One of the most important elements in the computer revolution has been agreement on technological standards. The advances in communication allowed by millions of computers connecting over various networks are based on these networks sharing a common language. This book tells the complete story of the battle between several competing technologies in the late 1970s and early 1980s to become the compatibility standard in one high-tech arena, the LAN (local area network) industry.
In the end, a single technology succeeded in dominating the entire industry: Ethernet. The author argues that Ethernet triumphed not because it was better or cheaper, but because of a clever strategy by Ethernet's corporate sponsors. This strategy mandated the building of a large supplier base around the technology in order to compensate for an inability to produce all required components and devices. Within a few years, Ethernet had greatly surpassed its competitors in gaining suppliers, which included specialized start-ups, semiconductor firms, and established computer manufacturers. This supplier advantage proved an invaluable strategic asset. As suppliers developed various price and product advantages that were easily adopted by Ethernet, its competitors were driven out of the market.
Key to understanding the importance of a supplier base in the race for standards is the crucial role of a technological community. The book demonstrates how technological communities account not only for critical differences in the standardization strategies of various LAN vendors, but also for the emergence of other important instances of technological competition. For example, the recent rise of Linux and Java can be seen as the result of successful community-driven strategies.
The story of the battle for the LAN standard is also a story of the Internet more broadly, and so the book offers unique insights into its dazzling growth, as LANs became important corporate on-ramps to the Internet and several LAN suppliers (such as 3Com) evolved into leading suppliers of Internet technology.

'A fascinating expose of the world behind your screen. Timely, often disturbing, and so important' Caroline Criado Perez, author of Invisible Women 'Takes us beyond Zuckerberg, Bezos et al to a murkier world where we discover how everything online works and who benefits from it. Fascinating, engaging and important' Observer 'Could not be more timely' Spectator The internet is a network of physical cables and connections, a web of wires enmeshing the world, linking huge data centres to one another and eventually to us. All are owned by someone, financed by someone, regulated by someone. We refer to the internet as abstract from reality. By doing so, we obscure where the real power lies. In this powerful and necessary book, James Ball sets out on a global journey into the inner workings of the system. From the computer scientists to the cable guys, the billionaire investors to the ad men, the intelligence agencies to the regulators, these are the real-life figures powering the internet and pulling the strings of our society. Ball brilliantly shows how an invention once hailed as a democratising force has concentrated power in places it already existed - that the system, in other words, remains the same as it did before.

Recent years have seen a growth in strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions and collaborative networks involving knowledge-intensive and hi-tech industries. However, there have been relatively few studies looking at this form of collaboration as a strategy to drive firms' innovative performances. This book specifically focuses on the role of strategic alliances, M&A and innovation networks, providing insights on if and how they contribute to boosting firms' innovation performances. The book has a double purpose. Firstly, it investigates at an industry level the role played by the alliance, M&As and networks in high-tech environments such as biotechnology, pharmaceutical, software and nanotechnology in creating, transforming and reshaping the dynamics inside and between industries. Secondly, it explores the impact at the firm level of factors such as cognitive distance, management capabilities, and relational and social capabilities, on firms' global innovation capacity, measured as innovation quantity, innovation quality and innovation novelty. The book will be of interest to scholars working on the economics of innovation, innovation management studies, strategic management, regional science and evolutionary economics, among other areas.

Since 1971 competition has begun to replace regulation as a governing force in the telecommunications industry. The breakup of the national telephone monopolies, technological advances, and the worldwide network in telecommunications have brought a revolution in the telecommunications equipment and services industries. These changes have forced legislators and regulators to rethink public policy toward communications. The papers in this book were first presented at a conference organized by Robert Crandall and Kenneth Flamm, pulling together a group of industry professionals and scholars to address the far-reaching implications of the upheaval in the communications industry. The contributors analyze the effects of this increasing competition on standardization, technical innovation, and international rivalry. Changing the Rules offers possible policy options and analyzes their potential effects on the future market structure and the competitive positions of the U.S. computer and communications industries.

