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Books > Business & Economics > Industry & industrial studies > Media, information & communication industries > Information technology industries
A leading artificial intelligence researcher lays out a new
approach to AI that will enable us to coexist successfully with
increasingly intelligent machines In the popular imagination,
superhuman artificial intelligence is an approaching tidal wave
that threatens not just jobs and human relationships, but
civilization itself. Conflict between humans and machines is seen
as inevitable and its outcome all too predictable. In this
groundbreaking book, distinguished AI researcher Stuart Russell
argues that this scenario can be avoided, but only if we rethink AI
from the ground up. Russell begins by exploring the idea of
intelligence in humans and in machines. He describes the near-term
benefits we can expect, from intelligent personal assistants to
vastly accelerated scientific research, and outlines the AI
breakthroughs that still have to happen before we reach superhuman
AI. He also spells out the ways humans are already finding to
misuse AI, from lethal autonomous weapons to viral sabotage. If the
predicted breakthroughs occur and superhuman AI emerges, we will
have created entities far more powerful than ourselves. How can we
ensure they never, ever, have power over us? Russell suggests that
we can rebuild AI on a new foundation, according to which machines
are designed to be inherently uncertain about the human preferences
they are required to satisfy. Such machines would be humble,
altruistic, and committed to pursue our objectives, not theirs.
This new foundation would allow us to create machines that are
provably deferential and provably beneficial.
This book is an impressive survey of our collective and cumulative
understanding of the evolution of digital communication systems and
the Internet. While the information societies of the twenty-first
century will develop ever more sophisticated technologies, the
Internet is now a familiar and pervasive part of the world in which
we live, work, and communicate. As such it is important to take
stock of some fundamental questions--whether, for example, it
contributes to progress, social cohesion, democracy, and
growth--and at the same time to review the rich and varied theories
and perspectives developed by thinkers in a range of disciplines
over the last fifty years or more.
In this remarkably comprehensive but concise and useful book, Robin
Mansell summarizes key debates, and reviews the contributions of
major thinkers in communication systems, economics, politics,
sociology, psychology, and systems theory--from Norbert Wiener to
Brian Arthur and Manuel Castells, and from Gregory Bateson to
William Davidow and Sherry Turkle. This is an interdisciplinary and
critical analysis of the way we experience the Internet in front of
the screen, and of the developments behind the screen, all of which
have implications for privacy, security, intellectual property
rights, and the overall governance of the Internet.
The author presents fairly the ideas of the celebrants and the
sceptics, and reminds us of the continuing need for careful,
critical, and informed analysis of the paradoxes and challenges of
the Internet, offering her own views on how we might move to
greater empowerment, and suggesting policy measures and governance
approaches that go beyond those commonly debated.
This concise book will be essential reading for anyone who wants to
understand the challenges the Internet presents in the twenty-first
century, and the debates and research that can inform that
understanding.
This academic analysis explores social media, specifically
examining its influence on the cultural, political, and economic
organization of our society and the role capitalism plays within
its domain. In this examination of society and technology, author
and educator Derek Hrynyshyn explores the ways in which social
media shapes popular culture and how social power is expressed
within it. He debunks the misperception of the medium as a social
equalizer-a theory drawn from the fact that content is created by
its users-and compares it to mass media, identifying the
capitalist-driven mechanisms that drive both social media and mass
media. The work captures his assessment that social media
legitimizes the inequities among the social classes rather than
challenging them. The book scrutinizes the difference between
social media and mass media, the relationship between technologies
and social change, and the role of popular culture in the structure
of political and economic power. A careful look at social media
networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google suggests that these
tools are systems of surveillance, monitoring everyday activities
for the benefit of advertisers and the networks themselves. Topics
covered within the book's 10 detailed chapters include privacy
online, freedom of expression, piracy, the digital divide,
fragmentation, and social cohesion. Explores the use of blogs,
Facebook, and Twitter in revolutionary political action and the
effects of "viral" campaigns on political culture Uncovers the
truth behind piracy infringements on popular cultural industries
Reveals the hidden factors driving the rapid expansion of social
media Discusses how capitalism affects the development of social
media Examines how social media shares characteristics with and
differs from mass media
Written by an author that has real world experience in launching a
cyber consulting company. Comprehensive coverage ranging all the
way from the legal formation to be used to which segment of the
Cybersecurity Industry should be targeted. Explains how CISOs can
market their services and get key customers.
