As blogs have evolved over the last few years, they have begun to take on distinct characteristics depending on audience and purpose. Though political blogs remain the most high profile (and most read), other types of blogs are gaining in strength and visibility. This book-a follow-up volume to Barlow's Rise of the Blogosphere, which examined the historical context for the modern blog-provides an examination of the many current aspects of the blogosphere, from the political to the professional to the personal, with many stops in between. Given that millions of blogs have been created over the past five years and yet more come online at an undiminished rate, and given that enthusiasm for both reading them and writing them has yet to wane, it is likely that the blog explosion will continue indefinitely. As blogs have evolved over the last few years, they have begun to take on distinct characteristics depending on audience and purpose. Though political blogs remain the most high profile (and most read), other types of blogs are gaining in strength and visibility. This book-a follow-up volume to Barlow's Rise of the Blogosphere, which examined the historical context for the modern blog-provides an examination of the many current aspects of the blogosphere, from the political to the professional to the personal, with many stops in between. Areas covered include the personal blog; the political blog; the use of blogs by various religious communities both for discussion within communities and for outreach; the growth of blogs dedicated to specific geographic communities, and their relations with older local media; blogs dedicated to technical subjects, particularly relating to computers; blogs and business; blogs sparked by video games, movies, music, and other forms of entertainment; and more. Given that millions of blogs have been created over the past five years and yet more come online at an undiminished rate, and given that enthusiasm for both reading them and writing for them has yet to wane, it is likely that the blog explosion will continue indefinitely.

The Internet has transformed the way people research, shop, conduct business, and communicate. But the Internet and technologies that enable online interaction and access to a variety of content can be a perilous place for minors 8 to 18. The dangers are real, and parents and teachers today are confronted with many threats they simply do not understand. This book shares the risks of the Internet by detailing recent, real-world tragedies and revealing some of the secrets of online activities. It provides a pragmatic approach to help parents and teachers protect children against the threats of going online. Parents and teachers are often ill-equipped to deal with the variety of devices and applications such as email, instant messaging, browsing, blogs, cell phones, and personal digital assistant devices (PDAs) that can facilitate the dangers lurking online. How to Protect Your Children on the Internet offers a comprehensive overview of the ways in which youth use such technologies and exposes the risks they represent. At the same time, it provides a roadmap that will enable parents and teachers to become more engaged in children's online activities, arming them with techniques and tips to help protect their children. Smith underscores his arguments through chilling, real-life stories, revealing approaches people are using to deceive and to conceal their activities online. Filled with practical advice and recommendations, his book is indispensable to anyone who uses the Internet and related technologies, and especially to those charged with keeping children safe.

The Semantic Web has been around for some years with recent advances in mature technologies and applications. Lately, its development has been demonstrated in its contribution to businesses through the enhancement of e-commerce. Semantic Web for Business: Cases and Applications delivers real-life cases that illustrate the benefits of Semantic Web technologies as applied to e-business and e-commerce scenarios. Covering topics such as business integration, organizational knowledge management, and Semantic Web services, this book provides academic research libraries with a comprehensive reference to the commercial capabilities of Semantic Web technologies, as well as practical applications for the benefit of IT professionals, business executives, consultants, and students.

Teachers of political science, social studies, and economics, as well as school library media specialists, will find this resource invaluable for incorporating the Internet into their classroom lessons. Over 150 primary source Web sites are referenced and paired with questions and activities designed to encourage critical thinking skills. Completing the activities for the lessons in this book will allow students to evaluate the source of information, the content presented, and it usefulness in the context of their assignments.

Along with each Web site, a summary of the site's contents identifies important primary source documents such as constitutions, treaties, speeches, court cases, statistics, and other official documents. The questions and activites invite the students to log on to the Web site, read the information presented, interact with the data, and analyze it critically to answer such questions as: Who created this document? Is the source reliable? How is the information useful and how does it relate to present-day circumstances? If I were in this situation, would I have responded the same way as the person in charge? Strengthening these critical thinking skills will help prepare students for both college and career in the 21st century.

Social Media has transformed the ways in which individuals keep in touch with family and friends. Likewise, businesses have identified the profound opportunities present for customer engagement and understanding through the massive data available on social media channels, in addition to the customer reach of such sites. Social Media Listening and Monitoring for Business Applications explores research-based solutions for businesses of all types interested in an understanding of emerging concepts and technologies for engaging customers online. Providing insight into the currently available social media tools and practices for various business applications, this publication is an essential resource for business professionals, graduate-level students, technology developers, and researchers.

The Internet has dramatically altered the landscape of crime and national security, creating new threats, such as identity theft, computer viruses, and cyberattacks. Moreover, because cybercrimes are often not limited to a single site or nation, crime scenes themselves have changed. Consequently, law enforcement must confront these new dangers and embrace novel methods of prevention, as well as produce new tools for digital surveillance-which can jeopardize privacy and civil liberties. Cybercrime brings together leading experts in law, criminal justice, and security studies to describe crime prevention and security protection in the electronic age. Ranging from new government requirements that facilitate spying to new methods of digital proof, the book is essential to understand how criminal law-and even crime itself-have been transformed in our networked world. Contributors: Jack M. Balkin, Susan W. Brenner, Daniel E. Geer, Jr., James Grimmelmann, Emily Hancock, Beryl A. Howell, Curtis E.A. Karnow, Eddan Katz, Orin S. Kerr, Nimrod Kozlovski, Helen Nissenbaum, Kim A. Taipale, Lee Tien, Shlomit Wagman, and Tal Zarsky. Jack M. Balkin is Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment at Yale Law School, and the Founder and Director of Yale's Information Society Project (ISP). He is the co-editor of The State of Play: Law, Games, and Virtual Worlds, also from NYU Press. James Grimmelmann, Nimrod Kozlovski, Shlomit Wagman, and Tal Zarsky are Fellows of the ISP. Eddan Katz is the Executive Director of the Information Society Project.