Momentous developments in the global economy over the last two decades have dramatically increased the availability of industrial investment sites and lowered the cost of relocating core activities to new countries. But how should these developments be exploited for competitive advantage? Firms face competing pressures: scale economies and the advantages of proximity push them to concentrate activities in one or only a few locations, while low wages and new markets invite dispersal across several countries.
This book examines how location decisions have contributed to the global dominance of U.S. firms in the hard disk drive industry. In analyzing the industry since its beginnings some forty years ago, the book explains how American leadership in disk drives has rested on the formation of two complementary industrial clusters. Fundamental research and product development has been located almost entirely in the United States, principally California. Manufacturing has been concentrated in Southeast Asia (initially in Singapore and later in Thailand and Malaysia as well). This duality has proven key to the successful competitive position of the U.S. disk drive industry.
Beyond the particulars of the disk drive industry, the authors present new perspectives on the sources of industrial leadership, the strategic behavior of multinational corporations, the geographic evolution of industry, and the creation and endurance of industrial clusters. Managers will gain insight into how location decisions can contribute to organizational effectiveness, and will learn that globalizing production, while keeping innovative activities at home, can contribute to their firms' competitive advantage. Policy makers will find that first mover advantages may be as important for countries as for companies, since early and systematic efforts to attract a specific industry can generate a critical mass of investments that, over time, will make a location resistant to inducements offered by other countries.

This book investigates the contextual factors that led to Korean society becoming 'broadband heaven' - the most wired nation in the world - by scrutinizing the historical contexts surrounding the Korean Information Infrastructure (KII) project (1995-2005), which aimed to establish a nationwide high-speed backbone network, as well as its later evolution, which involved redesigning the public infrastructure. The book details the hidden mechanisms and the real elements of building the 'broadband heaven': the global constraints conditioning its telecom policies, the dense state-capital linkages, and the bureaucratic desire for social control. It draws on the state-in-society approach to analyze the deformations caused by the symbiosis between the state and big business in implementing the rosy vision of the broadband network. This book provides insights into how to formulate future telecom policies along much more democratically participatory lines while restraining the overwhelming power of the telecom oligopolies and conglomerates. It stands alone as a comprehensive study of the recent East Asian model of IT development, written specifically to examine Korea's socio-historical mechanisms for promoting physical speed and broadband mobility. This book will be important reading to anyone interested in Korean Studies, Information Technology and I.T. Development.

The emergence of highly promising and potent technologies has enabled the transition of ordinary objects into smart artifacts-providing wider connectivity of digitized entities that can facilitate the building of connected cities. This book provides readers with a solid foundation on the latest technologies and tools required to develop and enhance smart cities around the world. The book begins by examining the rise of the cloud as the fundamental technology for establishing and sustaining smart cities and enterprises. Explaining the principal technologies and platform solutions for implementing intelligent cities, the book details the role of various technologies, standards, protocols, and tools in establishing flexible homes and the buildings of the future. Examines IT platforms and tools from various product vendors Considers service-oriented architecture and event-driven architecture for smart city applications Explains how to leverage big data analytics for smart city enhancement and improved decision making Includes case studies of intelligent cities, smart homes, buildings, transports, healthcare systems, and airports The authors explore the convergence of cloud computing and enterprise architecture and present valuable information on next-generation cloud computing. They also cover the various architectural types, including enterprise-scale integration, security, management, and governance. The book concludes by explaining the various security requirements of intelligent cities as well as the threats and vulnerabilities of the various components that form the basis of the intelligent city framework, including cloud, big data, Internet of Things, and mobile technologies.

The development of the information technology (IT) industry in the Asia Pacific region faces two challenges. Firstly, can its established physical, technical, regional and governance infrastructures be adapted to meet the challenges embedded in the set of products and processes created by the IT industry? Secondly, as this adaptation evolves, which cities and regions will be best suited to connect to or lead global responses to these challenges? The chapters in this book have set out to explore these questions, providing details of change in a range of aspects of the IT industry such as mobile phones, software services, and flat screen design in regions in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, India, China and Australia. The book also outlines the policy responses of national and regional governments in Singapore, India and China and India. These case studies provide a basis to understand effective strategies which could be formulated for the future. This book's originality emerges from the fine detail provided about firms, in particular regions and cities, from research carried out by young scholars in the past two years. This makes it very useful for readers keen to understand the recent changes in this dynamic industry in a fast growth part of the world, and it will also help to shape thinking by policy makers on policy settings that can be applied.

In this sharp and witty book, long-time Silicon Valley observer and author Andrew Keen argues that, on balance, the Internet has had a disastrous impact on all our lives. By tracing the history of the Internet, from its founding in the 1960s to the creation of the World Wide Web in 1989, through the waves of start-ups and the rise of the big data companies to the increasing attempts to monetize almost every human activity, Keen shows how the Web has had a deeply negative effect on our culture, economy and society. Informed by Keen's own research and interviews, as well as the work of other writers, reporters and academics, The Internet is Not the Answer is an urgent investigation into the tech world - from the threat to privacy posed by social media and online surveillance by government agencies, to the impact of the Internet on unemployment and economic inequality. Keen concludes by outlining the changes that he believes must be made, before it's too late. If we do nothing, he warns, this new technology and the companies that control it will continue to impoverish us all.