Written by an author that has real world experience in launching a
cyber consulting company. Comprehensive coverage ranging all the
way from the legal formation to be used to which segment of the
Cybersecurity Industry should be targeted. Explains how CISOs can
market their services and get key customers.
'An exciting, astute analysis of how our capacity for desire has
been slotted into the grooves of digital capitalism, and made to
work for profit - from porn to Pokemon' - Richard Seymour We are in
the middle of a 'desirevolution' - a fundamental and political
transformation of the way we desire as human beings. Perhaps as
always, new technologies - with their associated and inherited
political biases - are organising and mapping the future. What we
don't seem to notice is that the primary way in which our lives are
being transformed is through the manipulation and control of desire
itself. Our very impulses, drives and urges are 'gamified' to suit
particular economic and political agendas, changing the way we
relate to everything from lovers and friends to food and
politicians. Digital technologies are transforming the subject at
the deepest level of desire - re-mapping its libidinal economy - in
ways never before imagined possible. From sexbots to smart condoms,
fitbits to VR simulators and AI to dating algorithms, the 'love
industries' are at the heart of the future smart city and the
social fabric of everyday life. This book considers these emergent
technologies and what they mean for the future of love, desire,
work and capitalism.
China has become an innovation powerhouse in high-tech industries,
but the widely held view assumes the Chinese model is built on
technological borrowing and state capitalism. This book debunks the
myths surrounding the Chinese model with a fresh take on China's
strategies for technological innovation. The central argument is
that indigenous innovation plays a critical role in transforming
the Chinese high-tech industry. Like any successfully
industrialized nation in history, indigenous innovation in China
allows industrial enterprises to assimilate knowledge developed
elsewhere, utilize science and technology resources and human
capabilities accumulated in the country, and eventually approach
the technological frontier. The question is, how do Chinese
businesses and governments engage in indigenous innovation?
Employing the "social conditions of innovative enterprise"
framework developed by William Lazonick and colleagues, this book
analyzes how the interaction of strategy, organization, and finance
in leading Chinese high-tech firms underpinned by national
institutions enables indigenous innovation with Chinese
characteristics. It features detailed case studies of two critical
high-tech industries-the telecom-equipment industry and the
semiconductor industry-and within them, the business histories of
leading Chinese innovators. The in-depth look into China's
experience in indigenous innovation provides valuable lessons for
advanced and emerging economies.
Ambient Assisted Living and Enhanced Living Environments:
Principles, Technologies and Control separates the theoretical
concepts concerning the design of such systems from their
real-world implementations. For each important topic, the book
bridges theory and practice, introducing the instruments needed by
professionals in their activities. To this aim, topics are
presented in a logical sequence, with the introduction of each
topic motivated by the need to respond to claims and requirements
from a wide range of AAL/ELE applications. The advantages and
limitations of each model or technology are presented through
concrete case studies for AAL/ELE systems. The book also presents
up-to-date technological solutions to the main aspects regarding
AAL/ELE systems and applications, a highly dynamic scientific
domain that has gained much interest in the world of IT in the last
decade. In addition, readers will find discussions on recent
AAL/ELE technologies that were designed to solve some of the
thorniest business problems that affect applications in areas such
as health and medical supply, smart city and smart housing, Big
Data and Internet of Things, and many more.
