The Economist
Reviewed by Tim Hindle, 7 April 2001.

This is an update of "The Death of Distance", the author's wide-ranging review of the impact of the communications revolution on work and play. Written in 1997, the earlier book missed the wild excitement (and the subsequent disappointment) that the Internet engendered in the closing years of the 20th century.

Particularly valuable in this edition is the new material that Frances Cairncross, the management editor at The Economist, has added on what she (rightly) says will be the big impact of the Internet in this decade: "on existing companies, revolutionising the way they do business." She cites the example of Cisco Systems, which reckons it saved itself 250,000 telephone calls and 17% of its operating costs by setting up a website to provide its customers with technical back-up. Inevitably, though, in such a fast-moving field, the story has moved on even before the book has been published. The California court ruling, for example, that forced Napster to rewrite its business plan for downloading copyrighted music files has to await "The Death of Distance 3.0".

Also welcome is the extra attention the author gives to the concerns of those who are less than full-blooded enthusiasts for the communications revolution—those, for example, who worry about what she calls the "Five P's" of the Internet: policing, pornography, privacy, protection and property. And those who fear the monopolistic tendencies of the industry, as revealed by the anti-trust charges against Microsoft. "Competition," she says, "clearly does not come naturally in communications."

But Ms Cairncross remains bullish. "The communications revolution almost certainly is raising productivity," she concludes after considering the American experience of recent years. And, she argues, it is having a beneficial effect on government, leading gradually to increased efficiency and greater accountability. What the book fails to address satisfactorily, though, is how the death of distance does not seem to have made us feel significantly closer. So many new ways to communicate; yet still so few ways to connect.

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