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Books > Computing & IT > Social & legal aspects of computing > Impact of computing & IT on society
Social critics and artificial intelligence experts have long prophesized that computers and robots would soon relegate humans to the dustbin of history. Many among the general population seem to have shared this fear of a dehumanized future. But how are people in the twenty-first century actually reacting to the ever-expanding array of gadgets and networks at their disposal? Is computer anxiety a significant problem, paralyzing and terrorizing millions, or are ever-proliferating numbers of gadgets being enthusiastically embraced? Machines that Become Us explores the increasingly intimate relationship between people and their personal communication technologies. In the first book of its kind, internationally recognized scholars from the United States and Europe explore this topic. Among the technologies analyzed include the Internet, personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, networked homes, "smart" fabrics and wearable computers, interactive location badges, and implanted monitoring devices. The authors discuss critical policy issues, such as the problems of information resource access and equity, and the recently discovered "digital dropouts" phenomena. The use of the word "become" in the book's title has three different meanings. The first suggests how people use these technologies to broaden their abilities to communicate and to represent themselves to others. Thus the technologies "become" extensions and representatives of the communicators. A second sense of "become" applies to analysis of the way these technologies become physically integrated with the user's clothing and even their bodies. Finally, contributors examine fashion aspects and uses of these technologies, that is, how they are used in ways becoming to the wearer. The conclusions of many chapters are supported by data, including ethnographic observations, attitude surveys and case studies from the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Finland, and Norway. This approach is especially valuable given the dearth of empirical studies in a field that has been traditionally dominated by extrapolation and speculation, and that has focused on possible future states rather than analysis of current situations. Other chapters are integrative, seeking to advance emerging theoretical perspectives. This exciting volume generates new insights concerning the burgeoning electronic confusion that increasingly penetrates and blurs the boundaries of various spheres of life in modern society. Machines That Become Us will be of interest to students of communications and technology, sociologists, and social psychologists.
Donald Trump, the Arab Spring, Brexit: digital media have provided political actors and citizens with new tools to engage in politics. These tools are now routinely used by activists, candidates, non-governmental organizations, and parties to inform, mobilize, and persuade people. But what are the effects of this retooling of politics? Do digital media empower the powerless or are they breaking democracy? Have these new tools and practices fundamentally changed politics or is their impact just a matter of degree? This clear-eyed guide steps back from hyperbolic hopes and fears to offer a balanced account of what aspects of politics are being shaped by digital media and what remains unchanged. The authors discuss data-driven politics, the flow and reach of political information, the effects of communication interventions through digital tools, their use by citizens in coordinating political action, and what their impact is on political organizations and on democracy at large.
Description Fully updated to include the latest revisions and updates to AWS; this new edition also offers three new chapters covering the latest additions to the AWS platform: serverless infrastructure automation with AWS Lambda, sharing data volumes between machines with EFS, and caching data in memory with ElastiCache! Amazon Web Services in Action, Second Edition is a comprehensive introduction to computing, storing, and networking in the AWS cloud. Readers will find clear, relevant coverage of all the essential AWS services they need to know, emphasizing best practices for security, high availability and scalability. Key features * Hands-on guide * Practical examples * Step-by-step instructions Audience Written for developers and DevOps engineers moving distributed applications to the AWS platform. About the technology AWS is known as a cloud computing platform. Cloud computing, or the cloud, is a metaphor for supply and consumption of IT resources. The IT resources in the cloud aren't directly visible to the user; there are layers of abstraction in between.