Smart Cities and Homes: Key Enabling Technologies explores the
fundamental principles and concepts of the key enabling
technologies for smart cities and homes, disseminating the latest
research and development efforts in the field through the use of
numerous case studies and examples. Smart cities use digital
technologies embedded across all their functions to enhance the
wellbeing of citizens. Cities that utilize these technologies
report enhancements in power efficiency, water use, traffic
congestion, environmental protection, pollution reduction, senior
citizens care, public safety and security, literacy rates, and
more. This book brings together the most important breakthroughs
and advances in a coherent fashion, highlighting the
interconnections between the works in different areas of computing,
exploring both new and emerging computer networking systems and
other computing technologies, such as wireless sensor networks,
vehicle ad hoc networks, smart girds, cloud computing, and data
analytics and their roles in creating environmentally friendly,
secure, and prosperous cities and homes. Intended for researchers
and practitioners, the book discusses the pervasive and cooperative
computing technologies that will perform a central role for
handling the challenges of urbanization and demographic change.
India has become a highly visible participant in the information
communication technology (ICT) industry. Since the 1990s, it has
been one of the fastest growing economies in the world, emerging as
the most watched test of global capitalism. The contributors to
this volume examine how the ICT-driven development of India appears
to have skipped the middle stages of the traditional economic
development models and leapfrogged directly to the final stage
whereby growth is mostly technologically driven. Information
Communication Technology and Economic Development reveals new
insights regarding the complex process of globalization. It shows
how the generation and circulation of intellectual capital in the
US and India in ICT have led to greater productivity in the US
while facilitating the economic development of India. Most
industrialized nations now see the vast intellectual capital-based
services that India provides at extremely competitive rates as key
to their own national competitiveness in the global arena. The
contributors' findings suggest that India's ICT-led growth will
accelerate in the next ten years, launching India as a major global
economic power next to the US and China. This provocative and
timely volume will be a necessary read for students and scholars of
international business, public policy, economic development,
management and strategy as well as all those interested in the
impact of globalization on national and regional economies.
The internet has begun to develop into a much more immersive and
multi-dimensional space. Three dimensional spaces and sites of
interaction have not just gripped our attention but have begun to
weave or be woven into the fabric of our professional and social
lives. The Immersive Internet - including social media, augmented
reality, virtual worlds, online games, 3D internet and beyond - is
still nascent, but is moving towards a future where communications
technologies and virtual spaces offer immersive experiences
persuasive enough to blur the lines between the virtual and the
physical. It is this emerging Immersive Internet that is the focus
of this book of short thought pieces - postcards from the metaverse
- by some of the leading thinkers in the field. The book questions
what a more immersive and intimate internet might mean for society
and for each of us.
This book provides valuable insights into the Kingdom of Saudi
Arabia (KSA) through a comprehensive examination of Vision 2030, an
ambitious economic plan by the KSA to reinvent and diversify its
economy from a heavy dependence on hydrocarbon to knowledge-based
resources. Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Saudi
Arabia: Vision 2030 discusses how this initiative will assist the
government in achieving its envisioned goals by creating a culture
of research, innovation and entrepreneurship. It studies the
current state of the field as well as new policies and reforms in
Saudi Arabia which encompass education systems, ICT infrastructure
and a vibrant innovation landscape that includes academia, the
public and private sectors and civil society. The authors present a
number of real-life case studies as a model of inspiration for
cross-sector development. The book provides a source of inspiration
for other nations in studying the KSA's determined and ambitious
plans as a country in a transitioning journey, from a natural
resources-based economy towards a knowledge-based country with
considerable diversification in all sectors. This book is a useful
reference for students, researchers and policy and decision-makers
in understanding Saudi innovation and the economic diversification
ecosystem.
The Indian software industry has rapidly grown over the past decade, and most of this growth has been derived from exports to the US market. This book deals with business models, particularly the way the unique software model in India has evolved. It focuses on manpower resources in the software industry and knowledge diffusion through job switching, and the resulting impacts on business strategy.
