Authors: Richard Spinello.
Paperback, 624 pages
Publisher: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Inc.
Publication Date: 2004-09-25
Edition: 2

Reviews :

    This book of readings is a flexible resource in the evolving fields of computer and Internet ethics....

Authors: Mark Andrejevic.
Hardcover, 325 pages
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Publication Date: 2007-09-16


Reviews :

    Whether you're purchasing groceries with your safeway "club card" or casting a vote on American Idol, that data is being collected. From Amazon to iTunes, cell phones to GPS devices, Google to TiVo - all of these products and services give us an expansive sense of choice, access, and participation. But, in an era now marked by large-scale NSA operations that secretly monitor our email exchanges and internet surfing, Mark Andrejevic shows how these new technologies are increasingly employed as modes of surveillance and control. Many contend that our proliferating interactive media empower individuals and democratize society. But, Andrejevic asks, at what cost? In "iSpy", he reveals that these and other highly touted benefits are accompanied by hidden risks and potential threats that tend to be ignored by mainstream society. His book offers the first sustained critique of a concept that has been a talking point for twenty years, an up-to-the-minute survey of interactivity across multiple media platforms. It debunks the false promises of the digital revolution still touted by the popular media while seeking to rehabilitate, rather than simply write off, the potentially democratic uses of interactive media. Andrejevic opens up the world of digital rights management and the data trail each of us leaves - data about our locations, preferences, or life events that are already put to use in various economic, political, and social contexts. He notes that, while citizens are becoming increasingly transparent to private and public monitoring agencies, they themselves are unable to access the information gathered about them - or know whether it's even correct. (The watchmen, it seems, don't want to be watched.) He also considers the appropriation of consumer marketing for political campaigns in targeting voters, and also examines the implications of the Internet for the so-called War on Terror. In "iSpy", Andrejevic poses real challenges for our digital future. Amazingly detailed, compellingly readable, it warns that we need to temper our enthusiasm for these technologies with a better understanding of the threats they pose - to be able to distinguish between interactivity as centralized control and as collaborative participation....

Authors: David D. Perlmutter.
Hardcover, 272 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Publication Date: 2008-03-07


Reviews :

    Political blogs have grown astronomically in the last half-decade. In just one month in 2005, for example, popular blog DailyKos received more unique visitors than the population of Iowa and New Hampshire combined. But how much political impact do bloggers really have?
In Blogwars, David D. Perlmutter examines this rapidly burgeoning phenomenon, exploring the degree to which blogs influence--or fail to influence--American political life. Challenging the hype, Perlmutter points out that blogs are not that powerful by traditional political measures: while bloggers can offer cogent and convincing arguments and bring before their readers information not readily available elsewhere, they have no financial, moral, social, or cultural leverage to compel readers to engage in any particular political behavior. Indeed, blogs have scored mixed results in their past political crusades. But in the end, Perlmutter argues that blogs, in their wide dissemination of information and opinions, actually serve to improve democracy and enrich political culture. He highlights a number of the particularly noteworthy blogs from the specialty to the superblog-including popular sites such as Daily Kos, The Huffington Post, Powerlineblog, Instapundit, and Talking Points Memo--and shows how blogs are becoming part of the tool kit of political professionals, from presidential candidates to advertising consultants. While the political future may be uncertain, it will not be unblogged.
For many Internet users, blogs are the news and editorial sites of record, replacing traditional newspapers, magazines, and television news programs. Blogwars offers the first full examination of this new and controversial force on America's political landscape....

Authors: Ralph Benko.
Paperback, 204 pages
Publisher: The Websters' Press
Publication Date: 2008-11-04


Reviews :

    The Websters' Dictionary shows you how the big success stories in Web advocacy -- groups like MoveOn.org and Heritage.org, starting from very little achieved such massive success. And how you can too. This book lays it out from the basic to the sophisticated. How to get a domain name (and what domain name to pick). How to create a great website ... or select someone to do it for you. What kind of site will let you use the power of Web 2.0 at the lowest possible cost. What style gives you impact. What content works? How much should you be prepared to spend? What kind of team will you need? It lays out best practices briefly, clearly, picturesquely and accurately. This is the dawning of the Age of the Internet. Be part of that. Become a Webster -- an activist, an operative, or a wonk who is using the Web to transform the world. Spinning silica into worldwide webs of glass and light, the Internet has become a planetary community in need of a global guidebook. The Websters' Dictionary is it -- a cornucopian resource for all compendious world-warpers. -- George Gilder, author of Wealth and Poverty (the Bible of Reaganomics), and the high tech classics Telecosm and Microcosm....

Authors: Tim Guest.
Hardcover, 288 pages
Publisher: Random House
Publication Date: 2008-02-19


Reviews :

    We’ve always dreamed of perfect places: Eden, heaven, Utopia. Imagine gambling without loss, love without heartbreak, sex without exposure, experience without risk. Welcome to the fascinating world of online virtual reality, the land of invented places and populations that is entered and inhabited every week by nearly fifty million people worldwide. Each participant creates a virtual body, works at virtual jobs, and makes virtual friends and family. In Second Lives, Tim Guest, an internationally acclaimed young journalist, takes us on a revelatory journey through the electronic looking glass as he investigates one of the most bizarre phenomena of the twenty-first century.

From Second Life to EverQuest and beyond, here are the computer-generated environments and characters that can easily become more engrossing and fulfilling than earthly existence. With the click of a mouse you can select eye color, face shape, height–you can even give yourself wings. Your character, or avatar, can build houses, make and sell works of art, earn money, get married and divorced.

