So far, most serious publications about 'virtual organizations' I came across are fragmented and theoretical. There seems to be a lot of talking and thinking about the subject but there is little experience and accomplished successes to report on. Under these circumstances, the editor of 'Managing Virtual Web Organizations in the 21st Century' did a remarkable job to introduce a converging conception of the virtual organization (VO) and include theoretical knowledge, practical solutions and recent experiences with VO's.

The book contains 17 articles that elaborate on various issues ranging from the general conception of VO's to its legal format and from the business point of view to the underlying ICT-architecture. From the number of contributors and their various positions and geographical locations I might conclude that the undertaking of writing this book required a virtual organization itself. For many contributors this seems to be nothing new. In many articles it is stated that VO's have existed ever since people started to work together on the basis of trust. The new thing that the 21st century brings is the addition of ICT, which adds potentially more structure and scale to the VO. The book focuses largely on the design and management of such organizations. In most cases it takes the production and ebusiness environment as its object. Occasionally there is attention for web organizations in the professional services industries. For those who want to know on what the European Commission spent much of her billions for the 'Information Society' (IST-program), the book provides a number of references to relevant IST-projects.

Some effort seems to be taken to make all articles fit into a general framework of the book, which could not prevent many contributors to start with a description of what they regard to be a virtual organization themselves. Happily for the editor, most contributors agree more or less on the underlying concept, which is remarkable, where-as the book lays out a quite specific and practical framework for this kind of organization.

For its riches in issues and practical models the book is a useful source for professionals and decision makers that want to keep up to date with key concepts and developments regarding 'web organizations'. However, I don't think it is going to be 'The Bible of VO's'. Therefore it is too specific on some issues and not encompassing enough on others. On many issues the book provides insight and useful ideas, but overall it leaves the reader with a lot of critical thinking to do himself. It seems the editor does have a clear view on the basic concept he likes to introduce. On top of that he is gathering and analyzing additional data and models. Little doubt next time he will come out with his bible after all.

Understanding the issues and challenges associated with virtual organisations is a subject area in its ascendancy. Whilst more structured ways of working (such as vertically integrated companies and long term supplier partnerships) will continue, virtual organisations will become an increasingly relevant feature in developed economies.

This book provides an essential contribution to the subject area. It is useful to readers seeking to gain an academic perspective on the issues and to practitioners and industrialists seeking to deploy these new ways of operating in order to deliver competitive advantage. Hence I thoroughly recommend it.

Ulrich Franke and his co-authors give a broad overview over the Management of the relatively new organizational form of virtual enterprises. For all business people who are interested in strategic management or involved in networked economy this book is essential. The topic is structured quite well and shows a collection of different views given by international experts in the field of virtual organisations.

This book takes only a couple of hours to read and will certainly pay back your time when you go about leading your comnpany down the path of using the web as a strategic marketing channel.

Written for high level leaders (and those who want to be) of companies.

Explains exactly why Marketing should be leading your web technology initiatives - not IT. Yes, IT is needed, but they do not know and guide the business like your Marketing arm does.

Want to increase the bottom line? Then focus on your customers, whether they are internal or external, and involve them every step of the way. This book tells you how.

Most excellent high level guidance and a recommended read.

A must read for any executive who wants to stay in the game. Insightful and practical advice about the web, delivered unpretentiously with some light irreverent humor...caused a chuckle or two. A fast easy read for busy professionals. And best of all - no techno-babble - just straight talk.

This book makes several key points in terms of how to market a successful web campaign. Not only does Steve King provide a perspective that is understandable, it is presented as common sense. He explains that in order to market your business or product on the Web, you need to know your customer, bottom line. The biggest misconception that I used to share along with most IT professionals is that a website should be created by your IT staff. This may have been what was required as the Internet became popular over a decade ago, but chances are that your IT staff does not understand your target audience. Steve explains, "Right now, most companies we know view the Web first and foremost as a technology and not as a marketing channel."

