Watch out for things to come

The Third Wave was written by Alvin Toffler, a great American writer and futurist who wrote some amazing stuff about digital and communication revolution. The book came out in 1980 and had influenced Steve Case so much that it was something that he wanted to be part of—the information age characterised by an electronic global village where people could access an endless array of information, participate in an interactive world, and build a community not based on geography but on common interests.

Naturally, the AOL founder has first-hand experienced the digital revolution for over three decades to demarcate the three waves of the internet. Wave 1 from 1985 to 1999, Wave 2 from 2000 to 2015 and Wave 3 from 2016—we are in the third wave: the Internet of Everything, according to Case. The first wave was when the Internet was built; the second wave is when we built apps and social networks on top of it; and now the third wave, when we're bringing the Internet to everything else in our world.

Thankfully, this book is not stuck in the past, which it could have got trapped in, considering the many phases of technology development that Case had witnessed. Case uses his experience and stories to provide a vision of a better tomorrow for all of us. The book not only helps you understand what may come next, but it inspires you to anticipate and be part of it. It emphasises that digital revolution is an enabler of new business plan, which helps in forming new ideas by using information technology intelligently.

There is a lot of visionary ideas and learning shared in the book; some of which could be used right away to address problems that could emerge in the future. Overall, the book is a wonderful chronicle of excellent perspective on the past, current, and future status of the tech revolution, making it a book hard to put down.

olmdesk@outlookindia.com