Despite repeated predictions of the demise of America and the English-speaking nations as the world's predominant culture, James C. Bennett believes that this gap will widen in the coming decades. Coining the term anglosphere to describe a loose coalition based on a common language and heritage, Bennett believes that traits common to these countries-a particularly strong and independent civil society; openness and receptivity to the world, its people and ideas; and a dynamic economy-have uniquely positioned them to prosper in a time of dramatic technological and scientific change. In a wide-ranging exploration back to the Industrial Revolution and into the future, The Anglosphere Challenge gives voice to a growing movement on both sides of the Atlantic.

Contents:
Introduction: Pierre Lemonnier Chapter 1. North Wind, South Wind. Neolithic technical choices in the Jura Mountains, 3700-2400 BC, Pierre Petrequin Chapter 2. The Watch and the Waterclock. Technological choices/social choices, Genevieve Bedoucha Chapter 3. The Reindeerman's lasso, Tim Ingold Chapter 4. Pigs as Ordinary Wealth. Technical logic, exchange and leadership in New Guinea, Pierre Lemonnier Chapter 5. Pottery Techniques in India. Technical variants and social choice, Marie-Claude Mahias Chapter 6. Of Mills and Waterwheels. The hidden parameters of technological choices, Robert Cresswell Chapter 7. Technical Innovation and Cultural Resistance. The social weight of plowing in the vineyards of les Corbieres (Languedoc), Georges Guille-Escuret Chapter 8. The Hunter and his Gun in Haute-Provence, Nicolas Govoroff

Here is an outstanding critical analysis of the impact groundbreaking technologies, both new and established, have had on resource sharing in the information industry. It offers a unique opportunity to explore the possibilities of resource sharing in the electronic information age, beyond the narrow scope of interlibrary loan. This highly selective book not only assesses the technologies that have had a profound impact on resource sharing, it also considers the political, philosophical, social, financial, legal, managerial, and attitudinal issues they have affected. Technologies that hold great promise for revolutionizing interlibrary cooperation on various levels have been included in this important analysis. Impact of Technology on Resource Sharing fosters an in-depth understanding of these technologies by including chapters that range from descriptive analyses of particular projects to philosophical discussions of the challenges of change. It questions traditional assumptions while providing an opportunity to examine the practical technological options available to libraries today and in the near future.This thought-provoking book introduces beginning level library professionals to the changes technological innovations have caused in resource sharing. For more advanced professionals, it is a valuable review of several areas of technology and resource sharing including: CD-ROM union catalogscollection analysis using the OCLC/AMIGOS CDlocal integrated systemsnational bibliographic databases/utilitieslarge-scale system interconnectionZ39.50Internet/NRENnetworking high schoolspolitical/social impediments to resource sharingfinancial issues of resource sharinghistory of library networkingPublic service, technical service, and systems librarians will gain a better understanding of technical issues in language that is easy to understand. Library administrators will benefit from the review of issues important to the management and decision making process for the future of interlibrary cooperation and sharing.

This open access book begins with an algorithm-a set of IF...THEN rules used in the development of a new, ethical, video surveillance architecture for transport hubs. Readers are invited to follow the algorithm over three years, charting its everyday life. Questions of ethics, transparency, accountability and market value must be grasped by the algorithm in a series of ever more demanding forms of experimentation. Here the algorithm must prove its ability to get a grip on everyday life if it is to become an ordinary feature of the settings where it is being put to work. Through investigating the everyday life of the algorithm, the book opens a conversation with existing social science research that tends to focus on the power and opacity of algorithms. In this book we have unique access to the algorithm's design, development and testing, but can also bear witness to its fragility and dependency on others.

The digital music revolution and the rise of piracy cultures has transformed the music world as we knew it. Digital Music Distribution aims to go beyond the polarized and reductive perception of 'piracy wars' to offer a broader and richer understanding of the paradoxes inherent in new forms of distribution. Covering both production and consumption perspectives, Spilker analyses the changes and regulatory issues through original case studies, looking at how digital music distribution has both changed and been changed by the cultural practices and politicking of ordinary youth, their parents, music counter cultures, artists and bands, record companies, technology developers, mass media and regulatory authorities. Exploring the fundamental change in distribution, Spilker investigates paradoxes such as: The criminalization of file-sharing leading not to conflicts, but to increased collaboration between youths and their parents; Why the circulation of cultural content, extremely damaging for its producers, has instead been advantageous for the manufacturers of recording equipment; Why more artists are recording in professional sound studios, despite the proliferation of good quality equipment for home recording; Why mass media, hit by many of the same challenges as the music industry, has been so critical of the way it has tackled these challenges. A rare and timely volume looking at the changes induced by the digitalization of music distribution, Digital Music Distribution will appeal to undergraduate students and policy makers interested in fields such as Media Studies, Digital Media, Music Business, Sociology and Cultural Studies.

