From the early demise of Trent Lott at the hands of bloggers to the agonized scream of Howard Dean; from Daily Kos and the blogosphere to the rise of Twitter and Facebook, politics and new media have co-existed and evolved in rapid succession. Here, an academic and practitioner team up to consider how new and old media technologies mix with combustible politics to determine, in real time, the shape of the emerging political order. Our political moment shares with other realigning periods the sense that political parties are failing to address the public interest. In an era defined by the collapse of the political center, extreme income inequality, rapidly changing demography, and new methods of communicating and organizing, a second-generation online progressive movement fueled by email and social media is coming into its own. In this highly readable text, the authors - one a scholar of Internet politics, the other a leading voice of the first generation netroots - draw on unique data and on-the-ground experience to answer key questions at the core of our tumultuous politics: How has Internet activism changed in form and function? How have the left and right changed with it? How does this affect American political power?

As most organizations have expanded traditional business space into web-based environments, a more complete and thorough understanding of Web engineering is becoming vital for organizations. However, the definition of Web engineering is growing more and more blurred. Although based primarily on MIS and computer science areas, Web engineering covers a wide range of disciplines, thus making it difficult to gain an understanding of the field. Web Engineering: Principles and Techniques provides clarity to this often muddied issue. Covering a wide range of topics such as: basic perspectives on Web engineering, development methodologies for Web applications, Web metrics and quality models, Web resource management techniques and standards, maintenance and evolution methods for Web applications, and Web intelligence techniques and models this book provides the necessary tools vital for organizations to utilize the full potential of Web engineering. Essential for both researchers and practitioners, Web Engineering: Principles and Techniques covers a wide range of topics vital to strengthening professional insights and capabilities within the field of Web engineering.

In many countries shopping has been transformed from High Street stores to large out-of-town Retail Parks and Shopping Centres. Technology now provides the opportunity for many products and services to be promoted and purchased electronically, particularly via the Internet. This will progress differently for different products, regions, consumer groups, etc. This book presents future scenarios for the retail industry in the light of Internet shopping. Through its unique perspective, it examines developments so far, and through the insight of the author who is one of the leading professionals in shopping centre developments, takes an inspired look at the future of retailing in the next century.

E-Business has become a fact for almost all companies. But what are the key technologies for economically successful e-commerce? In this book readers will find all concepts that will coin tomorrow's e-business: virtual sales assistants (shopbots), personalized web pages, electronic market places, vendor managed inventory, virtual organizations, supply chain management. Both technical and economic issues of these concepts are discussed in detail. Leading-edge real world applications are presented that will shape e-business mid-term.

This book is a must-read for managers or technical consultants as well as researchers needing in-depth information for strategic business decisions.

Covering key areas of evaluation and methodology, client-side applications, specialist and novel technologies, along with initial appraisals of disabilities, this important book provides comprehensive coverage of web accessibility. Written by leading experts in the field, it provides an overview of existing research and also looks at future developments, providing a much deeper insight than can be obtained through existing research libraries, aggregations, or search engines.

Cloud computing has provided multiple advantages as well as challenges to software and infrastructure services. In order to be fully beneficial, these challenges facing cloud specific communication protocols must be addressed. Communication Infrastructures for Cloud Computing presents the issues and research directions for a broad range of cloud computing aspects of software, computing, and storage systems. This book will highlight a broad range of topics in communication infrastructures for cloud computing that will benefit researchers, academics, and practitioners in the active fields of engineering, computer science, and software.

With the prevalence of social media, businesses and other organizations have a growing need to utilize various online media platforms and sites to engage and interact with their potential consumer base. Virtual communities and social networking can provide an effective escape route from the limits imposed by traditional media. Using optimal strategies can lead to more successful outcomes when using these platforms. Modern Perspectives on Virtual Communications and Social Networking provides innovative insights into connection and conversation through internet media that foster trust, commitment, and transparency in business. The content within this publication represents the potential to create virtual bonds with consumers through the observation of buying behavior, social media best practices, and digital marketing strategies. It is designed for business professionals, academicians, consultants, managers, marketers, and researchers and covers topics centered on the use of online media as a method of reaching a wider population.