What do Goggle, Facebook, mobile phones and creative commons have
in common? The answer is: economics! Stefano Comino and Fabio
Manenti have written a crisp and thorough treatment of the
economics of information and communications technologies. This
valuable book fills a real gap in the market.' - Professor Tommaso
Valletti, Imperial College Business School'I enjoyed reading this
book immensely. So will students, as they will be able to see
lucidly the economics behind their inseparable electronic
companions. Researchers keeping a copy at hand will have a rich
reference source of the ways in which good economic theory has
captured the behaviour of sophisticated firms and their customer.'
- Gianni De Fraja, The University of Nottingham, UK This text
rigorously blends theory with real-world applications to study the
industrial organization of the ICT sector. Each of the
self-contained chapters, which can be studied in isolation,
contains theoretical models that are presented in a clear and
accessible way. Throughout, a series of useful boxes complements
and elucidates the theories with additional empirical/anecdotal
evidence. This text will be of great interest to advanced
undergraduate students with a background in microeconomics and game
theory, particularly those taking courses in industrial
organization, innovation economics and the economics of networks.
The authors address the most important issues and are able to
explore and explain complex theories and concepts in a clear,
logical and coherent manner. Some of the topics covered include: -
the economics of innovation - digital markets - network
externalities - two-sided networks - imitation, open source and
file sharing - antitrust in high-tech sectors. Contents: 1.
Industrial Organisation of High-Tech Markets 2. Digital Markets 3.
Network Externalities 4. Two-Sided Networks 5. Access and
Interconnection in Telecommunications 6. Cumulative Innovation in
Dynamic Industries 7. Imitation, Open Source and File Sharing 8.
Antitrust in High-Tech Sectors References Index
The emergence of new platform business models, notably the sharing
economy, is impacting the economy in various ways, altering the
structure of many industries, and raising a number of economic and
political issues. This book investigates the widespread influence
of the sharing economy on businesses and society, as well as
examining its underpinning economic principles and development.
This volume presents an exhaustive review of the existing knowledge
on the sharing economy and addresses several major areas of concern
for incumbent businesses. It also explains the business models for
those who are interested in embarking on their own ventures and
provides an excellent source for further research. It takes an
in-depth look at controversial labour policies, such as using
labour as self-employed contractors or using regulatory grey areas
to expand in markets. It is highly multidisciplinary, establishing
links between economics, finance, marketing and consumer behaviour.
This contribution on the sharing economy will enable researchers
and graduate and doctoral students to expand and improve their
understanding of this topic and identify new research problems in
all of these areas. The book will also appeal to policy makers,
regional and local government decision makers, and those interested
in labour markets transformation.
The near-ubiquitous spread of ICT offers unprecedented
opportunities for social and economic agents, reshapes social and
economic structures and drives the emergence of socioeconomic
networks. This book contributes to the growing body of literature
and present state of knowledge, offering the reader broad evidence
on how new information and communication technologies impact
women's economic and social empowerment and hence have an impact on
overall welfare creation. More specifically, it concentrates on
demonstrating how ICT may become "empowering technologies" through
their implementation. The book is designed to provide deep insight
into the theoretical and empirical evidence on ICT as a significant
driver of women`s social and economic development. Special focus is
given to examining the following broad topics: channels of ICT
impact on women's development; the role of ICT in enhancing women's
active participation in formal labor markets; examples of how ICT
encourages education, skills development, institutions development
et alia, and thus contributes to women's social and economic
empowerment, as well as case-based evidence on ICT's role in
fostering women's equality. The primary audience for the book will
be scholars and academic professionals from a wide variety of
disciplines but mainly those who are concerned with addressing the
issues of economic development and growth, social development, the
role of technology progress in the context of broadly defined
socioeconomic progress. Chapters 1 and 3 of this book are available
for free in PDF format as Open Access from the individual product
page at www.routledge.com. They have been made available under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0
license.
