Books

Fuzzy Logic: Dispatches from the Information Revolution

Vehicule Press, 1998. 212 pp.

Winner of the 1998 Quebec Writers Federation First Book Prize.

From the back cover: We are in the midst of a profound social transformation. Friedman looks at what has happened so far and sends us reports from the trenches: intellectual property and privacy, identity and privacy, sex and censorship, the machine as fetish, the death of television news, the new workplace, cyber warfare, hate propaganda and the Zapatistas on the Net and more.

“Fuzzy Logic is really about how the Internet and related technologies have infiltrated our daily lives, how it is changing established social patterns, and eroding older technologies at a hugely accelerated rate. The way Friedman evokes memories of his first typewriter in the opening chapter of the book is almost worth the cover price all by itself.

Rarely has a technology been superseded so quickly and so thoroughly by another in so short a time. There is a social cost to this kind of change, and a personal sense of loss or melancholy. Friedman evokes this bittersweet feeling without wallowing in it, without becoming maudlin. More importantly, Friedman, with considerable good humour, deflates some of the more egregious babblings of the techno-Messiahs who would have us believe that we have reached a digital state of grace. The world is still the world, even with the Internet. –– Mark Shainblum, Internet Quarterly

B2B Canada (with Marlene Blanshay)

Macmillan Canada, 2000. 320 pp.

A Globe and Mail  Canadian bestseller.

From the back cover: B2B Canada is an introduction to B2B e-commerce for Canadians, answering readers’ questions without overwhelming them with technical information. By focusing on the principle issues, rather than the technologies, B2B Canada helps readers understand the business case and rationale for business-to-business e-commerce.

In order to ensure that B2B Canada is the best book available for Canadian managers, CDG Books has assembled the VISA Canada B2B Advisory Panel consisting of the top B2B minds in Canada. Ranging from solution providers to academic strategists, the panel offers an inside look at what it takes to succeed in the new world of B2B e-commerce.

Understanding B2B (with Marlene Blanshay)

Dearborn Trade Publishing, 2001. 296 pp.

From the back cover: To understand B2B electronic commerce in its proper perspective, managers and executives need the kind of bird’s-eye view that business experts Matthew Friedman and Marlene Blanshay provide in Understanding B2B. Friedman and Blanshay answer key questions without overwhelming readers with technical information, and share an inside look at electronic B2B from some of the world’s top analysts-from solution providers to academic strategists.