Made in America: Regaining the Productive Edge

The biggest-selling book in MIT history, Made in America is the definitive account of how America works. Based on interviews with hundreds of workers, this vivid portrait not only identifies weaknesses and problems in management and productivity, but offers workable solutions for making American business work well again.

Business & Money

Dertouzos, Michael L.

Industries

Harpercollins

"What Will Be is an engaging and visionary guide to the future, filled with insights.... Whoever takes part in the coming Information Revolution -- and that's just about all of us -- needs to know What Will Be." --Bill Gates
"What Will Be is a rich, detailed look at the future texture of our daily lives." --Esther Dyson 
 Tech oracle Michael Dertouzos -- head of the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science and author of the bestselling Made in America -- offers a learned, accessible and fascinatingly detailed preview of new information technology and the ways it will remake our society, culture, economy and private lives in the next century. Speaking to every reader affected by technological change and written by a key architect of the very revolution it describes, What Will Be is the first detailed roadmap to the world of the technological future.

What Will Be: How the World of Information Will Change Our Lives

Computers & Technology

HarperOne

If our cars were as difficult to drive as our computers are to operate, they would never leave the garage. Yet everyday we put up with infuriating complications and incomprehensible error messages that spew forth from our technology: software upgrades crash our machines, Web sites take forever to download, e-mail overwhelms us. We spend endless time on the phone waiting for automated assistance.
In effect, we continue to serve our machines' lowly needs, instead of insisting that they serve us -- a situation that will only get worse as millions of new mobile devices arrive on the scene.
Our world doesn't have to be this way. It shouldn't be this way.
Wouldn't it be great if using your computer was as effortless as steering your car? In The Unfinished Revolution, Michael Dertouzos introduces human-centered computing a radical change in the way we fashion and use computer systems that will ultimately make this goal possible.
The Unfinished Revolution is nothing less than an inspired manifesto for the future of computing. Dertouzos's vision will change how businesses, organizations, and governments work with each other, and how individuals interact. It represents the dawn of a new era in information technology.
Human-centered computing goes well beyond the empty promises of "user-friendly" interfaces. At its foundation are five key technologies that will dramatically amplify our human capabilities: natural interaction, automation, individualized information access, collaboration, and customization. Human-centered systems will understand us when we speak to them; will do much of our routine brainwork for us; will get us the information we want, when and where we want it; will help us work with other people across space and time; and will adapt on their own to our individual needs and desires.
By exploiting these five emerging technologies in combination -- in our professional specialties and in our personal lives -- we will see a vast increase in our productivity and a marked change in the ways we live and work. Human-centered technologies will make computers simpler, more natural, and more useful to us. The collective benefits of human-centered machines will give ordinary people capabilities that go beyond those enjoyed today by the most privileged. Human-centered systems will give us the gaspedal, brakes, and steering wheel of the Information Age.
When can all this happen? Dertouzos says the time to start is now. You can begin simplifying and improving your relationship with computers today. Dertouzos offers dozens of scenarios that illustrate the potential of human centered computing, as well as a preview of the MIT Oxygen project -- a prototype now under development that aims to make pervasive human-centered computing a reality. Dertouzos also provides the new century's first glimpse of how upcoming information technology advances will significantly improve our lives and truly revolutionize our relationships with the computer.
This is a book for everyone, professionals and nonspecialists, who yearn for machines that live up to the grand promise of the Information Revolution -- fulfilling real human needs with greater simplicity -- that still lingers unfulfilled. The Unfinished Revlolution is for those who want to enhance their computer productivity and fun, in short, for every person who wants to do more by doing less.

The Unfinished Revolution: Human-Centered Computers and What They Can Do For Us

Economics

Harper Business

In a world spiralling into a state of technological excess, Michael Dertouzos shows us how to make technology—in all its infinite varieties—work for, rather than against, us in our everday business lives. Now includes a new foreword by Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web.
At its core, Dertouzos' manifesto is this: Simplify the use of technology to the point where it works FOR us rather than having it dictate the way we live and work. This book is about getting to the point where computer fads give way to a true Information Revolution. To get there, we must abandon our current preoccupation with machine complexities and set a goal that is as simple as it is powerful: Information technology should help people do more by doing less.
Dertouzos offers a look at the future and place of technology in everyday life: Where would a world of truly easy to use technology lead the human race? How might people change their way of life and work, their politics, their self perception and their quest for the meaning of life in such an environment?

The Unfinished Revolution: How to Make Technology Work for Us--Instead of the Other Way Around

Harper Paperbacks

Made in America identifies what is best and worth replicating in American industrial practice and sets out five national priorities for regaining the productive edge.
What went wrong and how can America become second to none in industrial productivity? This long awaited study by a team of top notch MIT scientists and economists - the MIT Commission on Industrial Productivity - takes a hard look at the recurring weaknesses of American industry that are threatening the country's standard of living and its position in the world economy. Made in America identifies what is best and worth replicating in American industrial practice and sets out five national priorities for regaining the productive edge. Unlike other studies that prescribe macroeconomic cures, Made in America focuses on the reorganization and effective integration of human resources and new technologies within the firm as a principal driving force for long term growth in productivity. Made in America examines the relationship between human resources and technological change in detail and singles out the most significant productivity weaknesses from the myriad causes that are typically cited. These include shortÂtime horizons and a preoccupation with the bottom line, outdated strategies that focus excessively on the domestic market, lack of cooperation within and among U.S. firms, neglect of human resources, technological failures in translating discoveries to products, and a mismatch between governmental actions and the needs of industry. Looking ahead Made in America asserts that industrial performance would improve substantially simply by building on what is best in U.S. industry. It describes representative systems of production that can serve as models of best industrial practice for niche producers, price competitive specialized producers, and flexible mass producers. Among the goals singled out as national priorities are the creation of a new economic citizenship that involves wellÂeducated workers as active partners in the reproduction process, a new strategic focus on production, finding a better balance between cooperation and individualism, learning to live in an increasingly international economy, and making proper provision for the future both in terms of capital and human resources. The findings and goals of Made in America are based on such measures of productivity performance as product quality, innovativeness, time to market, and service in eight manufacturing sectors - semiconductors, computers, and office equipment; automobiles; steel; consumer electronics, chemicals and pharmaceuticals; textiles; machine tools; and commercial aircraft. These measures revealed a large gap between the best and average U.S. practice.

Solow, Robert M.

Lester, Richard K.

Mit Pr

The Unfinished Revolution : Human-Centered Computers and What They Can Do for Us

Management & Leadership

HarperAudio

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Books by Dertouzos, Michael L.