From "EverQuest" to "World of Warcraft," online games have evolved from the exclusive domain of computer geeks into an extraordinarily lucrative staple of the entertainment industry. People of all ages and from all walks of life now spend thousands of hours--and dollars--partaking in this popular new brand of escapism. But the line between fantasy and reality is starting to blur. Players have created virtual societies with governments and economies of their own whose currencies now trade against the dollar on eBay at rates higher than the yen. And the players who inhabit these synthetic worlds are starting to spend more time online than at their day jobs.
In "Synthetic Worlds," Edward Castronova offers the first comprehensive look at the online game industry, exploring its implications for business and culture alike. He starts with the players, giving us a revealing look into the everyday lives of the gamers--outlining what they do in their synthetic worlds and why. He then describes the economies inside these worlds to show how they might dramatically affect real world financial systems, from potential disruptions of markets to new business horizons. Ultimately, he explores the long-term social consequences of online games: If players can inhabit worlds that are more alluring and gratifying than reality, then how can the real world ever compete? Will a day ever come when we spend more time in these synthetic worlds than in our own? Or even more startling, will a day ever come when such questions no longer sound alarmist but instead seem obsolete?
With more than ten million active players worldwide--and with Microsoft and Sony pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into videogame development--online games have become too big to ignore. "Synthetic Worlds" spearheads our efforts to come to terms with this virtual reality and its concrete effects.
"Illuminating. . . . Castronova's analysis of the economics of fun is intriguing. Virtual-world economies are designed to make the resulting game interesting and enjoyable for their inhabitants. Many games follow a rags-to-riches storyline, for example. But how can all the players end up in the top 10%? Simple: the upwardly mobile human players need only be a subset of the world's population. An underclass of computer-controlled 'bot' citizens, meanwhile, stays poor forever. Mr. Castronova explains all this with clarity, wit, and a merciful lack of academic jargon."--"The Economist"
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""Synthetic Worlds" is a surprisingly profound book about the social, political, and economic issues arising from the emergence of vast multiplayer games on the Internet. What Castronova has realized is that these games, where players contribute considerable labor in exchange for things they value, are not merely like real economies, they "are" real economies, displaying inflation, fraud, Chinese sweatshops, and some surprising in-game innovations."--Tim Harford, "Chronicle of Higher Education
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Wahrend der Aufbau und Betrieb von Internetinfrastrukturen zur Zeit der Entstehung des Internets in erster Linie von offentlichen Institutionen vorangetrieben wurde, wird dieser Bereich heute langst von privatwirtschaftlichen Unternehmen beherrscht. Dieses Buch beschreibt Dienste, Wertschopfungsprozesse und Wettbewerbsstrategien zur Erbringung des Datentransports im Internet aus betriebswirtschaftlicher Sicht. Es werden gleichermassen Internetzugangsdienste zur Anbindung von Endkunden, Transitdienste zum Datenaustausch zwischen Netzbetreibern, Dienste zur Kapazitatsbereitstellung im Kernnetz und Dienste zur Distribution digitaler Inhalte und Anwendungen diskutiert. Durch die Darstellung der Teilmarkte, die den Datentransport im Internet adressieren, wird dem Leser ein umfassender Einblick in die Internetwirtschaft geboten, ohne dass hierzu ein tiefer gehendes technisches Verstandnis vorausgesetzt wird. Daruber hinaus werden strategische Herausforderungen bei der Bereitstellung digitaler Inhalte und Anwendungen vorgestellt, die zukunftige Entwicklungen in der Internetwirtschaft massgeblich beeinflussen.

In his bestselling books The Cult of the Amateur and The Internet is not the Answer, Andrew Keen exposed the cultural and social dangers posed by internet technology. What was once seen as a tool for connecting people and providing opportunities is now recognised as a force that is profoundly reshaping our world. In How to Fix the Future, Andrew Keen sets out a compelling manifesto for improving how we live in the digital age. Taking lessons from the world-changing events of the Industrial Revolution, he travels around the globe, from India to Estonia, Germany to Singapore, investigating the best and worst practices in regulation, innovation, social responsibility, consumer choice and education - and shows what we can do to preserve human values in an increasingly digital world.

