by John Rossman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 2016
A futuristic yet pragmatic work that provides a peek into Amazon’s IoT prowess.
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An insightful study of Amazon.com’s Internet of Things practices that aims to help guide business leaders in applying this emerging technology.
While some executives may perceive that the “Internet of Things” is merely a catchphrase, Rossman (The Amazon Way, 2014) thinks differently. He cites studies that suggest that nearly 20 billion devices will be connected via the internet by 2020 and that as much as $11 trillion annually will be saved through IoT–related efficiencies by 2025. As a former Amazon executive, Rossman has an insider’s perspective on exactly how that company has been pursuing its IoT strategy. Before he explores “the Amazon way,” however, he offers a cogent, detailed overview of IoT itself, which he characterizes as “the ability to create digital awareness of the physical world we live in.” He provides several illustrations of how cities are already employing IoT to improve the lives of ordinary citizens; people in Santander, Spain, he notes, use a smartphone app that offers “services like parking search, environmental monitoring, the digital city agenda, and deals from local merchants.” This background helpfully demonstrates that IoT is far from theoretical. The bulk of the book is centered on 10 principles, one per chapter, that Rossman believes represent Amazon’s strategic use of IoT. He describes each in detail and supports it with numerous specific examples of Amazon’s own applications. For instance, Principle 1, “Reinvent Customer Experiences with Connected Devices,” discusses Amazon’s obsession with its customers, highlighting breakthrough features such as customer reviews, free everyday shipping, one-click shopping, and Prime membership. Particularly interesting is the behind-the-scenes detail surrounding two newer innovations, “Dash buttons,” which allow automatic orders by the pressing of a single button, and drones. Other principles, which include “Do the Math: How IoT Enables Data Collection, Metrics, and Algorithms” and “How to Become a Platform Business Using the Internet of Things,” are no less intriguing. Rossman’s observations throughout are really the heart of the book, as he breaks each principle down into logical steps and, more importantly, counsels readers about how to apply Amazon’s lessons to any business. Sagacious advice, such as “Successfully innovating with the Internet of Things requires a big and powerful vision, but to reach that vision, you’ll need to create and learn from a series of small, agile experiments,” is both sensible and reassuring.
A futuristic yet pragmatic work that provides a peek into Amazon’s IoT prowess.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-692-73900-6
Page Count: 168
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by John Rossman
by Charlayne Hunter-Gault ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1992
From the national correspondent for PBS's MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour: a moving memoir of her youth in the Deep South and her role in desegregating the Univ. of Georgia. The eldest daughter of an army chaplain, Hunter-Gault was born in what she calls the ``first of many places that I would call `my place' ''—the small village of Due West, tucked away in a remote little corner of South Carolina. While her father served in Korea, Hunter-Gault and her mother moved first to Covington, Georgia, and then to Atlanta. In ``L.A.'' (lovely Atlanta), surrounded by her loving family and a close-knit black community, the author enjoyed a happy childhood participating in activities at church and at school, where her intellectual and leadership abilities soon were noticed by both faculty and peers. In high school, Hunter-Gault found herself studying the ``comic-strip character Brenda Starr as I might have studied a journalism textbook, had there been one.'' Determined to be a journalist, she applied to several colleges—all outside of Georgia, for ``to discourage the possibility that a black student would even think of applying to one of those white schools, the state provided money for black students'' to study out of state. Accepted at Michigan's Wayne State, the author was encouraged by local civil-rights leaders to apply, along with another classmate, to the Univ. of Georgia as well. Her application became a test of changing racial attitudes, as well as of the growing strength of the civil-rights movement in the South, and Gault became a national figure as she braved an onslaught of hostilities and harassment to become the first black woman to attend the university. A remarkably generous, fair-minded account of overcoming some of the biggest, and most intractable, obstacles ever deployed by southern racists. (Photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-374-17563-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1992
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by William Strunk & E.B. White ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 15, 1972
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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