This book is short and to the point, definitely readable within an hour. Mr. King is able to explain in detail what the Web is to business and how a Website can be presented in such a way that it truly can bring a return on investment in greater numbers than planned for. This book is able to dissect the Web from yesterday and explain how it has become misunderstood today. Finally it includes a strategy going forward for designing a successful Website by marketing it correctly and understanding your customers as you take advantage of the most powerful medium in the world today.

This book is really good.A must buy...and a good gift for a friend.

A great example of its kind -- I've read several books looking for one both knowledgeble and entertaining and this certainly fits the bill. If you are trying to do research or learn more about the practice of trading, this is very helpful. It presents a comprehensive (and comprehensible) guide to the world of direct access trading. Good job!

very handy book for reference. we are trying to use some of the helpful hints for our portfolio management.

The author states that the book was created as a text for his class and it certainly reads like a textbook. For a book that is about usability, the text is almost unreadably tedious at times. (e.g. "...the first step toward Web site usability is to figure out the main goals of your Web site. For labeling purposes we will call these 'goals of the purpose.'") Each of the points in the book is better made and illustrated in other texts (Krug - "Don't Make Me Think" is good). The attempts to lighten the subject with gratuitous cartoons and humor were more irritating than amusing.

I loved this book. I am a new psychology PhD looking to get into web usability consulting and this book was perfect for me. I have not read other books on the topic but i can say that I am glad I found this one. It was a very easy read, and i really learned a lot. I like how it takes a psychological viewpoint much of the time. I also really like how he sets you up 100% to be a usability tester. He tells you everything you need to know from A-Z with very little budget. He is also very generous giving away all his secrets and a CD rom that has all sorts of pre-made forms to get you started (powerpoint presentation on usability to show clients, informed consent forms for experimental participants etc...). Now I feel i am ready to read something more technical.

I loved this book. I am a new psychology PhD looking to get into web usability consulting and this book was perfect for me. I have not read other books on the topic but i can say that I am glad I found this one. It was a very easy read, and i really learned a lot. I like how it takes a psychological viewpoint much of the time. I also really like how he sets you up 100% to be a usability tester. He tells you everything you need to know from A-Z with very little budget. He is also very generous giving away all his secrets and a CD rom that has all sorts of pre-made forms to get you started (powerpoint presentation on usability to show clients, informed consent forms for experimental participants etc...). Now I feel i am ready to read something more technical.

The title of this book claims that 4 subjects will be covered: Buying at live auction, selling at live auction, buying online and selling online. Personally, I was hoping that the author, a real expert in selling things at auction, would share some tricks of the trade and tell me some things about selling that I don't already know.

Unfortuneately, the only subject she really covers adequately is buying at live auction (and she does an excellent job at it). Her comments about selling at live auction boil down to how to pick an auction house. You can find much more than she tells you about buying online in the Ebay help pages. And she says even less on selling online.

It's too bad! She could probably give us Ebay sellers some really good advice about how to present our articles and how to put together and split up lots to maximize appeal. She knows how to do these things and she writes very well. I get the feeling that she wanted to do a book that encouraged people to attend auctions (she founded a big auction house in the MidWest so she would be interested in that) but her publisher wanted to do the Ultimate Guide.

She won the argument -- and we all lost out!

Good for someone who wants to attend live auctions; practically useless otherwise!

This book is good for what it is--but the Internet auction information seemed to be tacked on as an afterthought at the end of each of the four major sections. I think that the Internet auction information should have been organized in a section of its own.

For example, the section on "Choosing an Auction House" discusses catalogs, commissions, marketing, etc. The Internet information included in this same section included selling basics, attracting a clientele, feedback, opening bids, and fraud disputes. These topics just do not fit into a chapter with live auction information.

Another thing--the Internet topics are not even listed in the Table of Contents, giving me more reason to suspect that they were afterthought!

