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BOSTON: Chapter 6 of "Bright Boys" has been online since late in 2006 and has enjoyed over 20,000 downloads. It's companion podcast, "From Outcasts to Heros", has been streamed by thousands of listeners for nearly as long.
I'm on to something very special with this book. It strikes a chord with both general and specialist readers who appreciate science and technology presented as mainstream history. Readers feel the same way reading Chapter 6 as I did while writing it: we're each on a voyage of discovery witnessing first hand how our global information society first wiggled its way into existence. It's a compelling tale, fascinating and thought provoking from sixty years back. It's a window into how the future came to be.
Scholarly research that reads like a novel.
History of technology buffs, like good detectives, love the hunt and "Bright Boys" has plenty afoot for everyone. And what better story to unravel than the genesis, the how and why behind our our digital age and how, incredibly, it came to be. No one had ever written it down before. "Bright Boys" is a first. Readers quickly recognized that fact and revelled in discovering a gem of a website. The site has since picked up in popularity as word spread.
Of my online readers, and astonishingly so to me, those from China outnumber everyone else. In China, readers find American technical ingenuity great stuff; they can't seem to get enough of it. They read and listen and then pass it along to friends and colleagues. They ponder the scientific techniques at play in the book; they dream about the act of discovery, and about pulling off something ingenious themselves. The Chinese are a wonderfully appreciative audience truly dedicated to the website. It shows me that "Bright Boys" displays a distinct knack for percolating a bit of wonderment through readers' imaginations around the world. For this writer, that's rich appreciation and applause for five years of hard work bringing the story to life. Amazingly, only online could such an audience have been reached half a world away. And for that superb gift, I have the original bright boys to thank.
As Howard Reingold wrote in "Tools for Thought": "You can't tell where mind-amplfying technology is going until you know where it came from...and why." "Bright Boys" is the where and why of IT.
Growing my audience for "Bright Boys".
"Bright Boys" was completed as of November 2008; nine chapters and 115,000 words, extensive chapter notes and a full bibliography.
Publishers interested in reading the manuscript can first request a look-see at the "Bright Boys" book proposal and in-depth marketing study. Click here for Contact page.
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