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Age of Context cover art

Age of Context

By: Robert Scoble, Shel Israel
Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer
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Summary

In 2006, co-authors Robert Scoble and Shel Israel wrote Naked Conversations, a book that persuaded businesses to embrace what we now call social media. Six years later they have teamed up again to report that social media is but one of five converging forces that promise to change virtually every aspect of our lives. You know these other forces already: mobile, data, sensors and location-based technology. Combined with social media they form a new generation of personalized technology that knows us better than our closest friends. Armed with that knowledge our personal devices can anticipate what we'll need next and serve us better than a butler or an executive assistant. The resulting convergent superforce is so powerful that it is ushering in an era the authors call the Age of Context.

In this new era, our devices know when to wake us up early because it snowed last night; they contact the people we are supposed to meet with to warn them we're running late. They even find content worth watching on television. They also promise to cure cancer and make it harder for terrorists to do their damage. Astoundingly, in the coming age you may only receive ads you want to see. Scoble and Israel have spent more than a year researching this book. They report what they have learned from interviewing more than a hundred pioneers of the new technology and by examining hundreds of contextual products.

What does it all mean? How will it change society in the future? The authors are unabashed tech enthusiasts, but as they write, an elephant sits in the living room of our book and it is called privacy. We are entering a time when our technology serves us best because it watches us; collecting data on what we do, who we speak with, what we look at. There is no doubt about it: Big Data is watching you. The time to lament the loss of privacy is over. The authors argue that the time is right to demand options that enable people to reclaim some portions of that privacy.

©2013 Shel Israel (P)2013 Shel Israel

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How technology will change our world

Robert Scoble spends his life visiting the most innovative technology companies and talking to the most visionary entrepreneurs. In the Age of Context he distills what he has learnt into predictions of how technology will impact the world and the way we live. The changes are revolutionary, the opportunities are vast and the threats to privacy, very worrying.

It is a very interesting and stimulating read. I would recommend it to anyone whose job is dependent on understanding how the Internet and technology will evolve and what impact it will have on our lives. Not all the predictions will become reality, but if only half are correct the impact will still be huge.

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  • 13-07-15

Annoying Whiney voice!

Irritating nasal voice I'm afraid. I recommend you read and don't listen! Good content though dating fast.

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Good book

Would you listen to Age of Context again? Why?

I may listen to this book again but only to review some of the ideas and thoughts on automation

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Context makes all the difference

I liked this book. Funny reading a tech and future oriented book several years after publication. Too bad,kind of, that GoogleGlass hasn't taken off. The perspectives in technology including both positive and negative are relevant as is the concerns of Privacy and the responsibility each of us have in managing our behavior and choices. The book was well worth the time and I particularly appreciated the New England references.

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