The Information and Communications for Development report takes an in-depth look at how information and communication technologies (ICT) are affecting economic growth in developing countries. The 2018 report, the fourth in the series, examines the topic of data-driven development, or how better information makes for better policies. The objective is to assist developing-country firms and governments in unlocking the value of the data they hold for better service delivery and decision making and to empower individuals to take more control of their personal data. The chapters explore different themes associated with the supply of data, the technology underlying it, and the demand for it. The concluding chapter considers government policies for data, including data protection and privacy.

Marshall Goldsmith wrote in his book, What Got You Here, Won't Get You There, that people rely on their past experience to address new challenges. The limitation with this approach is that these new challenges often arise from different contexts and may not be susceptible to traditional approaches. In the coming era of artificial intelligence (AI), expanded use of robots, and increased trans-national commerce, humanity will face monumental challenges that will differ from those we have faced in the past, including how to avoid mass unemployment due to rapid growth of automation. In order to survive and thrive in this new era, we will have to think and act differently, so that new ideas can solve not only the problems of the present but also of the near and distant future. Economic Renaissance in the Age of Artificial Intelligence explores a wide range of new approaches to the economic, social, legal, scientific, technological, financial, architectural, environmental, and humanistic challenges that humanity will face due to increased automation. The new methods and approaches outlined by the various experts in this book will help inform and inspire humanity to create a more balanced world in which science, economics, and the environment can thrive for years to come.

From dial-up to wi-fi, an engaging cultural history of the commercial web industry In the 1990s, the World Wide Web helped transform the Internet from the domain of computer scientists to a playground for mass audiences. As URLs leapt off computer screens and onto cereal boxes, billboards, and film trailers, the web changed the way many Americans experienced media, socialized, and interacted with brands. Businesses rushed online to set up corporate "home pages" and as a result, a new cultural industry was born: web design. For today's internet users who are more familiar sharing social media posts than collecting hotlists of cool sites, the early web may seem primitive, clunky, and graphically inferior. After the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, this pre-crash era was dubbed "Web 1.0," a retronym meant to distinguish the early web from the social, user-centered, and participatory values that were embodied in the internet industry's resurgence as "Web 2.0" in the 21st century. Tracking shifts in the rules of "good web design," Ankerson reimagines speculation and design as a series of contests and collaborations to conceive the boundaries of a new digitally networked future. What was it like to go online and "surf the Web" in the 1990s? How and why did the look and feel of the web change over time? How do new design paradigms like user-experience design (UX) gain traction? Bringing together media studies, internet studies, and design theory, Dot-com Design traces the shifts in, and struggles over, the web's production, aesthetics, and design to provide a comprehensive look at the evolution of the web industry and into the vast internet we browse today.

"Featuring a foreword by George Gilder

If you're a Qualcomm customer or stockholder, or in fact if you have a stake in almost any cellular service or even just use a mobile phone, you're no doubt aware of the enormous impact on the development of cellular technology by actress and sex symbol Hedy LaMarr.

All right, perhaps you're surprised. The telecom industry has never been short on surprises, and the above example is no exception. Nor is it an exaggeration. Read the book.

Similarly, it is not an exaggeration to say that Qualcomm, through a combination of technological superiority, cunning business acumen, and sheer tenacity, has become the undisputed standard by which telecom companies now measure themselves. In short order, they have also become a model of substantial and sustained growth that businesses in all industries should emulate.

Qualcomm's rise mirrors that of the cell phone itself. Both are ubiquitous, both continue to evolve rapidly, and both turned the status quo on its head. The Qualcomm Equation reveals crucial but little-known information on the history of cellular and wireless technology -- some of which dates back to World War II -- and shows how the company grabbed the wave just as it began to rise.

How did they do it?

Even while most competitors were using an essential technology, Qualcomm believed in an alternative they had developed, and continued to refine and promote it until at last it caught on. The Qualcomm Equation details how the fledgling company, while their rivals simply duked it out for more customers, made a killing not only by offering great service, but also by leasing their superior standard technology to other telecom companies. While Qualcomm grew its own customer base, they had also, in essence, found a way to make more money the bigger their competitors got.

How can you apply the Qualcomm model in your industry, and in your company?

