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Books > Computing & IT > Social & legal aspects of computing > Impact of computing & IT on society
This wide-ranging volume presents in-depth research into the effect of new information technologies on organizational structure, assesses their progress towards transformation and describes the changes they are making to long-established business process roles, cultures and working practices. The book is based upon a series of rolling surveys carried out between 1989 and the present day, and funded by organizations such as IBM and KPMG. It provides a detailed picture of a sector in transition during a period of anxiety and doubt dominated by restructuring, downsizing and experimentation with re-engineering. As the "lean and mean" emerge, they must now ask themselves if their competencies will enable them to survive into the next decade as competitors, such as Sainsburys, Virgin, Microsoft and Ford position themselves to become major players in the sector. This book is a contribution to the debate on the growth of knowledge work, the need for core organizational competencies in the information age and the need for evolutionary, or radical, change.
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.
Is the emerging digital multimedia culture of today transforming
the textbook or forever displacing it? As new media of transmission
enter the classroom, the traditional textbook is now caught up in a
dialogue reshaping the textual boundaries of the book, and with it
the traditional modes of cognition and learning, which are bound
more to language than to visual form. Most of the important work in
the past two decades in the field of curriculum has focused on the
culture of the textbook. A rich literature has evolved around
textbooks as the traditional object of instructional activity. This
volume is an important contribution to this literature, which
focuses on the actual making of a textbook. This design process
serves as a metaphor that suggests new paradigms of learning and
instruction, in which text content is but one component in a
multidimensional information space."The Visual Turn" is an
exploration along the border of this new learning space
transforming the traditional center of instruction in the
classroom.
In "Honest Numbers and Democracy," Walter Williams offers a revealing history of policy analysis in the federal government and a scorching critique of what's wrong with social policy analysis today. Williams, a policy insider who witnessed the birth of domestic policy analysis during the Johnson administration, contends that the increasingly partisan U.S. political environment is vitiating both "honest numbers" -- the data used to direct public policy -- and, more importantly, honest analysts, particularly in the White House. Drawing heavily on candid off-the-record interviews with political executives, career civil servants, elected officials and Washington-based journalists, Williams documents the steady deformation of social policy analysis under the pressure of ideological politics waged by both the executive and legislative branches. Beginning with the Reagan era and continuing into Clinton's tenure, Williams focuses on the presidents' growing penchant to misuse and hide numbers provided by their own analysts to assist in major policy decisions. "Honest Numbers and Democracy" is the first book to examine in-depth the impact of the electronic revolution, its information overload, and rampant public distrust of the federal government's data on the practice of policy analysis. A hard-hitting account of the factors threatening the credibility of the policymaking process, this book will be required reading for policy professionals, presidential watchers, and anyone interested in the future of U.S. democracy.
This work presents the latest development in the field of computational intelligence to advance Big Data and Cloud Computing concerning applications in medical diagnosis. As forum for academia and professionals it covers state-of-the-art research challenges and issues in the digital information & knowledge management and the concerns along with the solutions adopted in these fields.
This book is about learning and ethnography in the context of
technologies. Simultaneously, it portrays young people's "thinking
attitudes" in computer-based learning environments, and it
describes how the practice of ethnography is changing in a digital
world. The author likens this form of interaction to "the double
helix," where learning and ethnography are intertwined to tell an
emergent story about partnerships with technology. Two school
computer cultures were videotaped for this study. Separated not
only by geography -- one school is on the east coast of New England
and the other on the west coast of British Columbia on Vancouver
Island -- they are also separated in other ways: ethnic make-up and
inner-city vs. rural settings to name only two. Yet these two
schools are joined by a strong thread: a change in their respective
cultures with the advent of intensive computer-use on the part of
the students. Both school communities have watched their young
people gain literacy and competence, and their tools have changed
from pen to computer, video camera, multimedia and the Internet.
Perhaps most striking is that the way they think of themselves as
learners has also changed: they see themselves as an active
participant, in the pilot's seat or director's chair, as they chart
new connections between diverse and often unpredictable worlds of
knowledge.