The global impact of so-called 'offshoring', including of information technology (IT) and related services, continues to be a topic of great interest to academics, practitioners and policy makers. The Indian IT industry has sustained high levels of growth in revenues and employment since the late 1980s. Even following the global financial crisis and meltdown in 2008, the industry has reported growth, albeit at a lower rate. Furthermore, the high rates of technological change and increased competition has forced businesses and managers to be innovative and create new business models. This book examines how managers and entrepreneurs in the Indian IT industry have explored and exploited human capital opportunities at various stages of the industry's evolution to create innovative human resources (HR) practices and new business models. Based on extensive academic research and deep reflective practitioner accounts, this collection presents expert content, views and a coherent picture of the challenges and changes in the Indian IT industry and analyses how the industry has remained competitive in a constantly changing environment. This book will appeal to researchers, students and practitioners, particularly in the fields of human resources and strategic management.

Software startups make global headlines every day. As technology companies succeed and grow, so do their engineering departments. In your career, you'll may suddenly get the opportunity to lead teams: to become a manager. But this is often uncharted territory. How can you decide whether this career move is right for you? And if you do, what do you need to learn to succeed? Where do you start? How do you know that you're doing it right? What does "it" even mean? And isn't management a dirty word? This book will share the secrets you need to know to manage engineers successfully. Going from engineer to manager doesn't have to be intimidating. Engineers can be managers, and fantastic ones at that. Cast aside the rhetoric and focus on practical, hands-on techniques and tools. You'll become an effective and supportive team leader that your staff will look up to. Start with your transition to being a manager and see how that compares to being an engineer. Learn how to better organize information, feel productive, and delegate, but not micromanage. Discover how to manage your own boss, hire and fire, do performance and salary reviews, and build a great team. You'll also learn the psychology: how to ship while keeping staff happy, coach and mentor, deal with deadline pressure, handle sensitive information, and navigate workplace politics. Consider your whole department. How can you work with other teams to ensure best practice? How do you help form guilds and committees and communicate effectively? How can you create career tracks for individual contributors and managers? How can you support flexible and remote working? How can you improve diversity in the industry through your own actions? This book will show you how. Great managers can make the world a better place. Join us.

The importance of contemporary television broadcasting for the shaping and development of national cultures and identities is increasingly evident. Television as the privileged medium for the dissemination of information and for mass entertainment has irreversibly altered the manner in which nations perceive themselves and each other. This volume explores the multiple and complex ways in which audiovisual developments in two important European states have impacted on the life styles and attitudes of the population at large and its governing elites. This is the first study that is devoted to the highly significant roles played by France and Britain in the formulation of European audiovisual policy and that provides a truly comparative analysis of the contemporary audiovisual scene in the two countries. It consists of four complementary sections: an overview of the audiovisual landscapes in Britain and France; an analysis of television programming; an account of the new cable and satellite media, and an assessment of European audiovisual integration. Overall, this volume offers a constructive contribution to the continuing debate on national and European broadcasting.

This book is a multidisciplinary study of the translation and localisation of video games. It offers a descriptive analysis of the industry understood as a global phenomenon in entertainment and aims to explain the norms governing present industry practices, as well as game localisation processes. Additionally, it discusses particular translation issues that are unique to the multichannel nature of video games, in which verbal and nonverbal signs must be cohesively combined with interactivity to achieve maximum playability and immerse players in the game s virtual world. Although positioned within the theoretical framework of descriptive translation studies, Bernal-Merino" "incorporates research from audiovisual translation, software localisation, computer assisted translation, comparative literature, and video game production. Moving beyond this framework, Translation and Localisation in Video Games challenges some of the basic tenets of translation studies and proposes changes to established and unsatisfactory processes in the video game and language services industries."

When information is a weapon, everyone is at war.

We live in a world of influence operations run amok, a world of dark ads, psy-ops, hacks, bots, soft facts, ISIS, Putin, trolls, Trump. We've lost not only our sense of peace and democracy - but our sense of what those words even mean.

As Peter Pomerantsev seeks to make sense of the disinformation age, he meets Twitter revolutionaries and pop-up populists, 'behavioural change' salesmen, Jihadi fan-boys, Identitarians, truth cops, and much more. Forty years after his dissident parents were pursued by the KGB, he finds the Kremlin re-emerging as a great propaganda power. His research takes him back to Russia - but the answers he finds there are surprising.

