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Being Online: On Computing, Data, the Internet, and the Cloud
A pioneer of cloud computing and big data offers his vision of the future world taking shape around us.
Jian Wang was the founder and architect of Alibaba's cloud and has been the driving force behind its technology innovations. He was also the founder of the City Brain initiative to develop a new digital infrastructure for sustainable cities. Being Online is his meditation on the moment we are in, as the digital era shifts to the internet era, spawning new innovations at a seemingly dizzying cloud computing, 5G, artificial intelligence, big data, wearables, robots, virtual reality, the internet of things, blockchain, and more. For Wang, the invisible hand that connects them is being online. The conjunction of computing, data, and the internet has erased the difference between being online and off. When computing can be done in the cloud, it is on the road to becoming a utility. When data is connected, making it big, its usefulness multiplies exponentially in unforeseeable ways, as does its value.
This moment will be as transformative for humanity as Henry Ford's production line. Data is changing the nature of business. Computing is reshaping the economy. The cloud will help us do things we could never do before, at scales that were previously impossible. It will reshape our vision of the world, as electrification once did and, more recently, the transition from analog to digital. While telling the story of Alibaba’s breakthroughs and the development of his own understanding of the internet, Jian Wang's visionary book lays out the implications of this shift and how to think about being online.
Jian Wang was the founder and architect of Alibaba's cloud and has been the driving force behind its technology innovations. He was also the founder of the City Brain initiative to develop a new digital infrastructure for sustainable cities. Being Online is his meditation on the moment we are in, as the digital era shifts to the internet era, spawning new innovations at a seemingly dizzying cloud computing, 5G, artificial intelligence, big data, wearables, robots, virtual reality, the internet of things, blockchain, and more. For Wang, the invisible hand that connects them is being online. The conjunction of computing, data, and the internet has erased the difference between being online and off. When computing can be done in the cloud, it is on the road to becoming a utility. When data is connected, making it big, its usefulness multiplies exponentially in unforeseeable ways, as does its value.
This moment will be as transformative for humanity as Henry Ford's production line. Data is changing the nature of business. Computing is reshaping the economy. The cloud will help us do things we could never do before, at scales that were previously impossible. It will reshape our vision of the world, as electrification once did and, more recently, the transition from analog to digital. While telling the story of Alibaba’s breakthroughs and the development of his own understanding of the internet, Jian Wang's visionary book lays out the implications of this shift and how to think about being online.
336 pages, Hardcover
Published October 5, 2021
50 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 16, 2021
This book was received as an ARC from Arcade in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.
As a librarian, I work with all sorts of technology everyday and am required to gain the knowledge to keep up with the latest technology trends. Many times we all know how stressful technology can be. Reading Being Online opened my eyes to a whole new side of technology with even more knowledge than I realized. I loved how Jian Wang goes more in depth of the cloud and how it changes humanity for the forseeable future just like how Henry Fords Cars did. New innovation that just keeps going and going. This will definitely be a good resource for us to relay the information to our patrons and staff.
We will consider adding this title to our H Non-Fiction Business collection at our library. That is why we give this book 4 stars.
As a librarian, I work with all sorts of technology everyday and am required to gain the knowledge to keep up with the latest technology trends. Many times we all know how stressful technology can be. Reading Being Online opened my eyes to a whole new side of technology with even more knowledge than I realized. I loved how Jian Wang goes more in depth of the cloud and how it changes humanity for the forseeable future just like how Henry Fords Cars did. New innovation that just keeps going and going. This will definitely be a good resource for us to relay the information to our patrons and staff.
We will consider adding this title to our H Non-Fiction Business collection at our library. That is why we give this book 4 stars.
December 2, 2021
Very interesting and important ideas … but the writing is very choppy and feels more like the transcript of a TED talk.
November 12, 2021
The book is just a means for the author to boast his vision and dreams of cloud computing which is not new or original in the IT world. He has stated in the book that Amazon, in his theory, is already attaining the kind of cloud computing he is pushing for the Alibaba Cloud. The examples he used for different cloud services are China centric, which were mimicked from those established outside China ... for example WeChat first released in 2011 was copied from WhatsApp which was launched in 2009; Alibaba Cloud launched in 2009 was emulated from Amazon AWS which began in 2006. My opinion is the book serves only the purpose for China readers in order to let the country know how the cloud computing direction should be moving towards. One can imagine that in a country where creativity is not encouraged and limited free world news can be accessed, it is unavoidable for certain industries to duplicate what others came up with and brag to be its original.
October 10, 2024
The vision, the story telling and a vivid perspective on the history of technology changes! Amazing work by Dr Jian Wang. I've always been astonished by the speed and scale of innovations from China so it was good to see some view into the brain leading Alibaba tech. Really would love to follow his work as he builds city brain.
June 14, 2022
My favorite chapter of being online is chapter 10: Human self confidence. It talks about the first person to summit mount Everest, the moon landing, and the Boeing 747-100. If the whole book were like this chapter I would give the book a five. I also liked the epilogue.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews