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media type="youtube" key="Lh1IZNmQDUY" width="425" height="350" align="left"  Nicholas Carr
 * Nicholas George Carr ** (born 1959) is an [|American] writer who has published books and articles on technology, business, and culture. His book // [|The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains] // was a finalist for the 2011 [|Pulitzer Prize] in General Nonfiction

Carr originally came to prominence with the 2003 //Harvard Business Review// article [|"IT Doesn't Matter"] and the 2004 book //Does IT Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage// (Harvard Business School Press). In these widely discussed works, he argued that the strategic importance of [|information technology] in business has diminished as IT has become more commonplace, standardized and cheaper. His ideas roiled the information technology industry, [|[2]] spurring heated outcries from executives of [|Microsoft], [|Intel] , [|Hewlett-Packard] and other leading technology companies, although other commentators defended his position. [|[3]] In 2005, Carr published the controversial [|[4]] article "The End of Corporate Computing" in the // [|MIT Sloan Management Review] ,// in which he argued that in the future companies will purchase information technology as a utility service from outside suppliers.

Carr's second book, // [|The Big Switch] : Rewiring the World, From Edison to Google//, was published in January 2008 by [|W. W. Norton]. It examines the economic and social consequences of the rise of Internet-based " [|cloud computing] " comparing the consequences to those that occurred with the rise of electric utilities in the early 20th century. [|[5]]

In the summer of 2008, // [|The Atlantic] // published Carr's article " [|Is Google Making Us Stupid?] " as the cover story of its annual Ideas issue. [|[6]] Highly critical of the Internet's effect on cognition, the article has been read and debated widely in both the media and the [|blogosphere]. Carr's main argument is that the Internet might have detrimental effects on cognition that diminish the capacity for concentration and contemplation.

Carr's most recent book, //The Shallows//, released in June 2010, develops this argument further. In addition to being a Pulitzer Prize nominee, the book appeared on the [|New York Times] nonfiction bestseller list [|[7]] and has been translated into 17 languages in addition to English. [|[8]]

Through his blog "Rough Type," Carr has been a critic of [|technological utopianism] and in particular the populist claims made for online [|social production]. In his 2005 blog essay titled "The Amorality of Web 2.0," he criticized the quality of volunteer [|Web 2.0] information projects such as [|Wikipedia] and the [|blogosphere] and argued that they may have a net negative effect on society by displacing more expensive professional alternatives. [|[9]] In a response to Carr's criticism, Wikipedia co-founder [|Jimmy Wales] admitted that the Wikipedia articles quoted by Carr "are, quite frankly, a horrific embarrassment" and solicited recommendations for improving Wikipedia's quality. [|[10]] In May 2007, Carr argued that the dominance of Wikipedia pages in many search results represents a dangerous consolidation of Internet traffic and authority, which may be leading to the creation of what he called "information plantations". [|[11]] Carr coined the term "wikicrats" (a pejorative description of Wikipedia administrators) in August 2007, as part of a more general critique of what he sees as Wikipedia's tendency to develop ever more elaborate and complex systems of rules and bureaucratic rank or caste over time. [|[12]]

Nicholas Carr speaking at the 12th Annual Gilder/Forbes Telecosm Conference at [|The Sagamore Resort] in [|Lake George, New York] on May 28, 2008. In January 2008 Carr became a member of the Editorial Board of Advisors of // [|Encyclopædia Britannica] //. [|[13]] Earlier in his career, Carr served as executive editor of the // [|Harvard Business Review] //. He was educated at [|Dartmouth College] and [|Harvard University]