Performance Improvement through Information Management highlights performance improvement and business strategies throughout various health care settings, focusing on business drivers and management mechanisms, explaining when, how, and why information technology solutions are of value. Structured on three levels: Market Environment, Transformational Processes, and Enabling Technologies, the text describes the current state of the art of health care and the shape of things to come, and provides practical solutions and strategies for implementing applications of technology within the current context of health care and its transformation. This text will be an invaluable reference to the chief executive officers, chief information officers, senior executives, and board members who are shaping health care today and into the 21st century. Likewise, it will appeal to healthcare administrators and managers, healthcare systems specialists, and students in advanced healthcare professional and academic programs.

This authoritative book presents a selection of the most important published articles and papers on the computing industry - an industry that after five decades of growth permeates virtually all areas of modern economic activity. Many economists believe the diffusion of computing has been a catalyst and a driver of economic growth. This has stimulated research into the microeconomic determinants and consequences of computing. This collection provides a state-of-the-art survey of advances in applied and empirical approaches to the industrial economics of computing. The first section of the book presents several distinct approaches to the measurement of frontier research in computing. The second section addresses the factors shaping the industrial structure for supplying computer goods and services. The third section focuses on the determinants of the adoption and diffusion of information technology. Shane Greenstein - a leading scholar in the field - has written a new and authoritative introduction which provides a comprehensive overview of the subject. This is an important feature of the volume which will be an essential reference source for both industrial and business economists concerned with the computing industry.

The Video Game Industry provides a platform for the research on the video game industry to draw a coherent and informative picture of this industry. Previously this has been done sparsely through conference papers, research articles, and popular science books. Although the study of this industry is still stigmatized as frivolous and 'only' game oriented, those who grew up with video games are changing things, especially research agendas, the acceptance of studies, and their interpretation. This book describes and defines video games as their own special medium. They are not pinball from which they grew, nor movies which they sometimes resemble. They are a unique form of entertainment based on meaningful interactions between individuals and machine across a growing sector of the population. The Video Game Industry provides a reference foundation for individuals seriously interested in the industry at the academic level. As a result, this book will serve as a reference in curricula associated with video game development for years to come.

When one considers broadband, the Internet immediately springs to mind. However, broadband is impacting society in many ways. For instance, broadband networks can be used to deliver healthcare or community related services to individuals who don't have computers, have distance as an issue to contend with, or don't use the internet. Broadband can support better management of scarce energy resources with the advent of smart grids, enables improved teleworking capacity and opens up a world of new entertainment possibilities. Yet scholarly examinations of broadband technology have so far examined adoption, usage, or diffusion but missed exploring the capacity of broadband networks to enable new applications, the management aspects of funding and developing broadband-enabled services, or the policy environment in which such networks are developed. This book explores a wide range of issues associated with the deployment and use of broadband including its impacts on individuals, organizations, and society, and offers a generalist understanding of the technical aspects of broadband. Management of Broadband Technology and Innovation offers insights on broadband from the perspectives of Information Systems, Management, Strategy, and Communications Policy scholars, drawing on research from these disciplines to inform diverse aspects of broadband deployment, policy, and use. Issues associated with a subject technical in nature, but now researched in many ways, are emphasised. This book explains various softer aspects of broadband deployment and use, focusing on the benefits of broadband rather than on details of the technology.

During this era of construction of the information superhighway, this volume presents a prudent analysis of the pros and cons of continuing state regulation of telecommunications. While interested parties either attack or defend state regulation, careful scholarly analysis is required to strike the appropriate balance of regulatory federalism. Focusing on regulation in the 1990s, it uses a positive political economy perspective to analyze enduring state-federal conflicts and to weigh the justifications and explanations for continuing state telecommunications regulation, or for changing its structure. It also considers normative concerns and makes recommendations about how to improve telecommunications policy. Seriously concerned with assessing the problems surrounding cost burdens for different categories of consumers, market entry for different firms, economic growth and the information infrastructure, global competitiveness, and control over information, this volume attempts to provide answers to the following specific questions: * How are states regulating telecommunications in the brave new world of global markets, fiber optics, and digital technology? * Do states vary significantly in their regulatory models? * How are the politics of state and federal regulation different? * Would a different federal-state relationship better serve national telecommunications goals in the future? To tackle these critical questions, the scholarly perspectives of economists, lawyers, political scientists, and telecommunications consultants and practitioners are employed.

