In fact, book distribution has from the
outset been only a small part of Bezos’
vision. The real prize for Bezos has been
the access to reams of consumer data
and the ability to analyze this data for fun
and profit. According to Packer, as early
as 1995, Bezos had publicly stated that
“Amazon intended to sell books as a way
of gathering data on affluent, educated
shoppers.” Indeed, today the $5.25 billion
in book sales makes up only 7 percent
of Amazon’s total revenues. This too is
just as Lanier predicts in “WOTF,” which
may be why it was somehow not available
directly from Amazon.com when I looked
for it the other day (it has since been
restored somehow).
One book that I was able to find on
Amazon.com was “Ethics of Big Data,”
in which author Kord Davis asks a number of more fundamental questions
about data and its place in the business
world. As a longtime software/IT professional with a deep grounding in philosophy and the history of technology,
Davis is equally comfortable discussing
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