Public Parts

How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live

By: Jeff Jarvis

Narrated by: Jeff Jarvis

A visionary and optimistic thinker examines the tension between privacy and publicness that is transforming how we form communities, create identities, do business, and live our lives.

Thanks to the Internet, we now live—more and more—in public. More than 750 million people (and half of all Americans) use Facebook, where we share a billion times a day. The collective voice of Twitter echoes instantly 100 million times daily, from Tahrir Square to the Mall of America, on subjects that range from democratic reform to unfolding natural disasters to celebrity gossip. New tools let us share our photos, videos, purchases, knowledge, friendships, locations, and lives. Yet change brings fear, and many people—nostalgic for a more homogeneous mass culture and provoked by well-meaning advocates for privacy—despair that the Internet and how we share there is making us dumber, crasser, distracted, and vulnerable to threats of all kinds. But not Jeff Jarvis.

In this shibboleth-destroying book, he argues persuasively and personally that the Internet and our new sense of publicness are, in fact, doing the opposite. Jarvis travels back in time to show the amazing parallels of fear and resistance that met the advent of other innovations such as the camera and the printing press. The Internet, he argues, will change business, society, and life as profoundly as Gutenberg’s invention, shifting power from old institutions to us all.

Based on extensive interviews, Public Parts introduces us to the men and women building a new industry based on sharing. Some of them have become household name: Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Eric Schmidt, and Twitter’s Evan Williams. Others may soon be recognized as the industrialists, philosophers, and designers of our future. Jarvis explores the promising ways in which the Internet and publicness allow us to collaborate on how we manufacture and market, buy and sell, organize and govern, teach and learn. He also examines the necessity as well as the limits of privacy in an effort to understand and thus protect it.

This new and open era has already profoundly disrupted economies, industries, laws, ethics, childhood, and many other facets of our daily lives. But the change has just begun. The shape of the future is not assured. The amazing new tools of publicness can be used to good ends and bad. The choices—and the responsibilities—lie with us. Jarvis makes an urgent case that the future of the Internet—what one technologist calls “the eighth continent”—requires as much protection as the physical space we share, the air we breathe, and the rights we afford one another. It is a space of the public, for the public, and by the public. It needs protection and respect from all of us. As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in the wake of the uprisings in the Middle East, “If people around the world are going to come together every day online and have a safe and productive experience, we need a shared vision to guide us.” Jeff Jarvis has that vision and will be that guide.

©2011 Jeff Jarvis (P)2011 Simon & Schuster

Would have made a better magazine article

Enjoyable and highly listenable book on how our perceptions are changing regarding privacy and how in general it is very beneficial for us.

While listening, I kept harping back to some other books I've recently listened to and for which I thought the similar topics in this book were covered much better. The books are 1) Too Big to Know, The smartest person in the room is the room meaning the internet we have at our fingertips empowers us like never before 2) Tipping Point, networking and crowd sourcing multiples who we are, 3) In the Plex, a real history of Google that demonstrates that Google is much more than a search company and 4) Master Switch, how the gateway to the net (be it ATT telephone network or Google) gives the master switch owner unparallelled powers.

He does cover each of those themes in the above listed books and I loved the overall theme of his book, but I just think the other books covered the topics much better. Also, I think his book is weakest when he talks about what should be and he implicitly assumes a utopian world that probably wont ever exist.

the future of your information

Jeff Jarvis does a deep dive into the good, bad and ugly of sharing info on the web. Especially helpful is his balanced discussion about the intended and possibly unintended consequences when info from personal web browsing is mashed up with info from third parties. Beyond that, Jarvis shines a light on how leading edge entrepreneurs are building new businesses built upon the ever expanding trove of info available with the click of a mouse. Finally, Jeff Jarvis narration is first rate.

No way to hide online, so how do you deal with it?

What made the experience of listening to Public Parts the most enjoyable?

Easy to listen, well written, and very frank.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Public Parts?

How something you thought was uniquely embarrassing turns out to be common. We are all humans with issues. When the author finds out there are a lot of people with his issue.

Which character – as performed by Jeff Jarvis – was your favorite?

The author talks about his experience in a very honest way.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

It's all in your mind

Any additional comments?

When you are the only one you know with an issue that you think is embarassing you may be hesitant to tell everyone. The Internet is liberating, because out of millions of people you'll find out there are others, many others, just like you, so what are you afraid of?

Life in publicness

Jeff Jarvis is an advocate for publicness. In this work he does a great job of discussing the ideas of publicness and privateness. Jarvis has convinced me to be more public in my classroom.

Well Thought Out

I found the study of social media in modern society a fascinating subject. Jeff does a great job of relating technological history with the issues of today. Highly recommended to anybody wanting to learn and understand social media and the real societal motivations behind it.

Very good! I recommend it, very relevant.

Very good! I recommend it, very relevant and up to date.
The author\narrator is just great.

A reporters Words sets him free.

If you could sum up Public Parts in three words, what would they be?

True, wordy, optimistic

What did you like best about this story?

My summery... won’t spoil it.. BLAH BLAH BLAH... you think folks might see how insecure you, let’s call that privacy, BLAH BLAH BLAH... I love that Mr. Jarvis is journalist and takes pains to get to what we know is the core of this issue. Ready to face it? I say yes. I’d like and share the positive spin of owning yourself by actions, no matter online or off. Take control and ownership dare I say pride, in your being. Safely explore from within. As without. I’d love for Mr. Jarvis to find a poetic muse to tell his story, as words have power. Thanks for this important work.

Did Jeff Jarvis do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

yeah.. character of one.

Was there a moment in the book that particular moved you?

We care what others thing of us.

In Defence of Openness

An interesting argument against privacy and about the benefits of openness, shown as the other side of the debate about being online.

Interesting and Engaging

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Jeff is an interesting guy. I follow him across various media sources and always find his views to be well thought out and compelling, even when I disagree. His book is a view of his thoughts, his views and frankly his world.

Other perspective

What made the experience of listening to Public Parts the most enjoyable?

the author triggered a new way of thinking about what is public and private

What was one of the most memorable moments of Public Parts?

there are many, during blogging you should not delete but crossed out

Which scene was your favorite?

that I wondering about whether or not, I should be open about my genes

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

before reading this book I did not really know what transparency look like in daily practice

Any additional comments?

read the book and make new friends