clients at whom this work is aimed actually finished and acted upon its content I would be shocked. The authors, who are obviously intelligent, should have realized how perishable this work is, and should have considered revising it annually. Had this not been required text for a class, I would never have bothered.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent summarization of a rapidly evolving arena.
Review: Another conceptual masterpiece from Harvard Press. The book is a speculative venture tieing together many of the rapidly evolving trends that are just now starting to emerge. Its fairly readable too!
Rating:
Summary: Some good concepts, way, way too much hype
Review: Hagel is outstanding when it comes to presenting in clear, simple fashion the emerging new community and customer driven dynamics of the web market.But the oversimplification, hyperbole and overstatment are dangerously irresponsible, especially for smaller businesses and start-ups that don't have endless capital to throw to the winds. The "hypothetical" projection charts of sales and growth are indicative of the financial bubble kind of thinking that leads to... collapse of bubbles. It is critical to remember that e-retailing is still retailing and the tendency will be for margins to be squeezed as they are in all areas of retailing today. There will be no "magic box profits" that are extraordinarily higher than market averages because ... because markets tend to function competitively. Online booksellers, for example, are still booksellers. And precisely if teh web market grows as exuberantly as Hagel thinks it will (driven far too much by the easy access to capital), the squeeze on margins will come even more rapidly than it otherwise might. And very, very few firms will ever hope to achieve the kind of market share that a few amazing companies like Amazon have managed to gain and hold. Yes, the web is for real and will become one of the five most important media forms in America. But actually establishing and maintaining a profit margin will be much more difficult than Hagel implies. Caveat emptor!
Rating: 
Summary: Building Online Relationships
Review: Our marketing company has embraced the relationship marketing concepts of this author with great success. The vision of the future this book presents has been our road map for consulting clients on how to have a customer aquisition plan that serves the customers needs individually.
Rating:
Summary: new approach to corporate strategy
Review: Hagel and Armstrong did a very good job at projecting a scenario of how changes the business community is facing are going to take effect with more and more commercial virtual communities coming up. What they propose is nothing less than a new paradigm for corporate strategy.
Rating:
Summary: Way too hypothetical
Review: There are a few good concepts here upon which the authors have built a whole hypothetical model. But they do not seem to have enough data to build the model on. It's like a whole big six-ton sand castle built up to the sky resting on two toothpicks and a wad of chewed-up bubble gum.
Rating:
Summary: Very insightful(I wish)
Review: I don't know anything about economics, but I am convinced by what the author wrote. I just feel it is right. Having been totally convinced by the book I am working on constructing a virtual community which many people can actively participate. I will see if what is written in the book is right or wrong in five years.
Rating: 
Summary: Net Gain is a Net Loss.
Review: Although this book claims to be geared to the senior executive _and_ the entrepreneur there is little info for the latter. Besides the fact that many of us do not have 1-2M or even 15M lying around which is the assupmtion. The much touted computer model that prescribes the increasing returns of virtual communities characterized in the book is not to be seen. Having some more specific details of this model might help some of us to find those big bucks. Save your money and surf your favorite community Web site for a better education.
Rating: 
Summary: Show me proof!
Review: Net Gain is a good read the first time around. However,after reading the book a second time I am still a little confused particularly with the economics of virtual communities. Net Gain claims that all you need is 1 to 2 million to start a community and be competetive. However it then goes on to assume that you have 15 million in the bank? I would also like to know how they came up with increasing returns generated by the fifth year? How realistic are these numbers? Are their business model statistics realistic? What if you didn't have 15 million to start?
Rating:
Summary: These guys get it!
Review: This is an extremely coherent and insightful description of the current market transformation brought about by the Internet and similar communications technology. I am getting a copy for all of my business associates and major clients. This is the future!
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