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December 20, 2006
Some books for the Christmas list to get you thinking
Long time no blog, and no good excuse really - except for too much work and travel! Travelling - however tiring - does have it's advantages. One I have enjoyed recently is getting some time to read on the plane. Here are a few of my recent browsings.
Readers of the b-eye network need no prompting, I'm sure, that Customer Data Integration by Jill Dyche and Evan Levy (Wiley) should be on your bookshelves already. If you have not read it, don't wait for Christmas - I would buy it now, as you will find it immediately valuable and actionable. And enjoyable too.
Of broader scope are two other books I have been digging into, and I recommend these for more expansive moments. They are:
:: Ambient Findability by Peter Morville (O'Reilly)
:: Niche Envy by Joseph Turow (MIT PRess)
Peter Morville may be known to you already as the author of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web. His latest book explores the concept of findability. For Morville the world is heading towards a state of complete findability - anyone can find anything at anytime. (He has not seen my sock drawer!) Findability emerges from a nexus of usability, information architectures and the literacy of the end user - in this case their literacy with the information systems that marshall the knowledge of the world. It's an easy-going read, and has some real food for thought. Like any such book, it's description of the latest interfaces and technologies was out-of-date by the time it hit the press (Microsoft and Google are innovating on the web at a remarkable pace) but the underlying thesis is compelling.
Niche Envy promises to be quite controversial, as it tackles issues of favouritism, trust and privacy surrounding database marketing techniques. At the National Centre for Database Marketing conference in Orlando last week, this book was well displayed in the bookstore, and there were some rather nervous discussions amongst attendees who had read it: I suspect they did not wish to see become a bestseller. I would say that this is a must-read book for anyone using databases to target better customer relationships, or to market to end-users more precisely. For all your good intentions, you may just find you are stepping into areas with which the public are not at all comfortable. Not all the arguments in this book are well-founded, but it captures very well the difficulties that mass customization and direct marketing pose for customers and practitioners alike.
If you do read these, I would be fascinated to hear your views on them too.
Posted by Donald Farmer at December 20, 2006 5:30 PM
