03.01.2008 It’s the Information Economy!

It’s gotten to the point where I’m stumbling on a new social networking site every week. Yeah, I know it’s supposed to be the Next Great Thing. However, I find that I keep inviting the same people into the next hot new social networking site over and over again. It’s deceptively easy now, most of the networks gleefully offer to raid your inbox(es) to harvest the email addresses for “personal” invites. But truthfully most of these sites have a lot of repetition, boring and endless personal profile management just so you can get an endless train of SPAM proclaiming that someone you never heard of wants to be your new best-friend.

Terrific. It used to be that someone you went to high school with 20 years ago or went out to lunch with two jobs ago was gone forever. Now, they are as close as your elbow and that exciting chain-mail message you just got is egging you on to “send this to everyone you know!!!” I guess that people are the new SPAM and you block the annoying ones and try to get the attention of the good ones. However, all of this soup is just the building blocks for the Information Economy. I predict the next big thing will be an intelligent aggregator of social networking sites that cuts the endless drudgery of inviting, profiling, and sorting out the good, the bad, and the ugly. So… still want to be my friend???

So why am I writing this guest editorial? At the request of the new RR owner, who is a longtime collaborator and true friend: Irene Watson. She has been instrumental in bringing a new voice to the book review community over the past couple years and it’s starting to get noticed, even by “Old Media” outlets like Reuters and Fox. I’m just tickled to have a small input to the site, as a publisher of self-help, personal growth, and psychology books my expertise lies on the producer side and perfectly complements Irene’s view from the consumer side of the book business.

You liked the old RR just fine, thank you? Well you ain’t seen nothin’ yet! The new Rebeccas Reads is devoted to getting you timely, accurate, and informative reviews without pestering you with imaginary friends, nagging you to complete your “profile”, or wasting your time by asking you to rate how “hot” books are. We are here for one reason and one reason only to get you some great reads!

Victor R. Volkman, Owner

Loving Healing Press
http://www.lovinghealing.com/