Overconnected: The Promise and Threat of the Internet
Bill Davidow
May 17, 2012
4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Santa Monica
By invitation only
The practical applications of the Internet — the ability to borrow money, invest in the stock market or buy a new home — have made it a force unequaled in scope and impact on our daily lives. But it's taken on a momentum of its own. In fact, Bill Davidow, the author of "Overconnected," argues that it was the root cause of the recent financial meltdown from which the world is still struggling to recover.
How did it happen? How did the skein of interconnections we are living with grow so tangled? How is it that the same technology that allows us to pay our bills online makes us fear that our identity will be stolen? How did the very network that allows families to go online to shop for a house and a mortgage also become the conduit for a series of transactions that would eventually cause them to lose the house and default on the mortgage?
In this Milken Institute Forum in Santa Monica, Davidow offers practical advice on how to utilize the benefits of the Internet while curbing its hazards. "One of the pioneers of modern technology shows how the unanticipated effects of the Internet are distorting economics, politics, international relations and individual lives," says James Fallows of The Atlantic.
"The new environment is filled with opportunity," Davidow says, "but whether we seize it or let it hold us hostage is our decision to make."
"Overconnected" will be for sale at the Forum, and Davidow will be available to sign copies.
Bill Davidow has been a high-tech industry executive and venture capital investor for more than 30 years. He is an active advisor to Mohr-Davidow Ventures, a Silicon Valley VC firm that he co-founded in 1985. Since then, the firm has helped to build more than 250 startup companies. Davidow joined Intel in 1973, where he served as senior vice president of marketing and sales and as vice president of the Microcomputer Systems division. He is also the author of "Marketing High Technology" and "Total Customer Service," as well as co-author of "The Virtual Corporation." He holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford.
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