The Connected Company

Acknowledgments

A book like The Connected Company is not an individual effort. Its ideas build on those of generations of thinkers and innovators. A book like this one evolves slowly, through countless conversations that lead to countless suggestions of people who must be spoken to, companies that must be understood, books and articles that must be read.

And though the task was impossible, I did try to speak to everyone, understand every company, and read every book and article that was suggested. My desk piled high with books, papers, and transcribed interviews, which were soon were marked, folded, plastered with sticky notes, and supplemented with boxes and boxes of cross-referenced index cards, diagrams, and sketches.

So many people contributed to this effort that it would be impossible to recognize them all in such a small space. But I must single out a few people whose contributions loom large.

The book would not have happened without a series of conversations with Thomas Vander Wal, which led to my initial blog post, “The Connected Company.” It also could not have happened without Tim O’Reilly, who read the blog post and saw that it could become a book.

I soon collected a small posse of people who were tremendously helpful as a sounding board for the ideas as they developed. That group included, in no particular order, Thomas Vander Wal, Michael Dila, James Macanufo, Aaron Silvers, Elliot Felix, Gary Thompson, Bo and Kristi McFarland, Rawn Shah, Gordon Ross, Matt Ridings, Amber ...