By joining bodies of research in media theory, cultural studies, and critical pedagogy, "Developing Media Literacy in Cyberspace" offers a vision of learning that values social empowerment over technical skills. An inquiry into the existence and range of models equipped to cultivate critical teaching and learning in the Internet-supported classroom, this new study argues that media literacy offers the best long-term training for today's youth to become experienced practitioners of 21st-century technology. Author Julie Frechette helps educators develop and provide concrete learning strategies that enable students to judge the validity and worth of what they see on the Internet as they strive to become critically autonomous in a technology-laden world.

Part of this effort lies in developing a keen awareness of the institutional, political, and economic structure of the Internet as a means of communication that is increasingly marketing products and targeting advertisements toward youth. Values on the Internet are discussed constantly both by the major media and by the private sector, with little regard for the pervasive interests and authority of profitable industries staking out their territory in this new global village. Unlike other studies that provide a broad sociohistorical context for the development of theoretical uses of new technologies in the classroom, "Developing Media Literacy in Cyberspace" lays the groundwork for establishing critical thinking skills that will serve students' interests as they navigate this vast and complicated cyberterritory.

E-Government in Asia offers a thorough examination of e-governance in Asia, including the uses of the Internet to mediate interactions between Asian governments and their citizens. The book examines how the Internet is reshaping these interactions in the region and summarizes the nature of e-government, the growth of the Internet in Asia, issues of the digital divide, and how the Internet is affecting the ways in which public services are provided, how Asians acquire information, and other issues.

This book throws new light on the way in which the Internet impacts on democracy. Based on Jurgen Habermas' discourse-theoretical reconstruction of democracy, it examines one of the world's largest, most diverse but also most unequal democracies, Brazil, in terms of the broad social and legal effects the internet has had. Focusing on the Brazilian constitutional evolution, the book examines how the Internet might impact on the legitimacy of a democratic order and if, and how, it might yield opportunities for democratic empowerment. The book also assesses the ways in which law, as an institution and a system, reacts to the changes and challenges brought about by the Internet: the ways in which law may retain its strength as an integrative force, avoiding a 'virtual' legitimacy crisis.

Internet use for business-to-business e-commerce is expected to grow at spectacular rates. Many experts feel that perceived lack of trust in e-commerce transactions on the Internet has contributed to the slow adoption of e-commerce in the recent past. This book provides an avenue for managers and researchers to explore, examine and describe interorganizaitonal trust relationships in e-commerce participation. With the identification of trust behaviours in business relationships this will increase the awareness of e-commerce participants, who can then examine their own and their trading partners' trust behaviours.

This book demonstrates to managers the strategic significance of intra-organizational social networks. It argues that strategic management is embedded in the complexity of social relations that shape the strategic direction of a company. Currently there are few tools available to systematically collect information about the social functioning of an organization. This book fills this gap by shifting attention to the social relations that contribute to strategic advantage and that build on relationships that provide unique resources and create value for the business. It considers three perspectives on how social networks have a strategic function: first, social networks constitute everyday strategic action; second, social networks convey cultural meanings; and third, how social networks depict social processes that continually illustrate what the organization is and what it can become. The book shows top and upper-middle management how cultivating an understanding of intra-firm social relations can help them to build unique strategic advantage and make use of the day-to-day knowledge that emerges in the social connections and interactions within an organization.

As the growing relationship between individuals and technology continue to play a vital role in our society and work place, the progress and execution of information technology communication systems is important in maintaining our current way of life. Knowledge and Technological Development Effects on Organizational and Social Structures provides a wide ranging discussion on the exchanging of research ideas and practices in an effort to bring together the social and technical aspects within organizations and society. This collection focuses on new ideas and studies for research, students, and practitioners.

The creative citizen unbound introduces the concept of 'creative citizenship' to explore the potential of civically-minded creative individuals in the era of social media and in the context of an expanding creative economy. Contributors examine the value and nature of creative citizenship, not only in terms of its contribution to civic life and to social capital but also to various and more contested definitions of value, both economic and cultural.

An essential tool for dispute resolution professionals as well as for anyone considering using dispute resolution in their lives and work, Online Dispute Resolution explains the many diverse and unique applications of doing conflict resolution online. The expert authors examine the tremendous growth of online dispute resolution-including its use by eBay and other e-commerce companies-and reveal the enormous possibilities to come, along with the many employment opportunities for practitioners in the field. They show how the online environment will affect the role of those who are concerned with dispute resolution just as it has brought changes to those who practice law, sell stocks, or run for office. For those who see the value of technology as a critical building block in the future of dispute resolution, Online Dispute Resolution will be an indispensable resource.