One reviewer listed all the chapters and their contents, so I will not duplicate that.

I did learn a lot about appraisals, estimates, "as is", and the top ten auction bargains including silver flatware, chandeliers, old books, and monogrammed objects.

I bought this because I did not know everything about auctions. However as was not going to buy a pig in a poke. The first thing going for it was the fact that I watched Leslie weekly on HGTV and this has helped me many times. Secondly I opened to the sections that I already feel comfortable with such as books and glass. She knew what I knew.

Now that I have read this book ad applied some of its principles I can tell you that it is a keeper. If you already know the subject it is nice to have it restated in a different way. If you do not know the subject you can live on every word she says. There are very few color plats in the book; yet the descriptions are so clear that color plates are not necessary.

Even online auctions are covered and I found the fact that there are very many online auction locations not just the big three of interest. For those people that have never been to an auction this book will give them the courage and the tools needed.

I was excited about this book when I bought it online. Now that I read it, I am not very happy. The authors could have drilled deeper into some examples of how to implement the application using some wide spread technology like Java or ASP and COM. Giving concrete examples of what a Boundary Object should be, or what classes make sense to implement to interact with databases, just to mention a few, would have been very helpful. I also found "the top ten error" method very tiresome (I often skipped it and went straight to the right ways of doing things). The book was helpful though in providing a guide of what steps to follow in the design process as well as giving us a good idea on how to break the project into objects and diagrams.

You are already into various Java technologies like
Servlets, JDBC, EJBs and can put together a
small to medium application/project using those.

You somehow implemented the project/app to
satisfy the requirements but you are thinking
that there has to be a better way of going from
a set of requirements to a design (from which the leap to
actual coding is smooth) without feeling like
some vague unrepeatable 'magic' was being done.

You want to formalize the process of jumping from the
'analyze' phase to a 'Object oriented design' phase (that
results in sequence/collaboration diagrams etc) but
without being encumbered by an elaborate and complex
methodology.

You want this process to be small, easy to understand
and flexible so that you can adapt it to your needs.

If the above applies, you should seriously consider
investing in this book.

The Authors use the often used bookstore example to drive
home the process which starts with writing usecases
and ends with a detailed design that satisfies all the
user's requirements.

A list of 10 common mistakes made during each step of
the process can be used as a reference when you are
done understanding the process and are actually applying
it in your projects.

Paul Reed's Application Development with Java and UML
makes a good complement to this book, though
Conallen uses a modified but still complex enough form
of Rational Unified Process (RUP) in his book.

A developer who doesn't know a process, doesn't know what he/she is missing. A developer who doesn't know UML risks to be relegated to fill rows of code on a structure of classes and methods designed by others.
This book teaches a simple and effective process, and indirectly UML too. UML is like any other languages: one cannot learn it without using it in practice.
The authors are teachers, and this gives a big edge to the book, for their ability to anticipate reader's difficulties and common errors.

Even if I actually use Catalisys process, tailored for components (see UML Components, Cheesman and Daniels), simply I can't immagine to be where I am without having read this book at the beginning.

This book is an e-commerce primer. Although its material can seem dated (which happens quickly in this environment), the book is valuable for those who want a historical overview of Internet commerce and technology. Yes, e-commerce has changed so much so quickly that any analysis of Peapod, Streamline, and other e-tailers may seem naïve. But Paul May's discussion of the movement from fat to thin client architecture is interesting and relevant. (One only wishes that the WAP discussion went further!) While this book may not be for every executive or change leader, we [...] recommend it to marketing directors as a valuable bridge between business and technology. It also can benefit those who want a strong, but not dauntingly deep, technical overview.

This book is one of a series called Breakthroughs in Application Development. I found the book to be an excellent introduction to the challenges, risks and opportunities that E-commerce brings to business, as well as to our personal lives as consumers. What I particularly liked about this book was that it used both successes and failures as examples to learn from. Also, Paul May does a good job of identifying the real business drivers (not just the buzzwords) which make going "E" so important in the current age. He examines the kind of out of the box/cross-functional thinking that is needed by both business and IT to make a substantial impact on the e-commerce world.

