Authors: Neil Storey.
Textbook Binding, 453 pages
Publisher: Addison Wesley
Publication Date: 1996-08-28
Edition: 2

Reviews :

    Increasingly microcomputers are being used in applications where their correct operation is vital to ensure the safety of the public and the environment: from anti-lock braking systems in automobiles, to fly-by-wire aircraft, to shut-down systems at nuclear power plants. It is, therefore, vital that engineers be aware of the safety implications of the systems they develop. This book is an introduction to the field of safety-critical computer systems written for any engineer who uses microcomputers within real-time embedded systems. It assumes no prior knowledge of safety, or of any specific computer hardware or programming language. This text is intended for both engineering and computer science students, and for practising engineers within computer related industries. The approach taken is equally suited to engineers who consider computers from a hardware, software or systems viewpoint....

Authors:
Paperback, 336 pages
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Publication Date: 1997-05-15


Reviews :

    ...

    Digital Delirium is written like a jazz album, with freeform narrative drifting around solid ideological structures the way that jazz improvisations run figures around fundamental themes. St. Martin's Press describes the book as "a manifesto against the right-wing politics of cyberlibertarianism." That's certainly a big part of this book. The contributors devote much of their efforts to examining the social and ethical structures of a wired world. But more than that, Digital Delirium revels in taking readers to places where they can view the whole world of cyberspace from new perspectives.

Science fiction writer Bruce Sterling looks into the myth of the Cyberpunk Hacker Hero and proves that it's about as substantial as Spider-Man. Paul Virilio observes how cyberspace splits an individual into a physical being and a ghostly other being that can be dramatically involved with others at a distance. There's a mocking quality to the whole book that practically defies readers to take themselves or the grand pronouncements about cyberutopian thinking too seriously.

While some contributors, such as Sterling, make their points through witty rants, others express themselves through poetry, literary prose, or even screenplays. This is a through-the-looking-glass examination of how technology affects society. Each article in the collection is food for hours of late-night conversation....

Authors: M. Hojsgaard.
Paperback, 207 pages
Publisher: Routledge
Publication Date: 2005-08-08
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    In the twenty-first century, religious life is increasingly moving from churches, mosques and temples onto the Internet. Today, anyone can go online and seek a new form of religious expression without ever encountering a physical place of worship, or an ordained teacher or priest. The digital age offers virtual worship, cyber-prayers and talk-boards for all of the major world faiths, as well as for pagan organisations and new religious movements. It also abounds with misinformation, religious bigotry and information terrorism. Scholars of religion need to understand the emerging forum that the web offers to religion, and the kinds of religious and social interaction that it enables. "Religion and Cyberspace" explores how religious individuals and groups are responding to the opportunities and challenges that cyberspace brings. It asks how religious experience is generated and enacted online, and how faith is shaped by factors such as limitless choice, lack of religious authority, and the conflict between recognised and non-recognised forms of worship. Combining case studies with the latest theory, its twelve chapters examine topics including the history of online worship, virtuality versus reality in cyberspace, religious conflict in digital contexts, and the construction of religious identity online. Focusing on key themes in this groundbreaking area, it is an ideal introduction to the fascinating questions that religion on the Internet presents....

Authors:
Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Publication Date: 2001-02-15


Reviews :

    Computer technology has transformed many fundamental parts of life: how we work and play, how we communicate and consume, how we create knowledge and learn, even how we understand politics and participate in public life. Reading Digital Culture is a comprehensive collection of the most influential essays on digital media written in recent years....

Authors: Xu Wu.
Paperback, 280 pages
Publisher: Lexington Books
Publication Date: 2007-09-28


Reviews :

    Chinese Cyber Nationalism offers the first comprehensive examination of the social and ideological movement that mixes Confucian cultural traditions and advanced media technology. Over the past decade, the Internet has increasingly become a communication center, organizational platform, and channel of execution by which Chinese nationalistic causes have been promoted throughout the world....

Authors:
Paperback, 288 pages
Publisher: Kumarian Press, Inc.
Publication Date: 2006-07


Reviews :

    Cinderella or Cyberella: what is the future for women in the knowledge society? Cyberella is fluent in the uses of technology, comfortable using and designing computer technology, and working in virtual spaces. Cinderella works in the basement of the knowledge society with little opportunity to reap its benefits. Promoting women’s empowerment through ICTs is one of the critical development challenges of the 21st century.

