{"title":"Josh O'kane","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"sideways-book-josh-o-kane-9781039000780","title":"Sideways","description":"\u003cb\u003eNATIONAL BESTSELLER\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e FINALIST FOR THE WRITERS' TRUST SHAUGHNESSY COHEN PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e From the \u003ci\u003eGlobe and Mail\u003c\/i\u003e tech reporter who revealed countless controversies while following the Sidewalk Labs fiasco in Toronto, an uncompromising investigation into the bigger story and what the Google sister company's failure there reveals about Big Tech, data privacy and the monetization of everything.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e When former New York deputy mayor Dan Doctoroff landed in Toronto,  promising a revolution in better living through technology, the locals were starstruck. In 2017 a small parcel of land on the city's woefully underdeveloped lakeshore was available for development, and with Google co-founder Larry Page and his trusted chairman Eric Schmidt leaning into Sidewalk Labs' pitch for the long-forsaken property--with Doctoroff as the urban-planning company's CEO--Sidewalk's bid crushed the competition. \u003cbr\u003e      But as soon as the bid was won, cracks appeared in the partnership between Doctoroff's team and Waterfront Toronto, the government-sponsored organization behind the contest. There were hundreds more acres of undeveloped former port lands nearby that kept creeping into conversation with Sidewalk, and more questions were emerging than answers about how much the public would actually benefit from the Alphabet-owned company's vision for the high-tech neighbourhood--and the data it could harvest from the people living there. Alarm bells began ringing in the city's corridors of power and activism.\u003cbr\u003e     To Torontonians accustomed to big promises with little follow-through, the fiasco that unfolded seemed at first like just another city-building sideshow. But the pained battle to reel in the power of Sidewalk Labs became a crucible moment in the worldwide battle for privacy rights and against the extension of Big Tech's digital might into the physical world around us.\u003cbr\u003e     With extensive contacts on all sides of the debacle, O'Kane tells a story of global consequence fought over a small, forgotten parcel of mud and pavement, taking readers from California to New York to Toronto to Berlin and back again. In the tradition of extraordinary boardroom dramas like \u003ci\u003eBad Blood\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eSuper Pumped\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSideways\u003c\/i\u003e vividly recreates the corporate drama and epic personalities in this David-and-Goliath battle that signalled to the world that all may not be lost in the effort to contain the rapidly growing power of Big Tech.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50469383733521,"sku":"CIN1039000789G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51017757819153,"sku":"NIN9781039000780","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51490360230161,"sku":"GOR013656142","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1039000789.jpg?v=1751174469"},{"product_id":"sideways-book-josh-o-kane-9781039000803","title":"Sideways","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the tech reporter who most closely pursued the Sidewalk Labs fiasco in Toronto, an uncompromising look into what the Google sister company's failure in urban development reveals about Big Tech, data and the monetization of everything.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e When former New York deputy mayor Dan Doctoroff landed in Toronto,  promising a revolution in better living through technology, the locals were starstruck. In 2017, a small parcel of land on the city's underdeveloped lakeshore was available for development, and with Google co-founder Larry Page and chairman Eric Schmidt leaning into Sidewalk Labs' pitch for the long-forsaken property--with Doctoroff as the urban-planning company's CEO--Sidewalk's bid crushed the competition. \u003cbr\u003e      But as soon as the bid was won, cracks appeared in the partnership between Doctoroff's team and Waterfront Toronto, the government-sponsored organization behind the contest. Hundreds more acres of undeveloped former port lands kept creeping into Sidewalk's plans, and questions were emerging about how much the public would benefit from the company's vision for a high-tech neighbourhood--and the data it could harvest from residents.\u003cbr\u003e    The ensuing fight to reel in the power of Sidewalk Labs became a crucible moment for the worldwide battle for digital rights and against the extension of a digital behemoth's corporate might into the physical world.\u003cbr\u003e     In the tradition of boardroom dramas like \u003ci\u003eBad Blood\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eSuper Pumped\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSideways\u003c\/i\u003e signals to the world that all may not be lost in the effort to contain the rapidly growing power of Big Tech.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51017880174865,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51017883713809,"sku":"NIN9781039000803","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1039000800.jpg?v=1761214230"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-josh-o-kane.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}