The development of the information technology (IT) industry in the Asia Pacific region faces two challenges. Firstly, can its established physical, technical, regional and governance infrastructures be adapted to meet the challenges embedded in the set of products and processes created by the IT industry? Secondly, as this adaptation evolves, which cities and regions will be best suited to connect to or lead global responses to these challenges? The chapters in this book have set out to explore these questions, providing details of change in a range of aspects of the IT industry such as mobile phones, software services, and flat screen design in regions in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, India, China and Australia. The book also outlines the policy responses of national and regional governments in Singapore, India and China and India. These case studies provide a basis to understand effective strategies which could be formulated for the future. This book's originality emerges from the fine detail provided about firms, in particular regions and cities, from research carried out by young scholars in the past two years. This makes it very useful for readers keen to understand the recent changes in this dynamic industry in a fast growth part of the world, and it will also help to shape thinking by policy makers on policy settings that can be applied.

Focusing on countermeasures against orchestrated cyber-attacks, Cyber Security Culture is research-based and reinforced with insights from experts who do not normally release information into the public arena. It will enable managers of organizations across different industrial sectors and government agencies to better understand how organizational learning and training can be utilized to develop a culture that ultimately protects an organization from attacks. Peter Trim and David Upton believe that the speed and complexity of cyber-attacks demand a different approach to security management, including scenario-based planning and training, to supplement security policies and technical protection systems. The authors provide in-depth understanding of how organizational learning can produce cultural change addressing the behaviour of individuals, as well as machines. They provide information to help managers form policy to prevent cyber intrusions, to put robust security systems and procedures in place and to arrange appropriate training interventions such as table top exercises. Guidance embracing current and future threats and addressing issues such as social engineering is included. Although the work is embedded in a theoretical framework, non-technical staff will find the book of practical use because it renders highly technical subjects accessible and links firmly with areas beyond ICT, such as human resource management - in relation to bridging the education/training divide and allowing organizational learning to be embraced. This book will interest Government officials, policy advisors, law enforcement officers and senior managers within companies, as well as academics and students in a range of disciplines including management and computer science.

New Technology-Based Firms in the 1990s: Volume One is a contemporary, international 'state of the art' view of research in these areas. It will be essential reading for those who have an interest in the innovation and growth problems of high-technology small firms in the mid-1990s. Both the conference from which this book emanates and this first volume of an annual series of books on the evolving theme of high-technology small firm research, are designed to publicize the high-quality work taking place in this academic area. A further intention is to put the development problems of high-technology small firms before an audience wider than the one that attended the original conference. Thus, this

book will not only be of interest to academics, but will also provide practical insights to high-technology small firms management, and to all those at local and national levels within developed economies concerned with the creation and development of high-technology small firms.

Global corporations initiate, join and maintain socio-technological change and hence, alter the ways in which we organize our lives. Demanding significant investment of resources and time, the development and implementation of new technologies on different levels must take into consideration these subtle processes. As such, it is particularly important that we have a greater insight into the practices of hi-tech corporations, in view of the often inflated promises of and concerns about the destiny of technological breakthroughs, especially those promising sizeable economic outcomes and societal transformation. Elena Simakova undertook a lengthy ethnographic study, working alongside marketing managers in a global IT corporation in their Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) headquarters in the UK. Using the experience gained through a close participation in their everyday corporate rituals and routines, her account challenges common perceptions of how corporations make the world think and act with regard to technologies in particular ways. The book contains an interesting case study on the launch of a radio frequency identification (RFID) based solution. Unravelling the construction of expectations, inclusions and exclusions around emerging technologies, this reflexive account also tackles uneasy practical and methodological questions pertinent to corporate ethnography. This book is an essential read for scholars in science and technology studies, economic sociology, anthropology, as well as management and organizational studies and research policy.

The importance of contemporary television broadcasting for the shaping and development of national cultures and identities is increasingly evident. Television as the privileged medium for the dissemination of information and for mass entertainment has irreversibly altered the manner in which nations perceive themselves and each other. This volume explores the multiple and complex ways in which audiovisual developments in two important European states have impacted on the life styles and attitudes of the population at large and its governing elites. This is the first study that is devoted to the highly significant roles played by France and Britain in the formulation of European audiovisual policy and that provides a truly comparative analysis of the contemporary audiovisual scene in the two countries. It consists of four complementary sections: an overview of the audiovisual landscapes in Britain and France; an analysis of television programming; an account of the new cable and satellite media, and an assessment of European audiovisual integration. Overall, this volume offers a constructive contribution to the continuing debate on national and European broadcasting.