Picking up where books such as Don Tapscott's Wikinomics and Charles Leadbeater's We-Think leave off, Li and Bernoff, both analysts at technology trend-tracker Forrester Research, identify the title's "groundswell" as the mass uptake of social technologies such as wikis, blogs, podcasts, and forums for communication and collaboration. The book is for senior executives grappling with these technologies.

The authors present a compelling argument for getting to grips with Web 2.0 in a highly practical, if somewhat prescriptive book. Chapters and sections are consistently laid out and topics filleted to provide detailed analysis of the social technologies in use, their significance for business and the benefits they will bring if applied appropriately.

There are plenty of useful consultancy tools. Likewise, case study lessons are explicitly drawn out—although the device of beginning a chapter with a story starts to feel formulaic.

But as a systematic guide to Web 2.0 for the uninitiated, it hits the mark, and may prove a useful antidote to "groundswell-approach avoidance thinking"—or "goat".