Following Qualcomm's example, your company can:

* attract investors by presenting even complex products and technologies in customer- and market-focused language

* prove that its product is essential not only to customers but also to competitors -- so that they come to depend on you rather than trying to defeat you

* make its product and its operations compatible with those competitors, turning rivalries into profitable strategic alliances

* learn from setbacks, and leverage the knowledge and strengths of your partners to overcome obstacles

You'll also learn crucial strategies to help you define and develop your core business; identify and maximize your company's role and position in the value chain for customers and shareholders; strike a balance between sharing and protecting proprietary information; and handle regulatory and political concerns both domestically and globally.

In the last decade, Qualcomm has come to define dominance not only in the telecommunications industry, but throughout the global business landscape. The Qualcomm Equation presents their story, and the keys to their unparalleled success.

Not to mention the most important role of Hedy LaMarr's career..."

This book is a case study in industrial economics, using the computing industry as a base at a time when it was undergoing drastic changes. The objective was to identify and analyze those major forces and mechanisms which account for the evolution of an industry. The approach is to recognize the diversity of enterprises and to explore the interplay between products, production processes and the characteristics of enterprises, including their organization and management systems, which business experience indeed shows can be decisive competitive advantages or disadvantages. One might expect the analysis of competitive processes to be readily available in the economic literature, but most economists treat firms as black boxes, ignoring their differences. Beyond providing the basic concepts and mechanisms, mainstream economics are of little help here, since their fundamental paradigms of competition and equilibrium all but ignore the real-world notions of enterprise, differentiation and competition. To understand the internal working of enterprises, one has to turn to the so-called "management" literature, which unfortunately most often stops at the border of the enterprise and seldom tackles the interplay between internal choices and the workings of the market. The separation of those two disciplines is an essential weakness when considering the subject of this book. Economic theory uses too schematic a view of the firm, and organizational theory has too little concern for the market environment. This book attempts to combine those two strands of thought into one theory of industrial structure. Its subject, one particular industry, is limited enough for theory to be always confronted with the experience of the business professional. At the same time, that subject is comprehensive enough to allow moving beyond a pure monograph and to support the beginnings of new conceptual developments. The same approach and concepts could prove useful in the analysis of other complex industries, and perhaps form a starting point for more general contributions to research into industry structures. This book was originally written in French and published in 1996, based on research done in 1994/1995 and on the statistics available at that time. The author translated it into English, but the French publisher could not find an English-language counterpart. The French version is now out of print and the publisher has renounced the rights. New publishing techniques, including print on demand, now allow an independent publisher to make a book available in printed form with a minimal investment. The world has changed since the book was written, most notably computers and the computing industry. There have been giant advances in microelectronics and in their applications to all walks of life. Many firms and products have disappeared, and many new have emerged. Many catch-phrases are now obsolete; new ones are now popular. Also, the easily accessible industry statistics that I used have been discontinued. Updating the book to 2013 would involve a complete rewrite and extensive additional research. But I happen to believe that the approach and concepts put forward in 1996 are still worth publishing in their original state. Concerning the analytical approach and the conclusions, I leave it to the reader to evaluate which are obsolete and which are still valid today. Concerning the predictions that I ventured at the time on the basis of that analysis, it turns out that they did materialize to a large extent. At any rate, the factual part, i. e. the history and the industry statistics in the period 1950-1995, may still be of interest as far as it goes. Be that as it may, I urge the reader to constantly keep in mind that the book was written in 1995, using data available at that time, relying on the technologies of the time and on whatever literature I was able to lay my hands on. In the context of this book, "today" must always be understood as "in 1995."

The Google Story is the definitive account of one of the most remarkable organizations of our time. Every day over sixty-four million people use Google in more than one hundred languages, running billions of searches for information on everything and anything. Through the creative use of cutting-edge technology and a series of groundbreaking business ideas, Google's thirty-five year old founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, have in ten years taken Google from being just another internet start-up to a company with a market value of over US$80 billion. Based on scrupulous research and extraordinary access to the inner workings of Google, this book takes you inside the creation and growth of a company that has become so familiar its name is used as a verb around the world. But even as it rides high, Google wrestles with difficult challenges in a business that changes at lightning speed. In this new and updated edition to celebrate Google's 10th birthday, David A. Vise has written a new preface and new final chapter which look at further developments since 2005 and how Google will continue to expand and innovate while trying to follow its founders' mantra: DO NO EVIL 'If you want to know how the Google boys became wealthy and powerful beyond dreams, then David Vise's assiduously researched The Google Story is for you.' Sunday Telegraph 'If Google were to take on critical faculties as well as its other attributes Vise's book would probably come out on top.' The Times