The Head of The Long Tail
Thanks to Chris Anderson’s generous blogger offer i’ve had a copy of his new book “The Long Tail” for review for some weeks now. As i’ve written before i see the image of the the long tail as an iconic image that reshapes our perspective of the world. The icon that ends our mass culture/mass society and sends us in many new directions. A tribute to diversity. A tribute to the sustainability of micro.
Should i read it?
Yes. It’s extremely well-written and an pretty easy read too.
What do you like about?
- that it’s based on actual research data
- that it paints the changes in a historical context
- that it has pretty progressive statements about copyright reform
- the pre/post filter
- the context in which filters are explained
Is it too much a hit?
Well, it’s an easy read 
. And the publishers shaped it as a business book hit. So yes, it’s been prefiltered to become an hit.
Is The Long Tail an unified theory of the world?
Not really. I would personally prefer to see it as an iconic book and touch on the new perspectives and models (the pre/post filtering could be pretty deep and widely applied to change a lot of fields), but the single chapter that is dedicated to non-entertainment is inherently not that detailed. And a lot of it smells like platforms/ecosystems (salesforce example) that has been possible for a long time and really more is opening up for the possibility of a platform/ecosystem (think the success of Microsoft’s third party developers or how PageMaker saved the Apple Macintosh) than inventory economics. In a sense most of the book is very loyal to the change in inventory economics which is great, but becomes a bit loose when the the long tail metaphor is applied to a variety of phenomenons.
You say it’s an iconic image, is it also an iconic book?
In a 1-2 year time frame it’s pretty iconic and agenda setting i would believe. Long term it suffers from the publishers need to have a short term hit i think.
But read it and decide for your self.
August 22nd, 2006 at 7:35 pm
Hi Thomas,
Unfortunately I haven’t had the opportunity to read The Long Tail yet (am eager to though
), but thought that i would point you to John Hagels IIIs excellent comments and elaborations on it.
Here:
http://edgeperspectives.typepad.com/edge_perspectives/2006/07/the_long_tail_a.html
I had the privilige experiencing John “Live” a couple of years ago and his angles on things are always interesting and insightfull.
/Bo
August 22nd, 2006 at 9:45 pm
Hi Bo,
Good to see some danish microsoft bloggers.
Good post from Hagel - i agree with him - the changes are more profound than presented in the long tail - which is really good on the simple narrative, but also makes it an easy narrative without stressing the profound changes the change in perspective and culture will lead us to.
If you’re in central copenhagen feel free to borrow my copy of the book.
August 23rd, 2006 at 1:59 pm
Hi Thomas,
. What would you say if i popped by your office next monday - August 28th?
Yes i am based in central Copenhagen, and would love to borrow your copy
What’s you address?
Ciao
Bo
August 23rd, 2006 at 5:37 pm
mail sent privately