"This book is by far the most comprehensive and orderly treatment of the subject. It is the work of experts with a wealth of both theoretical and practical experience with the subject and its connecting disciplines. It is an integral work... concepts and notation are at the same consistent level throughout the book. Quality of Service (QoS) is an absolutely critical part of any telecommunication services. This work fills a gap in the literature of what possibilities there are for satellites in providing global Internet services." Excerpted from the Foreword by Raymond L. Pickholtz, The George Washington University
Broadband Satellite Communications for Internet Access is a systems engineering methodology for satellite communication networks. It discusses the implementation of Internet applications that involve network design issues usually addressed in standard organizations. Various protocols for IP- and ATM-based networks are examined and a comparative performance evaluation of different alternatives is described. This methodology can be applied to similar evaluations over any other transport medium.
This book, suitable as a teaching text as well as a reference, covers:
-Satellite networks: technology, history and broadband communication satellites planned and launched into service.
-Trends Analysis: satellite networks covering physical, MAC, IP, transport layer protocols with an emphasis on TCP enhancements to account for fading, errors, noise, Doppler shifts and nomadic behavior.
-Quality of Service (QoS): end-to-end QoS model, framework and architectures including IntServ, DiffServ and MPLS traffic engineering for satellite IP networks, application QoS mapping.
-Satellite IP: design and implementation, DiffServ based QoS performance models for TCP and UDP traffic for GEO and MEO configurations.
-Interactive Multimedia over Satellite: TDMA and CDMA based return channel protocol models and analysis for DVB-RCS networks.
-Satellite ATM: analysis of fundamental questions (e.g. buffer requirements, TCP/ATM, efficiency, fairness, and multiple access models).
-International Standards: definitions, processes and agreed objectives for satellite IP and satellite ATM networks-ITU-R, ITU-T, IETF, ETSI, ATM Forum.
Whether you're a researcher, systems engineer, or a telecommunications/network specialist, Broadband Satellite Communications for Internet Access provides a comprehensive perspective on satellite networks. It addresses the end-to-end protocol stack, satellite design principles, QoS methodologies and international standards for building satellite network systems for multimedia applications.

A new manifesto for the working woman, full of practical tips for making the most of your earnings as well as inspiration for harnessing the freedom and power that come with financial independence. In Think Like a Breadwinner, financial expert Jennifer Barrett dismantles the narrative that women don't - and shouldn't - take full control of their finances to create the lives they want for themselves. Featuring a wide variety of case studies from women at all stages of their careers and financial lives, Barrett shares the secrets of women who already think like breadwinners. Practical and empowering, this book includes advice on: - Changing how you think about money - Asking for promotions and raises at work - Saving and investing your money - How to combine breadwinning and parenting - Prioritising your future Perfect for anyone who thinks they're 'no good with money', Think Like a Breadwinner will show you that no matter your circumstances, you can set yourself up for financial security.

In order for information systems supporting two different organizations to interoperate, there must be an agreement as to what the words mean. There are many such agreements in place, supporting information systems interoperation in many different application areas. Most of these agreements have been created as part of diverse systems development processes, but since the advent of the Semantic Web in the late 1990s, they have been studied as a kind of software artifact in their own right, called an ontology, or description of a shared world. This book brings together developments from philosophy, artificial intelligence and information systems to formulate a collection of functional requirements for ontology development. Once the functional requirements are established, the book looks at several ontology representation languages: RDFS, OWL, Common Logic and Topic Maps, to show how these languages support the functional requirements, what deficiencies there are, and how the languages relate to each other. Besides a collection of running examples used throughout the book, the entire treatment is supported by an extended example of a hypothetical ontology for the Olympic Games presented first as a set of chapter-end exercises and then as a set of solutions which illustrate the various points made in the text in the context of a single coherent development.