Dieses Beitragswerk bringt Vorreiter, oeffentliche Meinungsbildner und renommierte Fachexperten zu Fragestellungen des digitalen Wandels zusammen und bundelt deren Blickwinkel auf dieses entscheidende Zukunftsthema. Somit beleuchten die hochkaratigen Autoren aus Politik, Wirtschaft, Wissenschaft und Recht mit ihren Beitragen, in zwei Banden des Herausgeberwerkes, unterschiedliche Facetten der Digitalisierung. Dabei wird bewusst kein abschliessendes, wertendes Fazit vorweggenommen - gerade die durchaus kontroversen Sichtweisen der Autoren tragen zum Mehrwert des vorliegenden Werkes und insbesondere der gesellschaftlichen Diskussion zum digitalen Wandel bei.

Dan Lyons was Technology Editor at Newsweek Magazine for years, a magazine writer at the top of his profession. One Friday morning he received a phone call: his job no longer existed. Fifty years old and with a wife and two young kids, Dan was unemployed and facing financial oblivion. Then an idea hit. Dan had long reported on Silicon Valley and the tech explosion. Why not join it? HubSpot, a Boston start-up, was flush with $100 million in venture capital. They offered Dan a pile of stock options for the nebulous role of "marketing fellow." What could possibly go wrong? What follows is a hilarious and excoriating account of Dan's time at the start-up and a revealing window onto the dysfunctional culture that prevails in a world flush with cash and devoid of experience. Filled with stories of meaningless jargon, teddy bears at meetings, push-up competitions and all-night parties, this uproarious tale is also a trenchant analysis of the dysfunctional start-up world, a de facto conspiracy between those who start companies and those who fund them. It is a world where bad ideas are rewarded with hefty investments, where companies blow money lavishing perks on their post-collegiate workforces, and where everybody is trying to hang on just long enough to cash out with a fortune.

Tim E. Fischer analysiert verschiedene PR-Ansatze und zeigt verschiedene Differenzierungsmoglichkeiten aktueller PR-Medien auf, die dem Bereich der Neuen Medien zuzuordnen sind. Anhand des gewahlten PR-Ansatzes weist er den einzelnen Managementphasen Funktion und Nutzungsmoglichkeiten von PR-Medien zu und bewertet ihren Einsatz anhand okonomischer und kommunikationswissenschaftlicher Kriterien.
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In February 2015, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted an order that will impose rules governing the management of Internet traffic as it passes over broadband Internet access services (BIAS), whether those services are fixed or wireless. The rules are commonly known as "net neutrality" rules. The order was released in March 2015. According to the order, the rules ban the blocking of legal content, forbid paid prioritisation of affiliated or proprietary content, and prohibit the throttling of legal content by broadband Internet access service providers (BIAS providers). The rules are subject to reasonable network management, as that term is defined by the FCC. This book discusses selected legal issues raised by FCC's 2015 open internet order, and examines the net neutrality debate.

India’s global success in the Information Technology industry has also prompted the growth of neoliberalism and the re-emergence of the middle class in contemporary urban areas, such as Bangalore. In her significant study, BITS of Belonging, Simanti Dasgupta shows that this economic shift produces new forms of social inequality while reinforcing older ones. She investigates this economic disparity by looking at IT and water privatization to explain how these otherwise unrelated domains correspond to our thinking about citizenship, governance, and belonging.  Dasgupta’s ethnographic study shows how work and human processes in the IT industry intertwine to meet the market stipulations of the global economy. Meanwhile, in the recasting of water from a public good to a commodity, the middle class insists on a governance and citizenship model based upon market participation. Dasgupta provides a critical analysis of the grassroots activism involved in a contested water project where different classes lay their divergent claims to the city.

The rise of sophisticated mobile devices and high-speed wireless networks is transforming the Internet and how our society interacts with it. Americans are rapidly embracing mobile technologies and the opportunities they create. This book examines data from the 2012 Current Population Survey (CPS) describing Americans' use of computers and the Internet. Data from this survey depict the accelerating popularity of mobile phone-based Internet use across demographic groups. The book also reveals the explosion in mobile Internet use accompanied by narrowing but persistent disparities in computer ownership and Internet use overall. This book's insights will allow policymakers, in cooperation with private partners, to make decisions that will improve America's productivity, ingenuity, world competitiveness, and standard of living.

Das vorliegende essential gibt einen UEberblick uber die Auswirkungen der Digitalisierung auf das Controlling. Neben der Frage, wie sich neue Technologien der Digitalisierung auf das Rollenmodell im Controlling auswirken, geht Christian Langmann auch auf die Folgen fur die Aufbau-Organisation des Controllings ein. Aktuelle Entwicklungen wie die Rolle des Data Scientist oder Data Labs als neue Organisationeinheit neben dem Controlling werden aufgegriffen. Zentrale Prozesse des Controllings - Planung/Forecast und Reporting - werden im Hinblick auf die Digitalisierung beleuchtet und es wird analysiert, wie die Digitalisierung dort gewinnbringend eingesetzt werden kann. An verschiedenen Beispielen zeigt das essential praxisnah, wie Big-Data, Predictive-Analytics oder Robotic-Process-Automation sinnvoll in der Planung oder dem Reporting eingesetzt werden koennen.

This book is part of a series exploring the dynamic universe of the Internet in the 21st century. Collected here are papers discussing a wide range of topics and issues impacting and relating to the Internet, such as the proliferation of online support groups for HIV/AIDs patients; dissociation in the virtual world; the Internet and entrepreneurship in Poland; Internet domain name problems; designing effective Internet policies; virtual learning and classroom sites and the role of the Internet in citizen science.

Amazon's business model is deceptively simple: Make online shopping so easy and convenient that customers won't think twice. It can almost be summed up by the button on every page: "Buy now with one click."

Why has Amazon been so successful? Much of it has to do with Jeff Bezos, the CEO and founder, whose unique combination of character traits and business strategy have driven Amazon to the top of the online retail world.

Richard Brandt charts Bezos's rise from computer nerd to world- changing entrepreneur. His success can be credited to his forward-looking insights and ruthless business sense. Brandt explains:
Why Bezos decided to allow negative product reviews, correctly guessing that the earned trust would outweigh possible lost sales.
Why Amazon zealously guards some patents yet freely shares others.
Why Bezos called becoming profitable the "dumbest" thing they could do in 1997.
How Amazon.com became one of the only dotcoms to survive the bust of the early 2000s.
Where the company is headed next.

Through interviews with Amazon employees, competitors, and observers, Brandt has deciphered how Bezos makes decisions. The story of Amazon's ongoing evolution is a case study in how to reinvent an entire industry, and one that anyone in business today ignores at their peril.

Computer processing and internet communication has changed the way we learn, work, play and associate with each other. In the case of China, the introduction of the computer and mass availability of the internet has boosted economic growth, sped up social progress, transformed the political landscape and changed the lifestyle of the Chinese people in profound ways. This book discusses the influence that advances in computers and increased use and dependence on the internet has had on China, with a particular focus on cyberspace governance to students, economic theorists, empirical social scientists, policy makers and the informed general reader.

Many website operators produce income by selling advertising space on their sites. Advertisers will pay a premium for ads that are more likely to reach their target demographic. In other media, such as broadcasting, advertisers engage in targeting by purchasing advertising time during programs that those who buy their products are most likely to watch. The Internet presented new challenges and opportunities for advertisers, because, rather than aiming their ads at groups of people who visit a particular site, their ads are aimed at the individual user. This maximises the odds that the user who sees the ad will be interested in the product or service it touts. This book explores today's current issues in Internet advertising and sales.

Now in its third edition, In the News is the standard Canadian textbook on media relations, used across the country. The authors provide an introduction to media relations, grounded in both communications theory and hands-on, day-to-day experience. Whether you need to promote your issues to the nation or reach small, targeted groups, this book is your step-by-step guide. In the News is perfect for communications students; media relations practitioners in the private, public and voluntary sectors; and anyone who wants to break a story.

Broadband is the great infrastructure challenge of the early 21st century. Like electricity a century ago, broadband is a foundation for economic growth, job creation, global competitiveness and a better way of life. It is enabling entire new industries and unlocking vast new possibilities for existing ones. It is changing how we educate children, deliver health care, manage energy, ensure public safety, engage government, and access, organise and disseminate knowledge. But broadband in America is not all it needs to be. Approximately 100 million Americans do not have broadband at home. This book explores and analyses The National Broadband Plan.

Modern means of communications, led by the Internet, provide a relatively inexpensive, open, easy-entry means of sharing ideas, information, pictures, and text around the world. In a political and human rights context, in closed societies when the more established, formal news media is denied access to or does not report on specified news events, the Internet has become an alternative source of media, and sometimes a means to organise politically. The openness and the freedom of expression allowed through blogs, social networks, video sharing sites, and other tools of today's communications technology has proven to be an unprecedented and often disruptive force in some closed societies. This book provides information regarding the role of U.S. and other foreign companies in facilitating Internet censorship by repressive regimes overseas.

The Internet has thrived because of its freedom and openness, the absence of any gatekeeper blocking lawful uses of the network or picking winners and losers online. Consumers and innovators do not have to seek permission before they use the Internet to launch new technologies, start businesses, connect with friends or share their views. Consumers can make their own choices about what applications and services to use and are free to decide what content they want to access, create, or share with others. This openness promotes competition. This book examines the open Internet, and the role of the FCC and their authority to regulate net neutrality.

This book explores broadband Internet use and rural America. For many Americans, a world without broadband is unimaginable. However, large parts of rural America have languished on the sidelines of the digital revolution. As many of their fellow citizens in more densely populated parts of the country go online for work, education, entertainment, healthcare, civic participation, and much more, too many rural Americans are being left behind. Rural governments and businesses are missing opportunities to function more efficiently and effectively. At a time when access to affordable, robust broadband services is a fundamental part of efforts to restore America's economic well-being in both rural and urban areas, we must ensure that this capability is available to open the doors of opportunity for everyone.

Das vorliegende Buch stellt erstmals die Theorie der zweiseitigen Markte und deren Anwendung auf Medienmarkte intuitiv sowie modelltheoretisch dar. Nach einer Diskussion der oekonomischen Grundlagen werden relevante Modelle zweiseitiger Medienplattformen sowie Anwendungen fur die Wettbewerbspolitik besprochen. Anschliessend werden die wirtschaftspolitischen Implikationen der Theorie dargestellt. Anhand von realen Wettbewerbsfallen auf Internet-, Zeitungs- und Zeitschriftenmarkten wird diskutiert, ob und inwiefern Medienplattformen einer unterschiedlichen wettbewerbspolitischen und -rechtlichen Behandlung bedurfen. Das Buch dient damit sowohl den Studierenden der Wirtschaftswissenschaften und des Wettbewerbsrechts zum Verstandnis der modernen Medienoekonomik. Es gibt aber ebenso Hinweise fur die wettbewerbspolitische Analyse von Medienmarkten in der Fallpraxis.

Text in English & German. Apple Inc, the Californian computer company, has been marked by unparalleled success over the past three and a half decades. Like no other company, it has succeeded in shifting the focus of use from utility to coveted possessions when it comes to computers and electronic entertainment devices such as the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. In addition, each of the products in the i-family have changed their product genres technologically and ergonomically to such an extent that not only have all competitors adopted these new 'user guidances', but hundreds of complementary products have been created around these products as well, from a wide range of accessories to docking stations (ie: veritable radios with external speakers for the iPods and iPhones) that allow users to experience the stored music without headphones. The iPhone has compelled all manufacturers of mobile phones to add smart phones with touch sensitive screens, the touch phones, to their programs. And the iPad will fundamentally transform the handling of video and news as well. Since the introduction of the iPhone, over 200,000 special application programs, the so-called apps, have been made available for these i-devices. In their product genres, these devices have each caused a paradigm shift: they are both leading and cult products, and they represent a development that has leveraged the mobile Internet and delocalised the act of surfing from the home to almost anywhere. The book comments upon this process of 'disruptive technologies', which has taken place only very rarely in the history of technology and design. They leaf through the preconditions and position these innovative devices in product-historical, social, and psychological contexts.