In this fascinating and groundbreaking book, Guest meets people who found meaningful love and friendship despite never having met in person, catches up with the companies that have used virtual worlds to make big money, investigates the U.S. military’s massive online global model that trains soldiers to fight anyone anywhere, and travels all the way to gaming-crazed Korea to get a taste for just how big this phenomenon really is.

At first glance, these new computer-generated places seem free from trouble and sorrow. But Guest examines the dark side of this technology too, including the online criminals who plague imaginary worlds, from cyber mafiosos and prostitutes to real hackers and terrorists. It seems that one cannot escape greed, corruption, and human weakness–even inside a computer screen.
Are these virtual worlds a way to enhance life or to escape it? Guest explores this question personally as he lets himself be transported into myriad parallel universes. By turns provocative, inspiring, and disturbing, Second Lives is a crucial book for this millennium. After all, real life is so twentieth century.

Advance praise for Second Lives
“Tim Guest is a young writer with the literary goods. My Life in Orange, his hit memoir of growing up in a commune, looked at his past; his riveting new book, Second Lives, looks at our future: the world of virtual reality and the spellbound people who inhabit it. The book is some kind of revelation–by turns compelling, chilling, and illuminating. Curious, intelligent, offbeat, and artful, Guest is at the beginning of a big career.”
——John Lahr, senior drama critic, The New Yorker, author of
Prick Up Your Ears: The Biography of Joe Orton

Praise from England for Second Lives
“An anthropological adventure but also Guest’s personal voyage . . . a fascinating portrait of rainbow landscapes and their inhabitants.”
–Time Out London

“Rich and colourful . . . an important mapping of a new social frontier.”
–The Guardian

“Remarkably timely.”
–The Sunday Telegraph

“Astonishing.”
–The Sunday Times...

Authors: Fred Turner.
Hardcover, 354 pages
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
Publication Date: 2006-09-15
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    ...

Authors: Tom Masters.
Perfect Paperback, 150 pages
Publisher: Orion Wellspring, Inc.
Publication Date: 2007-08-10
Edition: 1st

Reviews :

    The first blogs appeared only a few years ago; today there are over 50 million blogs and counting. Blogs are being used by political candidates to debate issues, by consumer advocates to evaluate products and services, by writers and artists to communicate with their audiences and by individuals to share their everyday experiences. In this lively and informative introduction to blogging, Tom Masters takes you step-by-step through the process of planning, building and managing your blog. In Blogging Quick & Easy, you will discover: How others are using blogs How blogs work and the different types of blogging tools Blog writing techniques that attract readers Tips to help you reach more readers How to track and measure your readership How you can earn income from your blog Blogging is a powerful new way to communicate your ideas to a large audience. But it takes careful planning and management to realize the potential of this new medium. Blogging Quick & Easy helps you understand and apply proven techniques to make your blog stand out from the crowd....

Authors: Pierre Levy.
Paperback, 312 pages
Publisher: Basic Books
Publication Date: 1999-12-09


Reviews :

    ...

    Pierre Levy sees us as moving past an information economy into an economy based on human interactions; a social economy. While the idea may seem startling, given our current emphasis on all things monetary, his reasoning makes you stop and give careful thought to ideas you may not have considered before. As technology advances, Levy points out, it's capable of taking on more and more advanced tasks--first simple labor and now the processing of information. As these capabilities become easier and well within everyone's reach, their value declines.

But the one thing that is beyond the reach of pure technology is the construction and maintenance of social interactions. What technology can do, however, is make it easier for humans to interact over greater distances and around obstacles. "Our humanity," Levy writes, "is the most precious thing we have." Levy, who is a professor in the department of hypermedia at the University of Paris, then predicts that we will take greater control of that value and everything related to it as we use technology to organize ourselves into what he calls Living Cities. Here, physical location is less important than the interactions of its members, and not surprisingly, the lack of territorialities will challenge present methods of governance.

Levy insists we are in the early moments of an historical paradigm shift of the magnitude of the Renaissance. And yet he avoids wild utopianism, keeping a clear eye on the realities and challenges inherent in any great transformation, complete with ample opportunities for things to go wrong. What emerges, however, is a different way of viewing the possible future, and plenty of reasons for asking why this utopian vision isn't attainable....

Authors: Abigail J. Sellen. Richard H. R. Harper.
Paperback, 245 pages
Publisher: The MIT Press
Publication Date: 2003-04-01


Reviews :

    2002 IEEE-USAB Award for Distinguished Literary Contributions Furthering Engineering Professionalism

Over the past thirty years, many people have proclaimed the imminent arrival of the paperless office. Yet even the World Wide Web, which allows almost any computer to read and display another computer’s documents, has increased the amount of printing done. The use of e-mail in an organization causes an average 40 percent increase in paper consumption. In The Myth of the Paperless Office, Abigail Sellen and Richard Harper use the study of paper as a way to understand the work that people do and the reasons they do it the way they do. Using the tools of ethnography and cognitive psychology, they look at paper use from the level of the individual up to that of organizational culture.

Central to Sellen and Harper’s investigation is the concept of "affordances"—the activities that an object allows, or affords. The physical properties of paper (its being thin, light, porous, opaque, and flexible) afford the human actions of grasping, carrying, folding, writing, and so on. The concept of affordance allows them to compare the affordances of paper with those of existing digital devices. They can then ask what kinds of devices or systems would make new kinds of activities possible or better support current activities. The authors argue that paper will continue to play an important role in office life. Rather than pursue the ideal of the paperless office, we should work toward a future in which paper and electronic document tools work in concert and organizational processes make optimal use of both....

Authors: George Beekman. Michael J. Quinn.
Paperback, 688 pages
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Publication Date: 2005-02-21
Edition: 7