Joi Ito's conversation with the living web.

You've all probably read by now, but Amazon has added a feature that allows you to search the full text of over 120,000 books. Totally amazing. Now tell the truth everyone (so I don't look totally vain), how many of you have ego-surfed Amazon already? I searched for "joichi ito" and "joi ito". I got 8 results for "joichi ito" and 1 for "joi ito". The weird thing is that other than Timothy Leary's book and John C. Lilly's book, I have never heard of any of the other books. Also, the few books that I do know I'm mentioned in did now show up. I wonder if they are scanning books that don't sell well first. ;-) I DID find out that I have the honor of being in a "For Dummies" book.

Excerpt from page 170 of Digital Aboriginal
. . . voice to the radicals. Japanese information pioneer and digital artist Joichi Ito tells a great story about the CIA." An operative told . . .
How can I NOT buy this book to find out what they said about me. Ack!

9 Comments

I found the book Digital Aboriginal interesting. It's style is a bit "hyperbolic", and the pace/tone are enthusiastic. Initially. I was inclined to take it less seriously...as I delved further, I learned more about the Tarlows, and acknowledge their expertise and seasoning as "OD", sociology-and-arts oriented types. I found some of their insioghts to be quite aligned with more formal marketing theorists pontification about co-creation in a connected world, and I think that they are very suggestive of "emergent democracy" as the bright side of our possible future (the dark side being control of the 'net by governments and corporations - fascism is another name).

I enjoy most their .pdf's (found on their web site) about their day-long experiences. I think they have an interesting and relatively unique way of observing, describing and working with the emerging dynamics of our interconnected, moving-at-the speed-of-thought, image and connection world.

A pop culture re-visiting of what Mcluhan might have observed of this age ?

You don't need to buy the book... Just click on the page number, and you can view full-page scans of the pages in which you're mentioned.

wow, indeed cool. I even found myself in a couple of books I wasn't aware of. I don't like the fact they must have your credit card to allow you to see the pages thought. blah.

Thanks Jon and Andy!

People rave about Ebay, but I love Amazon. I can't wait to check out this new feature.

BTW, I'm a big "For Dummies" book fan. :D

That's cool, I found a book I was not aware I was in either ! Too bad they do not do that for books written in French yet.

We should have the same for the whole press, it would be useful.

Thanks for the hint.

Legalities could spoil all the fun!

i lecture in internet & information technologies (from tam-tam to blogs), and i think this amazon feature is a guttenburgish kind of milestone. searching sentences in a datebase of thousands of references within seconds...? just AMAZ-ing.

I do love a bit of ego-surfing, its great fun.

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Joi Ito’s Web: Ego-surfing on Amazon search inside the book. Joi Ito points out that you can now “ego-surf” on Amazon so you can see your name in books. They have indexed 120,000 books. So, I could resist. Here are searches for Rich T... Read More

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