cover image Fast Forward: America's Leading Experts Reveal How the Internet Is Changing Your Life

Fast Forward: America's Leading Experts Reveal How the Internet Is Changing Your Life

Alfred C. Sikes, Al Sikes. William Morrow & Company, $24 (320pp) ISBN 978-0-380-97828-1

Notables from such fields as information technology, business, journalism and government sound off on how the Internet is affecting our lives and its likely future impact in this disappointing round-robin of interviews. Contributors include futurist Alvin Toffler, discount broker Charles Schwab, America Online president Robert Pittman, former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, broadcast.com founder Mark Cuban (also v-p of Yahoo!), New Yorker columnist Ken Auletta and White House educational technology staffer Linda Roberts. The chapters address the Internet's influence on health care, education, virtual communities, entrepreneurship, shopping, entertainment and privacy and security issues, but the discussions tend to be superficial, with four to six commentators addressing each topic from the perspective of their particular company or service. The panelists also offer intriguing predictions: doctors will offer consultations via e-mail and bill for these interactions; manufacturers will sell direct to consumers, bypassing retailers; investors will trade stocks round-the-clock using wireless, handheld computers; electronic books and portable reading devices will challenge print-based publishing within 10 years. Sikes, the president of Hearst Interactive Media and former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, and Pearlman, a former Home PC editor-in-chief, also provide helpful lists of Web sites. Despite its impressive roster, the book reads like the transcript of a cacophonous chat room, mingling suggestive, even daring commentary with bland or predictable responses. Agent: Bill Adler. (May)