"Consuming Tecnologies" opens for analysis some crucial but rarely examined areas of social, cultural and economic life. At its core is a concern with the complex set of relationships that mark and define the place of the domestic in the modern world, and an explanation of the relationship between the domestic and public spheres as they are mediated by consumption and technology. Debate over the commodification and privatization of everyday life has been preoccupied with the impact of technological change on established social structures and cultural values. Yet much of the discussion has lacked any substantive empirical work on the understanding of modern industrial society: on the nature of consumption, and the contradictory significance of the domestic sphere. The contributors address these questions with a series of essays suggesting that in essence, information and communication technologies require us to see them as social and symbolic as well as material objects, crucially embedded in the structures and dynamics of our consumer culture.

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.

Imagining, forecasting and predicting the future is an inextricable and increasingly important part of the present. States, organizations and individuals almost continuously have to make decisions about future actions, financial investments or technological innovation, without much knowledge of what will exactly happen in the future. Science and technology play a crucial role in this collective attempt to make sense of the future. Technological developments such as nanotechnology, robotics or solar energy largely shape how we dream and think about the future, while economic forecasts, gene tests or climate change projections help us to make images of what may possibly occur in the future. This book provides one of the first interdisciplinary assessments of how scientific and technological imaginations matter in the formation of human, ecological and societal futures. Rooted in different disciplines such as sociology, philosophy, and science and technology studies, it explores how various actors such as scientists, companies or states imagine the future to be and act upon that imagination. Bringing together case studies from different regions around the globe, including the electrification of German car infrastructure, or genetically modified crops in India, Imagined Futures in Science, Technology and Society shows how science and technology create novel forms of imagination, thereby opening horizons toward alternative futures. By developing central aspects of the current debate on how scientific imagination and future-making interact, this timely volume provides a fresh look at the complex interrelationships between science, technology and society. This book will be of interest to postgraduate students interested in Science and Technology Studies, History and Philosophy of Science, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Anthropology, Political Sciences, Future Studies and Literary Sciences.

Drawing on the thought of Max Weber, in particular his theory of stratification, this book engages with the question of whether the digital divide simply extends traditional forms of inequality, or whether it also includes new forms of social exclusion, or perhaps manifests counter-trends that alleviate traditional inequalities whilst constituting new modalities of inequality. With attention to the manner in which social stratification in the digital age is reproduced and transformed online, the author develops an account of stratification as it exists in the digital sphere, advancing the position that, just as in the social sphere, inequalities in the online world go beyond the economic elements of inequality. As such, study of the digital divide should focus not simply on class dynamics or economic matters, but cultural aspects - such as status or prestige - and political aspects - such as group affiliations. Demonstrating the enduring relevance of Weber's distinctions with regard to social inequality, The Third Digital Divide: A Weberian approach to rethinking digital inequalities explores the ways in which online activities and digital skills vary according to crucial sociological dimensions, explaining these in concrete terms in relation to the dynamics of social class, social status and power. As such, it will be of interest to social scientists with interests in sociological theory, the sociology of science and technology, and inequality and the digital divide.

A groundbreaking study of one of the most crucial yet least understood issues of the twenty-first century: the governance of the Internet and its content The Internet has transformed the manner in which information is exchanged and business is conducted, arguably more than any other communication development in the past century. Despite its wide reach and powerful global influence, it is a medium uncontrolled by any one centralized system, organization, or governing body, a reality that has given rise to all manner of free-speech issues and cybersecurity concerns. The conflicts surrounding Internet governance are the new spaces where political and economic power is unfolding in the twenty-first century. This all-important study by Laura DeNardis reveals the inner power structure already in place within the architectures and institutions of Internet governance. It provides a theoretical framework for Internet governance that takes into account the privatization of global power as well as the role of sovereign nations and international treaties. In addition, DeNardis explores what is at stake in open global controversies and stresses the responsibility of the public to actively engage in these debates, because Internet governance will ultimately determine Internet freedom.