It is apparent that file sharing on the Internet has become an emerging norm of media consumption-especially among young people. This book provides a critical perspective on this phenomenon, exploring issues related to file sharing, downloading, peer-to-peer networks, "piracy," and (not least) policy issues regarding these practices. Andersson Schwartz critically engages with the justificatory discourses of the actual file-sharers, taking Sweden as a geographic focus. By focusing on the example of Sweden-home to both The Pirate Bay and Spotify-he provides a unique insight into a mentality that drives both innovation and deviance and accommodates sharing in both its unadulterated and its compliant, business-friendly forms.
"Both newbies (newcomers to the Internet) and Netizens (old-timers)
will find challenges and rewards in this witty, knowledgeable, and
timely report from the electronic front." "Vividly describes the virtual realm as a place of
interconnecting communities every bitas complicated, exciting, and
dangerous as any city." "A pleasant antidote to the breathless rhetoric one finds in
many books and magazines devoted to computer culture." "Grossman brings a wealth of professional and personal
experience to the material-and a clarity of style and analysis that
is a welcome relief from both the hyperbolic prose of many Net
boosters and the overwrought jeremiads of cyberphobes." "There is a lot to like about this survey, especially the
diligent research and reading the author has invested in it. The
endnotes are vast and informative..."From Anarchy to Power" gathers
strengh as it goes along." "An informative exploration into many of the issues and problems
that plague the Net today...From Anarchy to Power is a must
read." companion website: http: //www.nyupress.org/fap Yesterday's battles over internet turf were fought on the net itself: today's battles are fought in government committees, in Congress, on the stock exchange, and in the marketplace. What was once an experimental ground for electronic commerce is now the hottest part of our economic infrastructure. In From Anarchy to Power, Wendy Grossman explores the new dispensation on the net and tackles the questions that trouble every online user: How vulnerable are the internet andworld wide web to malicious cyber hackers? What are the limits of privacy online? How real is internet addiction and to what extent is the news media responsible for this phenomenon? Are women and minorities at a disadvantage in cyberspace? How is the increasing power of big business changing internet culture? We learn about the political economy of the internet including issues of copyright law, corporate control and cryptography legislation. Throughout the book the emphasis is on the international dimensions of the net, focusing on privacy and censorship in the United States, Europe and Canada and the hitherto ignored contributions of other countries in the development of the net. Entertaining and informative From Anarchy to Power is required reading for anyone who wants to know where the new digital economy is heading.
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.
During the 1980s and into this decade, U.S. businesses poured billions of dollars into computers and other information technology. Yet the productivity performance of the U.S. economy in the 1980s remained lackluster--especially in the service sector--leading many observers to suspect that companies were not getting their money's worth from these high-tech investments. At the same time, academic research found little evidence of a productivity payoff. But have the tables now turned? With an apparent improvement in productivity in recent years, much academic and popular opinion now suggests that the payback is at hand or just around the corner. As the nation embarks on a major effort to develop an Information Superhighway, it is critical for policymakers, opinion leaders, and others to understand the contribution and role of information technology in the economy during recent decades. This book provides a straightforward guide to the economic issues underlying the debates about these issues, using quantitative and historical analysis, supplemented with interviews of small and large service-sector companies. To set the stage, Daniel Sichel reviews the debates over the role of computers and summarizes the essential facts about computer use, with a particular emphasis on software. Going beyond basic facts, Sichel describes an economic framework for assessing the aggregate economic impact of computers in recent decades and for looking ahead at this impact in the future. Quantitative estimates from this framework, along with supporting historical and interview evidence, place limits on the contribution of computers to the overall economy. When compared to the size of the slowdown in productivity growth in the early 1970s, the overall impact of computers appears relatively modest, in part because the share of computers in the nation's capital stock is surprisingly small. Looking ahead, Sichel also raises questions as to whether computers are likely to solve the nation's productivity woes in the future.