One of the most significant and important advancements in information and communication technology over the past 20 years is the introduction and expansion of the Internet. Now almost universally available, the Internet brings us email, global voice and video communications, research repositories, reference libraries, and almost unlimited opportunities for daily activities. Bridging geographical distances in unprecedented ways, the Internet has impacted all aspects of our daily lives - from facilitating the running of businesses, the attainment of services and keeping in touch with friends and family. Accessible at any time and for many of us from our mobile phones, the Internet has opened up a world of knowledge and communication platforms that we cannot now imagine living without. This book explores the concept that the Internet has become a second action space for individuals. Coexisting with traditional and "obvious" real space, the Internet serves as a novel spatial platform and action space to its subscribers all over the world. Kellerman expertly discusses this notion and examines the practical integration of cyberspace with real space. Part I examines the Internet as a platform for action and presents its relations with physical space concerning a range of uses and applications which were traditionally performed in physical space only. It discusses the idea that the Internet has become a second space and explores theoretical perspectives surrounding this notion. The Internet has undeniably made humankind more efficient and connected. Part II explores the Internet as an action space for human life, considering basic human needs, curiosity, identity and social relations. It further considers instances whereby use and application of the Internet cannot be fully performed in real space, mainly regarding people's presentation of identity. Part III explores daily actions over the Internet, such as work, shopping, banking and social interactions. Kellerman also briefly touches on the darker aspects that the expansion of the Internet has made possible - including its role in fraud and other crimes. The concluding chapter discusses people living across the two spaces and identifies potential future developments. The Internet as Second Actions Space will appeal to students across the social sciences, in particular those studying Geography, Sociology, Media Studies, Internet Studies, Business and related disciplines.
Networks powered by algorithms are pervasive. Major contemporary technology trends - Internet of Things, Big Data, Digital Platform Power, Blockchain, and the Algorithmic Society - are manifestations of this phenomenon. The internet, which once seemed an unambiguous benefit to society, is now the basis for invasions of privacy, massive concentrations of power, and wide-scale manipulation. The algorithmic networked world poses deep questions about power, freedom, fairness, and human agency. The influential 1997 Federal Communications Commission whitepaper "Digital Tornado" hailed the "endless spiral of connectivity" that would transform society, and today, little remains untouched by digital connectivity. Yet fundamental questions remain unresolved, and even more serious challenges have emerged. This important collection, which offers a reckoning and a foretelling, features leading technology scholars who explain the legal, business, ethical, technical, and public policy challenges of building pervasive networks and algorithms for the benefit of humanity. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
In his 1989 book, Fast Capitalism, Ben Agger presented a framework for understanding late-20th century social problems. Speeding Up Fast Capitalism, a sequel to his earlier book, assesses social changes since the end of the 1980s brought about by information technologies such as the Internet, which have quickened the pace of everyday life. In Speeding Up Fast Capitalism, Agger assesses the impact of the Internet on consciousness, communication, culture and community, and evaluates the prospects of democratic social change. Where the earlier book was largely theoretical, Speeding Up applies critical theory to specific topics such as Internet culture, work, families, childhood, schooling, food, the body, and fitness. Although indebted to Fast Capitalism, the sequel appeals to an audience wider than theorists, including empirical sociologists, social scientists, and scholars in cultural disciplines.
In his 1989 book, Fast Capitalism, Ben Agger presented a framework for understanding late-20th century social problems. Speeding Up Fast Capitalism, a sequel to his earlier book, assesses social changes since the end of the 1980s brought about by information technologies such as the Internet, which have quickened the pace of everyday life. In Speeding Up Fast Capitalism, Agger assesses the impact of the Internet on consciousness, communication, culture and community, and evaluates the prospects of democratic social change. Where the earlier book was largely theoretical, Speeding Up applies critical theory to specific topics such as Internet culture, work, families, childhood, schooling, food, the body, and fitness. Although indebted to Fast Capitalism, the sequel appeals to an audience wider than theorists, including empirical sociologists, social scientists, and scholars in cultural disciplines.
"Online Communication" provides an introduction to both the
technologies of the Internet Age and their social implications.
This innovative and timely textbook brings together current work in
communication, political science, philosophy, popular culture,
history, economics, and the humanities to present an examination of
the theoretical and critical issues in the study of
computer-mediated communication.
