Earlier in the week I received an inmail via LinkedIn from the overachieving Mr Paul McCarthy, letting me know his new book, Online Gravity had been released.
Very generously, he forwarded a copy via post.
I first met Paul at a social media conference we were both presenting at last year and I was suitably excited for him.
Last night, before heading off into the land of nod, I thought I’d have a quick look through the newest arrival to my bedside reading collection.
This would soon prove possibly the most enjoyable mistake I’ve made in a long time.
Online Gravity is proof red bull now comes in paperback.
After flying through the first couple of chapters, my eyes were closed for less than 20 minutes before my brain sparked its first ‘must write down’ idea.
Wrestling out of bed and into the office to ‘brainstorm’ said idea, attempts to return to bed proved futile.
What is Online Gravity? Paul McCarthy’s concept of the phenomenon of Online Gravity – an invisible force driving development (form and behaviour) in the age of the internet (online world) – is brilliant in its simple logic.
Online Gravity – the book, demonstrates what the phenomenon does, how it develops and how it can be harnessed by individuals.
It marries the science of the universe, technology and business in easily digestible chunks – that makes you want to keep reading, to keep questioning and in consequence promotes deep and diverse, critical thinking.
With the unprecedented rates of change expected in global business structures, processes and workforce in the next five years thanks to digital ubiquity and the Internet of Things,
Online Gravity is a tool every good educator should want to share with their students today to prepare them for a more evolved and much changed tomorrow.
While I still have a couple of pages left to read (full review to follow in due course), what I do know is Online Gravity should be on every digital media, communications and business syllabus.
It is an articulate, accessible guiding text on what we as digitally dependent individuals and businesses can expect in terms of process and practice.
While articulating as a workforce, how best to harness the phenomenon of online gravity.
It is what true thought leadership looks like on paper and in practice.
What Online Gravity has given me: As someone who has been struggling with refining my PhD research question (just part of the joy of the process so I’m told), thought leadership such as Online Gravity motivates this humble researcher to stretch beyond convention in articulating the synergies and antagonisms of the new social business frontier and beyond.
As an educator and practitioner, Online Gravity feels like a supportive hug as I jump off the new business precipice, confident in my ‘hunch’ of the ever-present need for and cultural importance of proactively enabling humans in and around new social and digital technologies.
Thank you Mr McCarthy for sharing the phenomenal read that is Online Gravity!
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Online Gravity is published by Simon & Schuster Australia and is available in paperback ($32.99) and e-book($17.99) formats.
If you are looking for a copy to call your own, Paul’s website provides the following guidance:
Australia: Dymocks, Booktopia, Bookworld, Collins, Readings, Better Read than Dead and QBD.
Europe: Amazon France, Amazon Germany, Saxo Denmark
Japan: Amazon Japan
UK: Amazon UK, The Guardian Bookshop, Foyles, Waterstones, WHSmith.
US: Bookdepository (Free delivery worldwide)
A number of eBook versions are also available including:
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