Using a computer should be as easy and productive as driving your car. But today's systems are oblivious to our needs and demand even more attention and work from us as they swell in numbers, complexity, and features.

Michael Dertouzos argues that we must shift the focus of information technology away from machines and back to people. In The Unfinished Revolution, he outlines five key technologies that will help us do this and offers an exciting vision of how human-centric computers could alter the way we live and work in the Information Century.

Amazon.com Review
Do you sometimes feel you're serving the computers and other techno-gadgets in your life, rather than them serving you? If so, you have prestigious company in Michael L. Dertouzos, who has headed up the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Laboratory for Computer Science for more than 25 years. In The Unfinished Revolution, Dertouzos unmasks the deficiencies of our present systems and makes a compelling case for "human-centric computing," which has the potential to dramatically reduce our techno-aggravation, while improving our productivity and effectiveness.

Written for people who use computers, and for the technologists who design and build them, Dertouzos's latest work clearly lays out a vision of human-centric computing. But it doesn't stop there. As in his previous works, Dertouzos connects his strong vision of the near future with practical ways computer users and designers can help create that future.

At the book's core, Dertouzos identifies five human-centric forces--speech understanding, automation, individualized information access, collaboration, and customization--and then provides specific examples of how each can be used to improve how we work with information technology.

He goes on to offer vignettes that show how human-centric computing, when implemented, may improve health care, commerce, disaster control, medicine in developing countries, financial services, and even play.

Michael Dertouzos has already helped shape the information age, most recently in the 1997 bestseller What Will Be: How the New World of Information Will Change Our Lives. With his latest book, he is destined to prove prescient once again. --Fred Zahradnik