Have we resigned ourselves to a cyber-future that has been decided behind our backs? Why is technology - and our understanding of it - central to the concerns of critical social theory? In developing the PC technologists have borrowed ideas from the human sciences about what people are like, about the nature of meaning and the desirability of some experiences over others. Yet, to date, the academic disciplines most concerned with these ideas have offered neither resistance nor debate. In this book, Graeme Kirkpatrick shows why it is crucial that we initiate that debate. Offering a revealing critique of PC design and the social assumptions that underlie it, Kirkpatrick argues that it relies on a particular conception of a capitalistic society that expects its technology to come pre-packaged, mass-marketed and "user-friendly". Anyone who is critical of such a society and its commodification of human achievement should, he suggests, be suspicious. Kirkpatrick argues that the computer is a contested space within which major social conflicts are played out. On the one hand, there is a narrative of flexibility and human empowerment, and on the other a sense of a "system" that controls our lives, leaving us in thrall to the computer corporations, and at constant risk from phishers and hackers. The outcomes of these conflicts are extremely important as they will shape our future experience of technology, society and politics. Critical Technology is a lively, provocative and often radical book, which forces us to reflect on the meaning of an artefact that is central to our daily lives, yet that we too often take for granted.
Information technologies have become both a means and an end,
transforming the workplace and how work is performed. This ongoing
evolution in the work process has received extensive coverage but
relatively little attention has been given to how changing
technologies and work practices affect the workers themselves. This
volume specifically examines the institutional and social
environment of the workplaces that information technologies have
created.
The internet could have been purpose-built for fostering the growth of the social movements and citizen initiatives which have had such a significant impact on the political landscape since the 1990s. In "Cyberprotest" the contributors explore the effects of this synergy between ICTs (Information Communication Technologies) and people power, analysing the implications for politics and social policy at both a national and a global level.;Through a number of different international examples answers are sought to questions such as: to what extent and in what forms do social movements use ICTs?; how do new ICTs facilitate new patterns and forms of citizen mobilization?; how does this use affect the relationship between social movements and their members?; how do ICTs change the way social movement organizations communicate with each other?; and how do they affect the way these movements mobilize and intervene in public debates and political conflicts?
This authoritative landmark text examines the highly topical and important issue of ICT in literacy learning. Its distinctive focus on providing a systematic review of research in the field gives the reader an essential, comprehensive overview. As governments worldwide continue to invest heavily in ICT provisions in educational institutions, this book addresses the need to gather and synthesise evidence about the impact of ICT on literacy learning. An expert team of writers draw upon two recent reports by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, which highlighted the considerable differences between nations in the access and use of ICT, to take a discursive and expansive look at the subject. Within its wide range and scope, chapters cover areas on: * the history of literacy and ICT * evidence for the effectiveness of ICT on literacy learning * the impact of networked ICT on literacy learning * the relationship between verbal and visual literacies. This book will be an invaluable and informative read with international resonance for student teachers, teachers, academics and researchers worldwide.
It's the founding myth of humanities computing and digital humanities: In 1949, the Italian Jesuit scholar, Roberto Busa, S.J., persuaded IBM to offer technical and financial support for the mechanized creation of a massive lemmatized concordance to the works of St. Thomas Aquinas. Using Busa's own papers, recently accessioned in Milan, as well as IBM archives and other sources, Jones illuminates this DH origin story. He examines relationships between the layers of hardware, software, human agents, culture, and history, and answers the question of how specific technologies afford and even constrain cultural practices, including in this case the academic research agendas of humanities computing and, later, digital humanities.
This authoritative landmark text examines the highly topical and important issue of ICT in literacy learning. Its distinctive focus on providing a systematic review of research in the field gives the reader an essential, comprehensive overview. As governments worldwide continue to invest heavily in ICT provisions in educational institutions, this book addresses the need to gather and synthesise evidence about the impact of ICT on literacy learning. An expert team of writers draw upon two recent reports by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, which highlighted the considerable differences between nations in the access and use of ICT, to take a discursive and expansive look at the subject. Within its wide range and scope, chapters cover areas on: * the history of literacy and ICT * evidence for the effectiveness of ICT on literacy learning * the impact of networked ICT on literacy learning * the relationship between verbal and visual literacies. This book will be an invaluable and informative read with international resonance for student teachers, teachers, academics and researchers worldwide.
