Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy

I expected a great cutting edge book consistent with some of the type of thinking espoused in the business mags such as Fast Company & Business 2.0. What I found instead was an attempt by authors who didn't really understand internet evolving commerce.To cite a couple of instances: page 3: "You must price your information goods according to consumer value, not according to your production cost." In actuality, what you want to do is price your information goods in such a way as to build a base of customers with repetitive loyalty that will then allow for multiple additional marketing revenue. On page 6: "Image is everything in the information biz, because it's the image that carries the brand name and the reputation." That should've been worded: "Image is important but content ultimately is king- content drags eyeballs which create new opportunities". More- page 8: "Likewise, computer software is valuable only because computer hardware and network technology are now so powerful and inexpensive". In reality, software has always been a boon in that it allows for greater productive efficiencies.One more example (this led me to stop reading the book): page 9- "What is truly new is Home Depot's ability to re-order items from suppliers using electronic data interchange, to conduct and analyze cross-store demand studies based on pricing and promotional variations, and to rapidly discount slow moving items, all with minimal human intervention". In fact of matter, all of the aforementioned was able to be done prior to the internet- what Home Depot did was revolutionize selling by creating a sector store, total inventory, low price and knowledgeable people model that had not been done before.A final thought: I gave this book two stars because, after deciding not to read the entire book due to the disappointment of the first nine pages, I skimmed the rest and realized that despite the misleading title, the book DOES have merit as an elightned text on ways to conduct aggressive modern business methods. My biggest disappointment though, is the misleading title; I was all set, looking foward to reading how the information age plus the internet would rule the world- unfortunately, this book is not about that.

This book is the basis for so much that we already know - or should know. Re-reading it this year (2008) after so long was a shock to my senses. It showed me how on target the economic principles expressed between the covers were.Of course, that is one of the points of the book: old economic principles still hold in "new" economies. The strategies of the most successful firms today can be held up against the principles of this book as a standard - and they will be in synch.If you've never read it, I highly recommend it - especially if you are in or planning to enter the tech economy. Do not be fooled by some of the "dated" material, since some time has obviously passed since its first publication. There are comments about technological developments held in suspense for the authors at that time - the outcome of which we are already well aware. For example, the authors make much of Netscape's stardom of that time. Now, of course, it is a different story. Regardless, such examples do not diminish the fundamental economics lesson in this book.

This book tied together a lot of concepts that I was vaguely aware of e.g. lock-in, discounting of information products and standards wars. Until reading it however had no idea that these and other information economy strategies could all be treated together in such a holistic way. The book is clearly written in the form of a text-book. It takes a bit of concentration to read it but it's worth it if you can spare the time. Although old, the examples described in the book are timeless and are completely relevant to the information economy of today.

I learned about the book and read it twenty years after its first release and I still think it's quite relevant to what we do in IT world. It's truly about durable economics principles.

When I bought this book I really expected it was addressed to a very specific professional area, like Computer Scientists or Economists, or even MBA students. I was completly wrong. In fact, this well-written book clarifies many thinks about the important value of information, concepts, relationshipments and additionally rich samples. Consequently, we start to have a better comprehention about several business involved with "Information" (I mean: nowadays, everything, every commercial and non-commercion relationshipment). It is 100% recommmended, no matter what is your work or your dedicated area of studying. Information really rules...

Topics- differential pricing- zero marginal cost economy- lock in- role of standards- policy making- network externalities and positive feedback

The book starts by proclaiming that neo-classical economics is adequate for explaining the information economy. This claim is not backed up in the book. First, textbook neo-clasical equilibrium theory contains neither money nor 'information'. Second, the book merely discusses qualitatively and nonsystematically ideas like positive feedback and increasing returns that were better presented by Brian Arthur. Third, even asymmetric information is not discussed (Ackerlof and Stiglitz are not even mentioned). Fourth (or zeroth), there is not a single empirical graph in the entire book, and nothing of modern ideas of network theory. So I would say that the book is more or less on the same level as Kelly's (pre-bubble-bust) "New Rules for the New Economy". All of these books implicitly hype the unregulated free market, in the face of both qualitative and empirical evidence that unregulated markets are not only unstable but are detrimental to human health and well-being.

The cases in this are getting a bit dated, but this is a great book laying out Shapiro and Varian's ideas on the information economy. As far as I can tell, there's nothing else quite like it on the market for creating a tie between economics and the IT economy.

Outdated. Although some of it is still relevant, much of the material is now a bit out of date.

good reading

Auch wenn das Buch schon ein wenig Älter ist trifft der Großteil der „Regeln“ für da heutige Informationszeitalter noch zu. Der Autor gibt auch heut noch eine Vision wie sich die Informationstechnik und die Welt in den nächsten Jahren verändern wird. Das Buch hat Suchfaktor und lässt sich sehr gut lesen. Klare Empfehlung von mir.

Excellent economic backgrounder for anybody entering the IT field.

Examples are a bit dated. But contents still relevant. Extremely well written.