Book Summary

Pull, written by David Siegel and published by Portfolio Press (Penguin) is the first book to describe the coming semantic web and the shift from pushing information to pulling it. Using nontechnical language, Siegel takes the reader on a journey of a world that is just getting started but will soon be very real for most business thinkers. If you are in media, you know very well that the world is shifting from push to pull and that may be the single most important issue for your company to address. Other industries are also in the middle of this transformation. For most people, it’s better to learn these principles now than to get caught without a plan before it’s too late. The book’s chapters break this new information revolution into three manageble top-level parts and 17 chapters:

PART I: THE PULL POWER SHIFT

1: The End of Push. How pushing information isn’t scaling to meet today’s needs, much less tomorrow’s. We’re too stuck in 19th century processes and 20th century legacy thinking.

2: The World of Pull. What is Pull? How does it work? What does it look like? How does it relate to the semantic web?

3: The Shipper Project. A new project started by the book to bring carriers (UPS, FedEx, USPS) into alignment with the desires of shippers. Please participate right here on this site!

4: Retail Pull. How Europe is already far ahead of the U.S., how the supply chain is about to change, and how that will affect retail, all pulled by the desires of consumers for a better shopping experience.

5: Financial Transparency. How one industry is changing radically as a result of a new semantic format. Financial reporting is the first commercial example of a fully fledged semantic web.

6: Pulling Books. How the book world uses metadata – a very different approach from that of the world of financial reporting, but an important part of the semantic web nevertheless.

 
PART II: FOUNDATIONS

7: The Great Data Migration. How we will stop moving data and start parking it in the cloud, where it becames much more useful.

8: Passive Commerce. How the personal online data locker and birth certificates combine to change the way we use technology.

9: The Home of the Future. Takes a not-so-futuristic tour of a homeowner who has a personal data locker and all the metatada she needs to run her home. Also explores the world of real estate listings and their future.

10: Semantic Search. Helps see the difference between ad-hoc structured search and fully semantic search. Shows how far we have yet to go and will make you dissatisfied with the search engines we use every day.

11: Pull Marketing. How the world of marketing will change from push to pull, and how that empowers customers.

12: The Knowledge Crisis. An introduction to the world of ontologies and adaptive software.

PART III: DOMAINS
13: Legal Pull. A noble chapter explaining the ways the legal world will change (some day).

14: Patient Pull. Explains the concept of powertagging and how the semantic web helps us get out of the health care crisis.

15: The Fair Tax. You might not expect it, but the Fair Tax is a perfect example of pulling and how our crustified business models force millions of people to do unnecessary busywork. With the Fair Tax, our economy could be $1 trillion more efficient and will be poised for a true recovery.

16: The Performance Economy. A new take on business models as a natural response to people pulling information.

17: One Big Step. How to get started on your own journey and bravely fail your way to success in the coming world of pull.