Nancy Hafkin and Sophia Huyer, acknowledged as leading scholars on gender and information technology, have assembled a stellar group of authors for this collection. Each essay in the collection depicts ways in ICTs provide opportunities for women to improve their incomes, gain awareness of their rights, and improve their own and their families’ well-being. Illustrative case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America, show the global possibilities for women’s empowerment through ICTs....

Authors:
Paperback, 208 pages
Publisher: Imprint Academic
Publication Date: 2004-04-18


Reviews :

    Dedicated to the life and work of Heinz Von Foerster, this is a double issue of the journal "Cybernetics and Human Knowing"....

Authors: Sara Baase.
Paperback, 464 pages
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Publication Date: 2002-06-15
Edition: 2

Reviews :

    This book explores social, legal, philosophical, ethical, political, constitutional and economic implications of computing from a computer scientist's point of view. It covers the issues individuals face as members of a technological society and offers guidance for professionals in computer-related fields. One of the book's goals is to develop computer professionals who understand the implications of what they create and how it fits into society at large. Chapter topics cover privacy and personal information, encryption and interception of communications, freedom of speech in cyberspace, intellectual property, computer crime, computers and work, broader issues on the impact and control of computers, and professional ethics and responsibilities. For programmers and software engineers....

    This book is a comprehensive look at various issues which are at the forefront of the information revolution: computers and privacy, censorship on the net, protection of intellectual property, encryption policy, computer crime, and the risks associated with unexpected computer failures. Sara Baase does a good job of balancing these controversies with various points of view, and offering perspective and solutions. Although this book is meant for academic use, it's extremely accessible....

Authors: Gary R. Bunt.
Paperback, 248 pages
Publisher: Pluto Press
Publication Date: 2003-07-20


Reviews :

    Gary R. Bunt provides an account of the issues at stake, identifying two radical new concepts. Firstly, the emergence of e-jihad ("Electronic Jihad") originating from diverse Muslim perspectives - this is described in its many forms relating to the different definitions of "jihad", including on-line activism (ranging from promoting militaristic activities to hacking, to co-ordinating peaceful protests) and Muslim expression post 9/11. Secondly, he discusses religious authority on the Internet - including the concept of on-line fatwas and their influence in diverse settings, and the complexities of conflicting notions of religious authority....

Authors: Lawrence Lessig.
Hardcover, 297 pages
Publisher: Basic Books
Publication Date: 1999-12-15
Edition: 1st

Reviews :

    ...

    Everyone knows that cyberspace is a wild frontier that can't be regulated, right? Everyone is wrong, and that's why we should all read Harvard Law prof (and famous Microsoft trial expert) Lawrence Lessig's eye-opening, jaw-dropping book Code, the best guide yet to the future that's heading our way like a frictionless freight train. For such an analytical book, it's also anecdote-studded and utterly fun to read.

Lessig leads us through the new controversies in intellectual property, privacy, free speech, and national sovereignty. What about a computer worm that can search every American's PC for top-secret NSA documents? It sounds obviously unconstitutional, but the worm code can't read your letters, bust down your door, scare you, or arrest anyone innocent. If you're not guilty, you won't even know you were searched. The coded architecture of the Net also enforces certain freedoms: via the Net, we have now globally exported a more extreme form of free speech than the First Amendment encodes in old-fashioned law. The once-important Pentagon Papers case would be meaningless today: instead of fighting to publish secret government documents, The New York Times could simply leak them to a USENET newsgroup. The Constitution is rife with ambiguities the framers couldn't have imagined, and virtual communities such as AOL and LamdaMOO are organizing themselves in ways governed largely by code--strikingly different ones.

We've got tough choices ahead. Do we want to protect intellectual property or privacy? How do we keep cyberporn from kids--by brain-dead decency laws, censoring filters, or code that identifies kid users? (Lessig advocates code.) Lessig demonstrates that legal structures are too slow and politics-averse to regulate cyberspace. "Courts are disabled, legislatures pathetic, and code untouchable." Code writers are the unacknowledged legislators of the new world, backed by the law and commerce. Lessig thinks citizens must recognize the need to be the architects of their own fate, or they'll find themselves coded into a world they never made. --Tim Appelo...