Debate ranges over the effects of the growing utilization by the young of interactive screen-based technologies and the effects of these on vulnerable young chldren. This text is based on two years' research on 100 children, with entertainment screen technology in their homes, following them from home to school and examining the difference in culture in the two environments. The question is asked whether children are developing the necessary IT and other skills required from the maturing learner as we approach the 21st century. Issues such as gender, parenting, violence, censorship and the educational consequences of their screen-based experiences are at the forefront of the text's coverage.
In recent years, Google s autonomous cars have logged thousands of miles on American highways and IBM s Watson trounced the best human Jeopardy players. Digital technologies with hardware, software, and networks at their core will in the near future diagnose diseases more accurately than doctors can, apply enormous data sets to transform retailing, and accomplish many tasks once considered uniquely human. In The Second Machine Age MIT s Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee two thinkers at the forefront of their field reveal the forces driving the reinvention of our lives and our economy. As the full impact of digital technologies is felt, we will realize immense bounty in the form of dazzling personal technology, advanced infrastructure, and near-boundless access to the cultural items that enrich our lives. Amid this bounty will also be wrenching change. Professions of all kinds from lawyers to truck drivers will be forever upended. Companies will be forced to transform or die. Recent economic indicators reflect this shift: fewer people are working, and wages are falling even as productivity and profits soar. Drawing on years of research and up-to-the-minute trends, Brynjolfsson and McAfee identify the best strategies for survival and offer a new path to prosperity. These include revamping education so that it prepares people for the next economy instead of the last one, designing new collaborations that pair brute processing power with human ingenuity, and embracing policies that make sense in a radically transformed landscape. A fundamentally optimistic book, The Second Machine Age will alter how we think about issues of technological, societal, and economic progress."
As we begin a new century, the astonishing spread of nationally and internationally accessible computer-based communication networks has touched the imagination of people everywhere. Suddenly, the Internet is in everyday parlance, featured in talk shows, in special business "technology" sections of major newspapers, and on the covers of national magazines. If the Internet is a new world of social behavior it is also a new world for those who study social behavior. This volume is a compendium of essays and research reports representing how researchers are thinking about the social processes of electronic communication and its effects in society. Taken together, the chapters comprise a first gathering of social psychological research on electronic communication and the Internet. The authors of these chapters work in different disciplines and have different goals, research methods, and styles. For some, the emergence and use of new technologies represent a new perspective on social and behavioral processes of longstanding interest in their disciplines. Others want to draw on social science theories to understand technology. A third group holds to a more activist program, seeking guidance through research to improve social interventions using technology in domains such as education, mental health, and work productivity. Each of these goals has influenced the research questions, methods, and inferences of the authors and the "look and feel" of the chapters in this book. Intended primarily for researchers who seek exposure to diverse approaches to studying the human side of electronic communication and the Internet, this volume has three purposes: * to illustrate how scientists are thinking about the social processes and effects of electronic communication; * to encourage research-based contributions to current debates on electronic communication design, applications, and policies; and * to suggest, by example, how studies of electronic communication can contribute to social science itself.
That information and communications technologies (ICTs), such as the Internet, are challenging the very fabric of our political systems can no longer be doubted. Yet the nature of such technologically driven changes and their desirability is hotly contested. This text critically focuses upon the alleged transformations in power relationships between individuals, government and social institutions as they are emerging in what is becoming known as cyberspace: a computer generated public domain which has no territorial boundaries, is controlled by no single authority, enables millions of people to communicate around the world and maybe encourages post-hierarchical control of populations. The ability of computer networks to transcend modern conceptions of time and space has considerable consequences for governance based upon the nation-state. Thus traditional forms of government are said to be weakened by an increasing link to control over global communications in Cyberspace. Hence issues of surveillance, control and privacy in relation to the Internet are coming to the fore as a result of state concern with security, crime and economic advantage. This text explores the issues of surve
The first volume in a major series, "Technology, Culture and
Competitiveness" will be an essential read for all those who need
to deal with the causes and consequences of rapid technological
change in an increasingly globalized world, whether they be
government policy-makers, managers of multi-national corporations,
commentators on the international scene or specialists in and
students of international politics, economics and business studies.