This book represents an attempt to fully review the phenomenon of the blogosphere. The intention is to provide a reliable guide to understanding and analyzing the world of the unimaginable number of diverse blogs, each consisting of innumerable posts, which in their entirety form the blogosphere. We go on to answer the questions of how to grasp the complexity of the blogosphere and extract useful knowledge from it. In setting out to write this book, our central aim was to increase the reader's awareness and understanding of the blogosphere phenomenon, including its structure and characteristics. This can be achieved through a better understanding of individual blogs and their particular technical characteristics, as well as a deeper knowledge of how a single blog is embedded and interconnected within the entire blogosphere. The shape and form of the blogosphere can be described using the analogy of different continents. In our description the defining features and characteristics of the continents are illustrated by paradigmatic example blogs. Following on from the structural analysis we provide details of the available methods and describe the complex challenge of automatically retrieving information from the abundance of data contained in the blogosphere. Finally, we present our blog search platform, called BLOGINTELLIGENCE and describe all the tools and features we have developed during the last couple of years to explore the blogosphere.

In recent years, popular media have inundated audiences with sensationalised headlines recounting data breaches, new forms of surveillance and other dangers of our digital age. Despite their regularity, such accounts treat each case as unprecedented and unique. This book proposes a radical rethinking of the history, present and future of our relations with the digital, spatial technologies that increasingly mediate our everyday lives. From smartphones to surveillance cameras, to navigational satellites, these new technologies offer visions of integrated, smooth and efficient societies, even as they directly conflict with the ways users experience them. Recognising the potential for both control and liberation, the authors argue against both acquiescence to and rejection of these technologies. Through intentional use of the very systems that monitor them, activists from Charlottesville to Hong Kong are subverting, resisting and repurposing geographic technologies. Using examples as varied as writings on the first telephones to the experiences of a feminist collective for migrant women in Spain, the authors present a revolution of everyday technologies. In the face of the seemingly inevitable dominance of corporate interests, these technologies allow us to create new spaces of affinity, and a new politics of change.

The spread of new information and communications technologies during the past two decades has helped reshape civic associations, political communities, and global relations. In the midst of the information revolution, we find that the speed of this technology-driven change has outpaced our understanding of its social and ethical effects. The moral dimensions of this new technology and its effects on social bonds need to be questioned and scrutinized: Should the Internet be understood as a new form of public space and a source of public good? What are we to make of hackers? Does the Internet strengthen or weaken community? In The Internet in Public Life, essayists confront these and other important questions. This timely and necessary volume makes clear the need for a broader conversation about the effects of the Internet, and the questions raised by these seven essays highlight some of the most pressing issues at hand.

Manuel Castells - one of the world's pre-eminent social scientists - has drawn together a stellar group of contributors to explore the patterns and dynamics of the network society in its cultural and institutional diversity. The book analyzes the technological, cultural and institutional transformation of societies around the world in terms of the critical role of electronic communication networks in business, everyday life, public services, social interaction and politics. The contributors demonstrate that the network society is the new form of social organization in the Information age, replacing the Industrial society. The book analyzes processes of technological transformation in interaction with social culture in different cultural and institutional contexts: the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Finland, Russia, China, India, Canada, and Catalonia. The topics examined include business productivity, global financial markets, cultural identity, the uses of the Internet in education and health, the anti-globalization movement, political processes, media and identity, and public policies to guide technological development. Taken together these studies show that the network society adopts very different forms, depending on the cultural and institutional environments in which it evolves. The Network Society is an outstanding and original volume of direct interest in academia - particularly in the fields of social sciences, communication studies, and business schools - as well as for policymakers engaged in technological policy and economic development. Business and management experts will also discover much of value to them within this book.

On an everyday basis, we communicate with one another using various technological media, such as text messaging, social networking tools, and electronic mail, in work, educational, and personal settings. As a consequence of the increasing frequency of use and importance of computer-supported interaction, social scientists in particular have heeded the call to understand the social processes involved in such interactions. In this volume, the editors explore how aspects of a situation interact with characteristics of a person to help explain our technologically-supported social interactions. The person-by-situation interaction perspective recognizes the powerful role of the situation and social forces on behavior, thought, and emotion, but also acknowledges the importance of person variables in explaining social interaction, including power and gender, social influence, truth and deception, ostracism, and leadership. This important study is of great relevance to modern readers, who are more and more frequently using technology to communicate with one another.

How is social media changing contemporary understandings of crime and injustice, and what contribution can it make to justice-seeking? Abuse on social media often involves betrayals of trust and invasions of privacy that range from the public circulation of intimate photographs to mass campaigns of public abuse and harassment using platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, 8chan and Reddit - forms of abuse that disproportionately target women and children. Crime, Justice and Social Media argues that online abuse is not discontinuous with established patterns of inequality but rather intersects with and amplifies them. Embedded within social media platforms are inducements to abuse and harass other users who are rarely provided with the tools to protect themselves or interrupt the abuse of others. There is a relationship between the values that shape the technological design and administration of social media, and those that inform the use of abuse and harassment to exclude and marginalise diverse participants in public life. Drawing on original qualitative research, this book is essential reading for students and scholars in the fields of cyber-crime, media and crime, cultural criminology, and gender and crime.