This revised edition has more breadth and depth of coverage than the first edition. Information Technology: An Introduction for Today's Digital World introduces undergraduate students to a wide variety of concepts that they will encounter throughout their IT studies and careers. The features of this edition include: Introductory system administration coverage of Windows 10 and Linux (Red Hat 7), both as general concepts and with specific hands-on instruction Coverage of programming and shell scripting, demonstrated through example code in several popular languages Updated information on modern IT careers Computer networks, including more content on cloud computing Improved coverage of computer security Ancillary material that includes a lab manual for hands-on exercises Suitable for any introductory IT course, this classroom-tested text presents many of the topics recommended by the ACM Special Interest Group on IT Education (SIGITE). It offers a far more detailed examination of the computer and IT fields than computer literacy texts, focusing on concepts essential to all IT professionals - from system administration to scripting to computer organization. Four chapters are dedicated to the Windows and Linux operating systems so that students can gain hands-on experience with operating systems that they will deal with in the real world.
Living in Digital Worlds investigates the relationship between human society and technology, as our private and particularly our public lives are increasingly undertaken in spaces that are inherently digital: digital public spaces. The book unpicks why digital technology is such an inextricable part of modern society, first by examining the historical relationship between technological development and the early progression of human sociality. This is then followed by an examination of the ways in which modern life is currently being impacted by the expansion of digital information and devices into multiple aspects of our lives, including focuses on privacy, bias and ownership in digital spaces. Finally, it explores potential future developments and their implications, and proposes that it is crucial to consider the design of technology and systems in order to support a positive and beneficial direction of change. Each chapter includes case studies, primarily drawn from The Creative Exchange, a fiveyear programme which ran from 2012 to 2016 to explore the notion of the digital public space through collaborative cross-sector research.
In this book, Steffen Lange and Tilman Santarius investigate how digitalization influences environmental and social sustainability. The information revolution is currently changing the daily lives of billions of people worldwide. At the same time, the current economic model and consumerist lifestyle needs to be radically transformed if society is to overcome the challenges humanity is facing on a finite planet. Can the much-discussed disruption potential of digitalization be harnessed for this purpose? Smart Green World? provides guiding principles for a sustainable digital society and develops numerous hands-on proposals for how digitalization can be shaped to become a driving force for social transformation. For instance, the authors explain why more digitalization is needed to realize the transition towards 100% renewable energy and show how this can be achieved without sacrificing privacy. They analyze how the information revolution can transform consumption patterns, mobility habits and industry structures - instead of fostering the consumption of unneeded stuff due to personalized commercials and the acceleration of life. The authors reveal how Artificial Intelligence and the Industrial Internet of Things pose novel environmental challenges and contribute to a polarization of income; but they also demonstrate how the internet can be restored to its status as a commons, with users taking priority and society at large reaping the benefits of technological change in a most democratic way. Providing a comprehensive and practical assessment of both social and environmental opportunities and challenges of digitalization, Smart Green World? Making Digitalization Work for Sustainability will be of great interest to all those studying the complex interrelationship of the twenty-first-century megatrends of digitalization and decarbonization.
Law on the Web is ideal for anyone who wants to access Law Internet resources quickly and efficiently without becoming an IT expert. The emphasis throughout is on the location of high quality law Internet resources for learning, teaching and research, from among the billions of publicly accessible Web pages. The book is structured so that it will be found useful by both beginners and intermediate level users, and be of continuing use over the course of higher education studies. In addition to extensive coverage on locating files and Web sites, Part III provides a substantial and annotated list of high quality resources for law students.
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