Ruling the Waves: Cycles of Discovery, Chaos, and Wealth, from Buccaneers to Bill Gates

Ruling the Waves: Cycles of Discovery,

Chaos, and Wealth, from Buccaneers to

Bill Gates;

Deborah L. Spar;

Harcourt, Inc., New York, NY;2001;

416 pp., $27.00.

In the words of its author, a Harvard Business School professor, "this is a book that tries to yank

the Internet out of the spotlight of the twenty-first century and back to its older and dimmer roots. It argues that while cyberspace is new and sparkling with opportunity, it is not that new and that much sparklier than other technologies were on the eve of their creation." Deborah Spar has structured her book as essentially one "of frontier stories." It begins with the 15th century Portuguese explorers, traces the development of the telegraph and radio in the 19th century, and then examines the advent of satellite TV and the Internet. Its broader interest, however, is "to link current developments along the technological frontier back to their rightful ancestors: to show how Rupert Murdoch and Bill Gates are descended in many ways from Prince Henry and Samuel Morse, and to think about what Murdoch and Gates might be able to learn from these older pioneers."

Describing her book, further, as one "about life on the technological frontier," Spar observes "that life along the technological frontier moves through four distinct phases: innovation, commercialization, creative anarchy, and rules. Each has its own rhythm and speed, a movement that shifts with the tenor of the times and the nature of technological change. Yet there are clearly patterns and lessons to be drawn from them."

One of these lessons, which many technology leaders have learned the hard way: "Power doesn't flow necessarily to those who stake their claims or guard their turf. it goes to those who make the rules."