The book also covers the applicable technology at a high level, but not before stressing the importance of a well thought out business plan before diving into incoherent forays on the web. The most startlingly obvious recommendation he made was for companies to encourage and even subsidize their employees experiences on the Internet (a la Ford Motor Company buying PC's for all their employees, allowing access to the internet from work, etc.) since that's the best way to get them e-aware, both as consumers and professionals.

I would definitely recommend this book both for business and technical people. Paul May uses humor and even sarcasm to keep the book light and engaging without skimping on content or credibility.

'The Business of E-Commerce' is a great introductory text for senior (technical and non-technical) management, university students and consultants addressing the history, strategy and business models, specific applications as well as the technology required to quickly understand what e-commerce involves.

The well-structured, lightly illustrated and referenced chapters span:

++ getting there- about virtualization, globalization, and intellectualization aspects of business change, and exploitation through origins, recent history, interactivity, connectivity and continuity.

++ a generic business model for e-commerce- local business drivers (copycat, channel development, cost reduction, and partner inclusion), new maps (physical/informational/B2C, B2B, and cross-pollination), and role types (intermediation, disintermediation, reintermediation, and transformation agents).

++ pathfinder application areas- B2C retail, auctions, and advice; and B2B procurement, inventory exchange, and real-time collaboration.

++ technology landscape- data, dynamic networks, security, payment solutions and e-commerce standards.

++ architectures for electronic commerce- logical, technical, and organizational.

++ open issues- legalities (intellectual property, responsibility and privacy, regulation and taxation), technical issues (platform risk, communication disconnect, skills), and market issues (volatility, locus, and trust).

Strengths include: the well-structured 'mature' text; the useful lengthy glossary of terms; the attractive style with mostly complete and correct content often supported by useful illustrative anecdotes or supporting materials; and the author's obvious comfortability with discussing some technical aspects supporting e-commerce (1960s EDI, Java, XML, Jini etc..). Weaknesses include: gaps relating to organizational (e-business) development lifecycle necessary to leverage the technology and business models; manufacturing examples with errors (not all manufacturing processes just have discrete steps!); real-time confusion (see any control engineering text for precise & correct definitions); gap relating to object-oriented systems/ virtual organization development (briefly mentioned about 100 pages late!); better referencing and supporting material, and need for more sidebars & illustrations, and about 15% reduced text for same content.

This reviewer got the impression that detailed discussions were avoided to minimize the need for frequent updates/ revisions. Yet perhaps such tabulated comparisons of contemporary tools for applications and organizational development, details of various offerings from major consultancies, and discussion of web-enabled ERP, CRM, CRM, BI (and all those other software acronyms) would have added value for the reader to better implement e-commerce solutions.

Some alternative texts include: the weaker inspiring 'Futurize Your Enterprize' by Siegel; the weaker draft 'Exploring E-commerce' by Fellenstein/Wood; and Hoque's 'E-enterprise' which is initially promising but ultimately unsatisfactory (too much repetition, error, and 'jargonism' without support, despite some good charts and structure, to be considered worthwhile).

Overall, a useful and entertaining read- amongst the best books (read by this reviewer) in the last year.

Never have I seen such a poorly proof-read edition of so fine a book. It's criminal. Page 61 has legendary mountain man Hugh Glass being killed by hostile Indians in the "winter of 1932-33." That would have made the poor guy over 140 years old at the time. And that's just the beginning. There are over 15 typos in the first five chapters alone, which would disqualify this publisher (Comstock Editions) as the operator of a Quick-Copy franchise.

Great book! But you're going to have to track down a much earlier edition in order to appreciate it.