The authors discuss three related areas: how we think about
technology and international relations/international political
economy; in what sense technology is a fundamental component of
national competitive advantage and what national, local and
corporate policy should be in light of this; and what the
relationship is between technological innovation and global and
political economics change.
"Bootstrapping" analyzes the genesis of personal computing from
both technological and social perspectives, through a close study
of the pathbreaking work of one researcher, Douglas Engelbart. In
his lab at the Stanford Research Institute in the 1960s, Engelbart,
along with a small team of researchers, developed some of the
cornerstones of personal computing as we know it, including the
mouse, the windowed user interface, and hypertext. Today, all these
technologies are well known, even taken for granted, but the
assumptions and motivations behind their invention are not.
"Bootstrapping" establishes Douglas Engelbart's contribution
through a detailed history of both the material and the symbolic
constitution of his system's human-computer interface in the
context of the computer research community in the United States in
the 1960s and 1970s.
We are constantly being told that we are living through an image revolution. In this sceptical exploration of the politics of visual culture, Kevin Robins assesses the nature of our emotional and imaginary investment in the visual media from photography to virtual reality. He looks at how modern image technologies allow us to monitor and survey the "real" world while maintaining a distance which somehow denies its reality. He asks what pressures lie behind the utopian fantasies of cyberspace with its alternative realities and virtual communities. Rather than accepting the fashionable idea that the new visual technologies are displacing the real, "Into the Image" examines them sociologically, as shaped by forces and events in the real world, and demonstrates that what continues to matter is the relation of image and screen culture to the way we interact with that world.
We are constantly being told that we are living through an image revolution. In this sceptical exploration of the politics of visual culture, Kevin Robins assesses the nature of our emotional and imaginary investment in the visual media from photography to virtual reality. He looks at how modern image technologies allow us to monitor and survey the "real" world while maintaining a distance which somehow denies its reality. He asks what pressures lie behind the utopian fantasies of cyberspace with its alternative realities and virtual communities. Rather than accepting the fashionable idea that the new visual technologies are displacing the real, "Into the Image" examines them sociologically, as shaped by forces and events in the real world, and demonstrates that what continues to matter is the relation of image and screen culture to the way we interact with that world.
In this book, David Braund offers a significantly different perspective upon the history of Roman Britain. Rather than relying on archaeology, the author concentrates on the literary evidence, drawing a colorful picture of the social and political context of Roman imperialism. The study discusses Roman theories of imperialism as well as the intellectual and political atmosphere within which Caesar mounted his invasions of Britain in 55 and 54 B.C. Braund shows how the ideologies and power structures at work in Rome fundamentally shaped politics and society in Roman Britain. Thus he develops an understanding of the literary sources which goes beyond mere translation and allows the reader insights into this remote corner of the Roman world.
The internet is changing the rules of the game of love. In a world where anything is possible, a potential date - whether it be a one-night stand or the start of a more lasting relationship - can be just a click away. Anyone looking for love online can throw off their inhibitions and can say what they have never dared to before. The internet revolution has ensured that online dating has now become both widespread and commonplace. Online users can buy into the consumerist illusion that they can choose a man or woman in the same way that they would shop for groceries - this is the new hypermarket of desire. Women in particular can enjoy a new sexual assertiveness. Where once they might have looked for an emotional attachment, they are now demanding simply the right to have a good time. However, love cannot be reduced to such simple terms. The apparently risk-free world of online dating is at odds with love in real life, which has its own demands and expectations. You cannot introduce another person into your life and expect everything to remain the same. Human beings have a way of turning your life upside down. In this compelling book, Jean-Claude Kaufmann navigates this new emotional world and explores the tensions between sex and love, instant gratification and enduring commitment.
Computers have changed the landscape of both gathering and
disseminating information throughout the world. As journalists
quickly move toward the 21st century and perhaps, a new era of
electronic journalism, resources are needed to understand the
newest and most successful computer-based news reporting
strategies. Written to serve that purpose, this book is designed to
show both professional journalists and students which of the newest
personal computing tools are being used by the nation's leading
news organizations and top individual journalists. It further
describes how these resources are being used on a daily basis and
for special projects. |
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