"An excellent introduction to the essential problem of our
republic. With a wake-up call like this one, we still have a
chance." -Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny Ghosting the News
tells the most troubling media story of our time: How democracy
suffers when local news dies. From 2004 to 2015, 1,800 print
newspaper outlets closed in the US. One in five news organizations
in Canada has closed since 2008. One in three Brazilians lives in
news deserts. The absence of accountability journalism has created
an atmosphere in which indicted politicians were elected, school
superintendents were mismanaging districts, and police chiefs were
getting mysterious payouts. This is not the much-discussed
fake-news problem-it's the separate problem of a critical shortage
of real news. America's premier media critic, Margaret Sullivan,
charts the contours of the damage, and surveys a range of new
efforts to keep local news alive-from non-profit digital sites to
an effort modeled on the Peace Corps. No nostalgic paean to the
roar of rumbling presses, Ghosting the News instead sounds a loud
alarm, alerting citizens to a growing crisis in local news that has
already done serious damage.
This is definitive take on the wildest story of the year- the
David-vs.-Goliath GameStop short squeeze, a tale of fortunes won
and lost overnight that may end up changing Wall Street forever.
Bestselling author Ben Mezrich offers a gripping, beat-by-beat
account of how a loosely affiliate group of private investors and
internet trolls took down one of the biggest hedge funds on Wall
Street, firing the first shot in a revolution that threatens to
upend the financial establishment. It started on a subreddit forum
called WallStreetBets - a meme-filled, freewheeling place where a
disparate group of investors shared their shoot-the-moon investment
tips, laughed about big losses, and posted diamond hand emojis.
Until some members noticed an opportunity in Game Stop - a flailing
bricks and mortar video-game retailer - and somehow rode a rocket
ship to tens of millions of dollars in earnings overnight,
simultaneously triggering unfathomable losses for one of the most
respected funds on the street. In thrilling, pulse-pounding prose,
THE ANTISOCIAL NETWORK offers a fascinating, never-before-seen
glimpse at the outsize personalities, dizzying swings, corporate
drama, and underestimated American heroes and heroines who
captivated the world during one of the most volatile weeks in
financial history. It's the amazing story of what just happened-and
where we go from here.
This practical text offers a research-based account of the
technical communication profession and its practice, outlining
emergent touchpoints of this fast-changing field while highlighting
its diversity. Through research on the history and the
globalization of technical communication and up-to-date industry
analysis, including first-hand narratives from industry
practitioners, this book brings together common threads through the
industry, suggests future trends, and points toward strategic
routes for development. Vignettes from the workplace and examples
of industry practice provide tangible insights into the different
paths and realities of the field, furnishing readers with a range
of entry routes and potential career sectors, workplace
communities, daily activities, and futures. This approach is
central to helping readers understand the diverse competencies of
technical communicators in the modern, globalized economy. The
Profession and Practice of Technical Communication provides
essential guidance for students, early professionals, and lateral
entrants to the profession and can be used as a textbook for
technical communication courses.
With recent advances in IT in areas such as AI and IoT,
collaboration systems such as business chat, cloud services,
conferencing systems, and unified communications are rapidly
becoming widely used as new IT applications in global corporations'
strategic activities. Through in-depth longitudinal studies of
global corporations, the book presents a new theoretical framework
and implications for IT-enabled dynamic capabilities using
collaboration systems from the perspective of micro strategy theory
and organization theory. The content of the book is based on
longitudinal analyses that employ various qualitative research
methods including ethnography, participant observation, action
research and in-depth case studies of global corporations in
Europe, the United States and Asia that actively use collaboration
systems. It presents a new concept of micro dynamism whereby
dynamic "IT-enabled knowledge communities" such as "IT-enabled
communities of practice" and "IT-enabled strategic communities"
create "IT-enabled dynamic capabilities" through the integration of
four research streams - an information systems view, micro strategy
view, micro organization view and knowledge-based view. The book
demonstrates that collaboration systems create, maintain and
develop "IT-enabled knowledge communities" within companies and are
strategic IT applications for enhancing the competitiveness of
companies in the ongoing creation of new innovation and the
realization of sustainable growth in a 21st century knowledge-based
society. This book is primarily written for academics, researchers
and graduate students, but will also offer practical implications
for business leaders and managers. Its use is anticipated not only
in business and management schools, graduate schools and university
education environments around the world but also in the broad
business environment including management and leadership
development training.