Web caching and content delivery technologies provide the infrastructure on which systems are built for the scalable distribution of information. This proceedings of the eighth annual workshop, captures a cross-section of the latest issues and techniques of interest to network architects and researchers in large-scale content delivery. Topics covered include the distribution of streaming multimedia, edge caching and computation, multicast, delivery of dynamic content, enterprise content delivery, streaming proxies and servers, content transcoding, replication and caching strategies, peer-to-peer content delivery, and Web prefetching.
Web Content Caching and Distribution encompasses all areas relating to the intersection of storage and networking for Internet content services. The book is divided into eight parts: mobility, applications, architectures, multimedia, customization, peer-to-peer, performance and measurement, and delta encoding.

A welcome addition to Palgrave's Global Media Policy and Business series, Internet Governance and the Global South documents the role of the global south in Internet policymaking and challenges the globalization theories that declared the death of the state in global decision-making. Abu Bhuiyan argues that the global Internet politics is primarily a conflict between the states - the United States of America and the states of the global south - because the former controls Internet policymaking. The states of the global south have been both oppositional and acquiescing to the sponsored policies of the United States on Internet issues such as digital divide, multilingualism, intellectual property rights and cyber security. They do not oppose the neoliberal underpinnings of the policies promoted by the United States, but ask for an international framework to govern the Internet so that they can work as equal partners in setting norms for the global Internet.

This book provides an in-depth comparative analysis of inequality and the stratification of the digital sphere. Grounded in classical sociological theories of inequality, as well as empirical evidence, this book defines 'the digital divide' as the unequal access and utility of internet communications technologies and explores how it has the potential to replicate existing social inequalities, as well as create new forms of stratification. The Digital Divide examines how various demographic and socio-economic factors including income, education, age and gender, as well as infrastructure, products and services affect how the internet is used and accessed. Comprised of six parts, the first section examines theories of the digital divide, and then looks in turn at: Highly developed nations and regions (including the USA, the EU and Japan); Emerging large powers (Brazil, China, India, Russia); Eastern European countries (Estonia, Romania, Serbia); Arab and Middle Eastern nations (Egypt, Iran, Israel); Under-studied areas (East and Central Asia, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa). Providing an interwoven analysis of the international inequalities in internet usage and access, this important work offers a comprehensive approach to studying the digital divide around the globe. It is an important resource for academic and students in sociology, social policy, communication studies, media studies and all those interested in the questions and issues around social inequality.

The 1990s saw a rapid rise in the proportion of market value represented by Internet companies. At the peak of the market, the value of US internet stocks alone exceeded $2 trillion, making these stocks nearly as valuable as the entire UK market. However, since March 2000 many internet stock values have declined precipitately. This book establishes a robust cashflow based methodology for internet valuation in relation to strategic issues, and includes compelling and topical case studies of leading players including Amazon.com and NTT DoCoMo.

This book provides a comprehensive review of China's Internet development in the past 23 years since the country's first access to the Internet, especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. It offers a systematic account of China's experience in Internet development and governance, and establishes and presents China's Internet Development Index System, covering network infrastructure, information technology, digital economy, e-governance, cyber security, and international cyberspace governance.

2014 International Conference on Multimedia, Communication and Computing Application (MCCA2014), Xiamen, China, Oct 16-17, 2014, provided a forum for experts and scholars of excellence from all over the world to present their latest work in the area of multimedia, communication and computing applications. In recent years, the multimedia technology has experienced rapid developments and applications are widely used in both our daily life and industrial manufacturing, such as games, education, entertainment, stocks and bonds, financial transactions, architectural design, communication etc. MCCA2014 received a large number of papers of which ninety-three papers were accepted for publicationg. These articles were divided into different sections: multimedia processing, communication systems, artificial intelligence and application.

Before use, standard ERP systems such as SAP R/3 need to be customized to meet the concrete requirements of the individual enterprise. This book provides an overview of the process models, methods, and tools offered by SAP and its partners to support this complex and time-consuming process. It begins by characterizing the foundations of the latest ERP systems from both a conceptual and technical viewpoint, whereby the most important components and functions of SAP R/3 are described. The main part of the book then goes on to present the current methods and tools for the R/3 implementation based on newer process models (roadmaps).