Net Gain: Expanding Markets Through Virtual Communities

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Summary: We developed a major strategy after reading this book.
Review: Our company is building Internet linkages between medical providers and insurance companies and HMOs. After reading this book, we decided to build a virtual community of health professionals, initially in Tennessee. We are on line and building membership rapidly, many from outside Tennessee. We built this as a strategy to build community but also to focus our potential customers on our site and products.

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Summary: Fantastic Modelling Tools
Review: As CEO of MegaDepot, The Internet Superstore I have actual data to compare to the economic model data given in this book. It's like they looked at our accounting records, our membership acqusition plan and our customer retention statistics. If you want to plan a large scale on-line business venture, their data and economic modelling tools are not a bad place to start.

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Summary: How the "Golden Rule" will change this Planet
Review: If ever there will be an infrastructure for the delivery of "karma," tommorrow's networks are it, and this book articulates the coming rise in power of collective consciousness quite well! The dedication page references Proverbs 11:24 "One man gives freely yet gains even more. Another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty." There is no natural law more profound, and virtual communities will demonstrate this. Ideas? Write me!

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Summary: Road Map for Net Business Visionaries
Review: I attended Wesleyan University with John Hagel, who now heads up McKinsey & Company's  Silicon Valley office. I knew him then to be a thoughtful, leading-edge thinker with a passion for changing the world. His latest book shows me that, after twenty-five years, he retains that passion and has now turned his laser-like intellect to developing Internet business. Hagel's thesis is that it is not enough to simply be "on the Web". He sees the Internet as a primary, not a peripheral, locus for business transactions in the next few decades. Executives need to be aware of a potential "end game" that can drive them off the playing field if they do not swiftly move to organize and nurture communities of customers on the Net. He and Armstrong question our current notions of customer loyalty, relations with competitors, and technology strategy. This is a "must-read" for any executive who aims at visionary thinking.

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Summary: good learning exercise for old dogs
Review: Those experienced in this emerging industry (and who have read Kelly, Negroponte, and Rheingold) will find little new in Net Gain. It seems clear that it's a primer for frightened senior managers seeking to get to grips with this thing called "the Internet" that they hear their children prattling on about all the time. Wrapping it in a HBS Press cover and slapping on a couple McKinsey names will ensure that successful executives won't be embarassed to be seen reading it in the First Class section.

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Summary: Must-read book for investors in online businesses
Review: This book explains the economics of online businesses and virtual communities. It is a must-read for investors who are skeptical of the high valuations of publicly-traded, start-up online busnisses.

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Summary: The best map to paydirt in the internet goldrush.
Review: The authors hypothesize (I believe accurately) that huge returns will accrue to those that target groups (communities) with common affinities and offer the communications, information and purchasing services which will be desired by these affinity groups. Much has been written about online comunities, this book indicates that the gold of the future lies in creating and serving communities in the new medium which is the internet.

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Summary: So-so but needs more in depth stuff
Review: This doesn't really go in depth. I learned a few new things but it didn't really change my way of thinking. To get further and do more I recommend getting a book that looks at practical issues and actual Web site promotion. A great hands-on book for promotion is Stanek's Increase Your Web Traffic. Use Net Gain while your in the fuzzy stage. Use Increase after/during the phase when you build your Web site

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Summary: Shawn W. Szturma of CSC Consulting and Systems Integration
Review: After reading this book (and listening to other industry experts) I lost my skepticism on the value of virtual communities to businesses. It is clear that businesses that establish intimate virtual relationships will be at a competitive advantage.

The book is well written, but repetitive--half the pages would have been sufficient. I consider "Net Gain" to be a one-time read, not a book that can sit as a permanent reference on my shelf.

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Summary: Net Gain is going to create a whole new world on the web!
Review: Net Gain espouses giving the power to the consumer. Virtual communities on the web will do this and more. It will be a whole new experience (in a familiar kind of way...;^