"Uberization," "digitalization," "platform economy," "gig economy,"
and "sharing economy" are some of the buzzwords that characterize
the current intense discussions about the development of the
economy and work around the world, among both experts and
laypersons. Immense changes in the ways goods are manufactured,
business is done, work tasks are performed, education is
accomplished, and so on, are clearly underway. This also means that
demand for careful, first-rate social scientific analyses of the
phenomena in question is rapidly growing. This edited volume
gathers distinguished researchers from economics, business studies,
organization studies, medicine, social psychology, occupational
health, pedagogics, and sociology to put particular work in both
public and private sectors and education in both academic and
vocational settings at the focus of the emerging digitalized
platform economy. The authors anchor their analyses and conceptual
and theoretical work in distinctive empirical developments that are
taking place in one of the leading countries of digitalization
processes: Finland. Finnish case studies reflect general global
developments and show their particular, context-related
actualization in multiple ways. This double exposure enables the
authors of this multi- and interdisciplinary volume to advance
conceptualization and theorization of the key phenomena in
digitalizing platform societies in novel, creative, and
groundbreaking directions. This book will without doubt be of great
value to academic researchers and students in the fields of
economics, business studies, work studies, social sciences,
education, technology, digitalization, platforms, occupational
health, entrepreneurship, and professions.
Can the internet fundamentally challenge non-free regimes? The role
that social networking played in political change in the Middle
East and beyond raises important questions about the ability of
authoritarian leaders to control the information sphere and their
subjects. Revolution Stalled goes beyond the idea of "virtual "
politics to study five key components in the relationship between
the online sphere and society: content, community, catalysts,
control, and co-optation. This analysis of the contemporary Russian
internet, written by a scholar with in-depth knowledge of both the
post-Soviet media and media theory, illuminates how and when online
activity can spark political action. This book argues that there
are critical pre-conditions that help the internet to challenge
non-free states. For example, Russian leaders became vulnerable to
online protest movements and online social entrepreneurs when they
failed to control the internet as effectively as they control
traditional media. At the same time, Russia experienced explosive
growth in online audiences, tipping the balance of control away
from state-run television and toward the more open online sphere.
Drawing upon studies of small-scale protests involving health
issues and children with disabilities, Oates provides compelling
evidence of the way Russians are translating individual grievances
into rising political awareness and efficacy via the online sphere.
The Russian state is struggling to change its information and
control strategy in response to new types of information
dissemination, networking, and protest. At the same time, this new
environment has transformed a state strategy of co-opted elections
into a powerful catalyst for protest and demands for rights. While
the revolution remains stalled, Oates shows how a new and changing
generation of internet users is transforming the public sphere in
Russia.
This book explores the strategic decisions made by organizations
when implementing cybersecurity controls and leveraging economic
models and theories from the economics of information security and
risk-management frameworks. Based on unique and distinct research
completed within the field of risk-management and information
security, this book provides insight into organizational
risk-management processes utilized in determining cybersecurity
investments. It describes how theoretical models and frameworks
rely on either specific scenarios or controlled conditions and how
decisions on cybersecurity spending within
organizations-specifically, the funding available in comparison to
the recommended security measures necessary for compliance-vary
depending on stakeholders. As the trade-off between the costs of
implementing a security measure and the benefit derived from the
implementation of security controls is not easily measured, a
business leader's decision to fund security measures may be biased.
The author presents an innovative approach to assess cybersecurity
initiatives with a risk-management perspective and leverages a
data-centric focus on the evolution of cyber-attacks. This book is
ideal for business school students and technology professionals
with an interest in risk management.
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