NET ATTITUDE: What It Is, How to Get It, and Why Your Company Can't Survive Without It

The last 18 months have seen the liquidation of 592 Internet companies that were large enough to receive formal venture funding, and the evaporation of $3.6 trillion of market capitalization. As a result, the flood of Internet books has become a trickle. Most of the surviving projects fall into two categories: serious books that focus on the technological reality of the Internet and mature examinations of postcrash commerce on the Web. Patrick, vice-president of Internet technology at IBM, offers a curious divergence. In a gee-whiz, cheerleader style, he acknowledges but airily dismisses the recent dot-com problems within the first 10 pages, then never mentions them again. Even more of a throwback is his vision of the Internet's future: fast connections that don't require telephone dialup, wireless telephones and Internet connections, XML, Linux and secure data exchange. Good ideas, but haven't they all been around for years? Readers are urged to spend time with teenagers and surf the Web for an hour a week to absorb "Net Attitude," advice that seems 10 years out of date. The advice to capitalize N and G for Next Generation (because it is so important) but use a lower case i for Internet (because it will be so familiar) is somewhat extraneous. Even music CDs are considered novel enough to require a page of explanation. (Nov.)

Forecast:It's hard to see much of a market for this book. Unreconstructed dot-commers will like the optimism, but will find the material too basic. Neophytes will consider the hype unrealistic. Both groups, and everyone in between, will prefer something up to date and savvy like Michael Lewis's Next.