This book chronicles the fur trade era from 1822-1834 through the eyes of William Ashley's men and the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. Such giants of the times like Jed Smith, Jim Bridger, the Sublettes, Tom Fitzpatrick and many others are given thorough examination of their roles in attempting to capture the fur trade business, along with their exploration accomplishments of the American west. The cutthroat competition from the Hudson's Bay Company, Astor's American Fur Company and the Missouri Fur Company, not to mention Indian hostilities, hunger, thirst and the always present forces of nature, made the fur trade business a precarious way of life. If one is not familiar with the geography of the west, it would be helpful to have a map handy as there is not one in the book. There were a few typos which can be overlooked, but there is one historical blunder I must point out. This is on page 50. It is mentioned that Vanderburgh and Carson were exempted from Leavenworth's criticism of the Missouri Fur Company's handling of the Aricara battle. This is NOT Kit Carson as the index states it is. This man was Kit's older half brother Moses. Other than these few discrepancies, the book was presented very well and was a pleasure to read.

Having long ago lost my original copy from the '70's, I'm glad to see this classic back in print. Fully rounded with details of Jim Bridger, Hugh Glass and others on the world economic canvas painted by John Astor, Berry gives us the complete picture. It should be on the short list for any course in American history along with the Lewis and Clark journals.

This book leaves much to be desired. The author assembled a bunch of poorly conducted interviews-which sound more like advertisements for the individuals interviewed-and called this a book.

If you are looking for ideas and/or inspiration, look elsewhere. This book provides neither. That is unless you're really interested to find out what dress code each company favors. Yes, that's a common thread among the interviews. Hardly the stuff that will help you grow your company.

Jim Romeo's Net Know-How: Surviving the Bloodbath - Straight Talk From 25 Internet Entrepreneurs is an engaging and informative selection of twenty-five true stories on the theme of starting up an Internet business, as told by people who did it. The creators of experience.com, collages.net, carepackages.com and more share their stories, including what they expected, the surprises that caught them unawares, and the shrewd thinking and careful preparations that kept them going when other dot-com companies failed. Net Know-How is a first-rate book of anecdotal business wisdom, and highly recommended for anyone considering launching or working for a dot-com company!

Simply put, I wish this book was around before I jumped on the Internet bandwagon. The lessons learned here are invaluable -- and will inspire and help anyone involved in the Internet (entrepreneur or not).

"Net Know-How" is a great read -- quick, insightful and full of very exciting success stories. In today's environment, I'm sure many are skeptical of Internet successes -- well, these are true! I actually looked up all 25 companies featured in the book -- expecting most to be out of business. I was wrong -- all 25 are still alive today! Just another testament to the knowledge this compelling book has to offer you. It should be required reading at the top B-schools in the country.

This book gives a decent description of patents, but it's out of date. For example, it says the head of the patent office is called "Commissioner" when that was changed and the head is called "Director" and the "Commissioner" is actually the third in rank (second is "Deputy Director"). The book says the USPatent Office handles 200,000 patent applications, but the number is actually closer to 300,000. There have been significant changes in the patent laws such as publication of applications, 20 year terms, WTO related provisions, NAFTA related provisions, WIPO and PCT related provisions, etc. that do not appear. So, take this book as background information only and know that in many instances it is obsolete. Recognize that patents are not a "do-it-yourself" activity if you want decent protection. See a patent attorney if you want accurate, up to date advice and worthwhile coverage. Stay away from the invention submission/promotion companies.

Bruce Burdick, Registered Patent Attorney No. 27,422

This book offers a simple, straightforward interoduction to patent law. If you are starting from scratch, this is a good place to start. There isn't much "how to" in this book, so it's probably best for someone who plans to work with a patent lawyer or service.

This book is nice reference for people who want to learn more about the patent process. For prospective inventors, this book details the steps one needs to take in order to apply for a patent. If you are serious about applying for a patent, I would not recommend using this book as a sole reference, but as a starting point.