Mathematical prodigy and gifted programmer, Richard Stallman is the initiator of the free software movement, software that is technically and legally free for others to use, study, modify and duplicate for distribution. The development of free software from the 1980s onwards changed the way we think about the use of computers.
Read MorePaul Kennedy, a historian fascinated by the conditions that lead to wars as well as those that put an end to them, has devoted almost his entire career to this subject. He also seeks to understand why some nations manage to develop while others find it difficult.
Read MoreWhy would one read a fiction if reality is even more stupefying? That feeling has been shared by those who, like myself, read Sandworm: being destabilized by the extent taken by cyberwarfare in interstate conflicts, by the blatant weakness of some of the most essential economic systems such as energy plants, distribution networks, postal system, food supply chain, railroad network.
Read MoreThis book is devoted to the art of the breakthrough in economics: what are the most remarkable characteristics of today's innovators, especially in the digital sector? It is mainly the ability to adopt disruptive thinking and to consider the value chain from unexpected and innovative angles. It is impossible to understand the digital revolution facing us without opening this book.
Read MoreOf course we hear everywhere about the data revolution. For most of us, it is difficult to really understand why it is possible to extract large amounts of intelligence from data. Nate Silver is extraordinary in that he illustrates with particular simplicity how statistics can work miracles and help us understand our world better. In fact, this book is not about Bigdata or technology, but statistics.
Read MoreThis book might be amongst the top five I ever read about digital transformation. What is so special in it is that it cover especially well the connection in between digital transformation - culture, technology, governance, IT architecture and ‘platformization' in one hand and AI on the other. It points out the fact that, if some corporations could have the impression that they were transformed without changing they core organization, that would no longer work with the AI revolution.
Read MoreIn a disruptive economy, where digital technology is now predominant, innovation must not be done in the same way. In the age of open data, we need to make way for open innovation, or how to revolutionize the enterprise and its management by calling on the millions of individuals who make up the market, and who offer so much potential for innovation and growth.
Read MoreThis book is devoted to the art of the breakthrough in economics: what are the most remarkable characteristics of today's innovators, especially in the digital sector? It is mainly the ability to adopt disruptive thinking and to consider the value chain from unexpected and innovative angles. It is impossible to understand the digital revolution facing us without opening this book.
Read MoreGathering testimonies from Huawei's first employees, the book is captivating for what these stories evoke: stories of employees dedicated to their company to the point of accepting to be poorly fed or housed in obscure representative offices located in the most unlikely places of the world.
Read MoreIf this is not THE book to read for those seeking to understand the keys to the success of the American innovation model, it is nevertheless difficult to find better. The book retraces the entire history of Silicon Valley, starting at the beginning, that is to say, the mythical times, those of the founding of Stanford, then the Los Alamos project and Caltech.
Read MoreYou think co-creation is a sub-division of digital? Well this book will invite you to think the opposite! Co-creation is one of the most important forces of the digital world, and we have the right to wonder if it will one day supplant e-commerce with its potential for value. Its springs are explained here in detail, from the simplest platforms, such as Wikipedia, to the most sophisticated ones, and by evoking the social entrepreneurship that is largely inspired by it.
Read MoreOne of the most fascinating aspects of Silicon Valley is the counterculture that encourages boldness, adventurism and crossing the yellow line. It is not audacious to believe that both Kerouac and Elon Musk felt moved by this force to embark on their own adventures, as diametrically opposed as they may be to each other.
Read MoreIf there was only one book to read this year in the field of technology, it could well be this one; and so what a pity that this work has no French translation! For many of our elites, especially those who don't speak English, it would have been salvation as it details with a great pedagogy the technological, economic, social, metaphysical, geostrategic stakes involved in the rise of this discipline; and the term rise in power seems almost weak as it is a coming upheaval.
Read MoreIt's been a long time since yours truly should have reviewed this little book, as it is both easy to read and remarkable. Tribe is about the tribal nature of the world to come; the importance of tribes and communities.
Read MoreAlec Ross was Hillary Clinton's advisor in charge of technology and innovation. I had the chance to meet him a few years ago during one of his visits to Paris and I could then perceive how fascinating the character was, as are often those who are at the frontier of major geostrategic issues and innovation.
Read MoreI bought this book in an airport a few years ago and never really had the time to read it until the last few days. It was a mistake because this book is particularly easy to read and succeeds in the tour de force consisting in getting into complex subjects like neural networks or distributed architectures by simplifying them.
Read MorePeter Thiel is a multi-faceted character, some of which are highly questionable, such as the one who finances Palantir, whose military contracts are controversial, to say the least, or the one who has largely supported Donald Trump, to name a few.
Read MoreIn the books that have anything to do with digital transformation, some necessarily deal with "lean", the principle prefigured by Kiishiro Toyoda, the son of the founder of Toyota. The principle was revolutionary when it was formulated in the 40s and 50s: it was opposed to the idea that productivity gains came from economies of scale made possible by the massification of production and the use of sophisticated technologies.
Read MoreFrom Bitcoin To Burning Man and Beyond deals with the organizational models of decentralized systems, starting with the blockchain.
It takes us into related notions such as identity in a digital society, governance, trust and social organization. Holacratic models of an organization without hierarchies are widely discussed and described.
Read MoreWhy are some companies -including some startups- able to grow 10X faster than other organizations with 10X less staff? This is the question that Salim Ismael's book successfully answers. For 300 pages, he deconstructs the paradigms that govern this world whose principles of management and definition of value no longer have much to do with those of the 20th century.
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