This volume contains perspectives from a collection of cognitive scientists on the psychological, philosophical, and educational issues surrounding the meanings of words and how these meanings are learned and accessed. It features chapters covering the nature and structure of word meaning, how new word meanings are acquired in childhood and later on in life, and how research in word processing may tell us something about the way in which word meanings are represented and how they relate to the language processor.

Suzanne Keene's pioneering book shows how museums and other cultural organizations fit into the new world of information and electronic communications and, most importantly, how they can take advantage of what it has to offer. By using new technology museums can build knowledge bases around information about collections. A collection object can be the central link for information about past and present, places, people and concepts, technologies, ways of working and evidence of the natural world. 'Digital Collections' explains how this vision can be realized. Sound, video and animations can be digitized and developed as a central resource that can be drawn on for many varied access routes: via the World Wide Web; CD ROMs; through on-gallery screens, and other future products still in development. These technological capabilities raise many compelling issues that need to be understood in order to successfully develop information collections. In this book Suzanne Keene reviews these issues clearly and comprehensively. Suzanne Keene is a senior manager of museum collections and information at the Science Museum, London. She led the UK LASSI project to select a collections information system for UK museums. This, with her experience in directing information technology and multimedia projects, means that she is accustomed to translating the highly technical concepts of information technology into high level issues for senior and strategic management.

Focuses on how the computer has transformed the economy into an information processing and intelligence system. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Complexities and dilemmas are evident in journalism in the digital and data age. Scarcity of audiences' attention jeopardises the survival of information media in the market, technological penetration increasingly renders journalism a complex information system, and the rise of partisan journalism accompanies the crisis of objective reporting. Analysing the evolving industry as it turns to the help of digital technologies such as algorithms and cloud computing to reach and engage local and global audiences, Journalism, Economic Uncertainty and Political Irregularity in the Digital and Data Era explores the challenges journalism faces in great depth and detail. Tong discusses the transformation of quality journalism that has become high-tech, interdisciplinary, saturated with human interest, and sometimes even fiercely partisan under the influence of multiple disruptions brought about by digital technology, economic uncertainty, and political irregularity. A timely and important contribution to the research of journalism, Journalism, Economic Uncertainty and Political Irregularity in the Digital and Data Era bridges media with the fields of sociology, politics, technology, and culture studies - central for academics, writers and researchers.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

It explore issues of diversity and inclusion in relation to artificial intelligence (AI). The author leads a research group on Digitalization and Robotization of Society at NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

'Masterful . . . [Thompson] illuminates both the fascinating coders and the bewildering technological forces that are transforming the world in which we live.' - David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z. Facebook's algorithms shaping the news. Uber's cars flocking the streets. Revolution on Twitter and romance on Tinder. We live in a world constructed of computer code. Coders - software programmers - are the people who built it for us. And yet their worlds and minds are little known to outsiders. In Coders, Wired columnist Clive Thompson presents a brilliantly original anthropological reckoning with the most influential tribe in today's world, interrogating who they are, how they think, what they value, what qualifies as greatness in their world, and what should give us pause. One of the most prominent journalists writing on technology today, Clive Thompson takes us into the minds of coders, the most quietly influential people on the planet, in a journey into the heart of the machine - and the men and women who made it.

The old opposition between a digital culture of sensuous, ephemeral images and a tectonic culture of pragmatic building has given way to a new collaboration between the two domains, a 'digital tectonics'. Computer linked fabrication techniques of many kinds have become an integral part of the design process, while new digital tools are allowing engineers and architects to understand in far more detail the behaviour of load carrying surfaces, and to generate new architectural forms. 

Digital and computer-linked design techniques is one of the hottest topics in architecture and in an ever-expanding world of digital technology this book tackles the practical elements of the field.

With at least seven billion subscriptions worldwide, the impact of mobile devices undoubtedly rivals that of television, radio, and newspapers. Mobile technologies have had-and continue to have-a profound influence on every sphere of public and private life. Unsurprisingly, since their emergence in the late 1970s, mobile technologies have been the focus of serious scholarly study and exploration, and, as research on mobile technologies continues to grow dramatically, this new four-volume collection from Routledge provides an authoritative reference work to make sense of their defining aspects and cardinal dynamics. Edited by three leading scholars, Mobile Technologies brings together in one easy-to-access set, the essential, 'must-read' Major Works on the greatest technology of our time. Goggin, Ling, and Hjorth have carefully integrated foundational texts with the most significant and pioneering new material to create an indispensable research tool and pedagogic resource.