Collecting short thought pieces by some of the leading thinkers on the emerging 'Immersive Internet', Power and Teigland's book questions what a more immersive and intimate internet - based on social media, augmented reality, virtual worlds, online games, 3D internet and beyond - might mean for society and for each of us.

What do you get when you combine an electronics hobbyist, hacker, garage mechanic, kitchen table inventor, tinkerer, and entrepreneur? A maker, of course. Playful and creative, makers are--through expertise and experimentation--creating art, products, and processes that are helping change the way all of us think and interact with the world. As you'll see from the 20 interviews in Makers at Work, inquisitive makers are just as apt to pick up a laser cutter or Arduino or Raspberry Pi as a wrench to fashion something new. One maker powered a scooter with a battery-operated drill. Another made a messenger bag smart like a phone. Then there's the guy who created a sensor that sends an alert to his phone whenever someone opens the door of his mailbox; the teen who made not just a motorized skateboard, but one with treads that works on grass; and the architect/builder who made a transportable front porch so he could move it to the rear of the house to enjoy sunsets. Crazy as foxes, makers--working in the spirit of Tesla, Wozniak, Edison, Gates, Musk and many others--can bring sophisticated products to the people or to the market as fast or faster than large corporations.In so doing, they are blazing trails tomorrow's inventors, programmers, manufacturers, and entrepreneurs will wander down to come up with the next big things. And they are not just enabling new technologies and devices--they are changing the way these devices are funded, manufactured, assembled, and delivered. Makers at Work puts a spotlight on the maker mindset and motivation of those who are reinventing the world one object or idea at a time. It gives you a firsthand look at the maker culture from the people who are creating it. They may hail from many professions and industries but they are all united in their love of building things--and making life more fun, interesting, and profitable. You will: * Meet the individuals who define what it means to be a maker. * Learn about the tools and technologies driving the new industrial revolution. * Discover ways to scale your weekend project into a profitable business. The new masters of the Makerverse ask one question: Can it be done? As these interviews will show, yes it can. What you'll learn You will: * Learn about 3d printing and how it is changing manufacturing. * Discover new software tools for designing things on your own.* Learn how to source parts, code, or ideas for your creations. * Meet maker pioneers who helped open up a new world, and makers who have used crowdfunding to support their efforts. * Uncover recipes for success or failure when bringing physical products to market. * Learn ways to scale your weekend project into a profitable business from experienced entrepreneurs. * Learn how open-source hardware and software is enabling new classes of products by removing the barrier of entry for inventors. * Open your mind to new ideas, methods, things, and possibilities. Who this book is for This book is for anyone with an independent spirit, creative bent, or natural curiosity who believes you can create whatever your mind can conceive and wants to see how others have done just that.

Back in 1983 I was chatting with Dick Coleman, publisher of Traffic World magazine, when he unexpectedly proposed that I write a column for the magazine on computer applications in the transportation/physical distribution industry. "But, Dick, I don't know all that much about computers," I protested. "You use one, don't you?" he asked logically. Yes, I did; I'd been running my consulting business with it for two years. But that didn't, I explained, make me an expert. "Think about it," he said. That's typical Coleman; he drops these studiedly casual ideas and just lets them lay there until you pick them up and wind up doing just what he wanted you to do all along. Sure enough, the longer I pondered the notion the more it appealed to me. OK, I wasn't a computer expert (I'm still not). But I was a computer user, in the transportation/distribution field; maybe from that perspective I might have some useful things to say to other transportation/distribution users and would-be users of computers. Thus was born the "Computer Software for Transportation" column. The first one appeared in the April 11, 1983, issue of Traffic World, and it's been a once-a-month schedule ever since. And thus, too, was ultimately born this book.

The First Conference on the History of Nordic Computing (HiNC1) was organized in Trondheim, in June 2003. The HiNC1 event focused on the early years of computing, that is the years from the 1940s through the 1960s, although it formally extended to year 1985. In the preface of the proceedings of HiNC1, Janis Bubenko, Jr. , John Impagliazzo, and Arne Solvberg describe well the peculiarities of early Nordic c- puting [1]. While developing hardware was a necessity for the first professionals, quite soon the computer became an industrial product. Computer scientists, among others, grew increasingly interested in programming and application software. P- gress in these areas from the 1960s to the 1980s was experienced as astonishing. The developments during these decades were taken as the focus of HiNC2. During those decades computers arrived to every branch of large and medium-sized businesses and the users of the computer systems were no longer only computer s- cialists but also people with other main duties. Compared to the early years of comp- ing before 1960, where the number of computer projects and applications was small, capturing a holistic view of the history between the 1960s and the 1980s is conside- bly more difficult. The HiNC2 conference attempted to help in this endeavor.

"Gamers at Work is a critical resource for new and experienced business leadersfor anyone who feels unprepared for the demanding and seemingly insurmountable trials ahead of them." Peter Molyneux OBE, founder, Lionhead Studios

"Gamers at Work explores every imaginable subtlety of the video-game industry through the fascinating stories of those who took the risks and reaped the rewards." Hal Halpin, president, Entertainment Consumers Association "This is the sort of book that can tear the most hardcore gamers away from their PCs, Macs, or consoles for a few hours of rewarding reading." North County Times "Gamers at Work is truly an invaluable resource that's well worth adding to your personal library." Wii Love It

There are few companies in the video-game industry that have withstood the test of time; most startups exit as quickly as they enter. In Gamers at Work: Stories Behind the Games People Play, the countless challenges of building successful video-game developers and publishers in this unstable industry are explored through interviews containing entertaining stories, humorous anecdotes, and lessons learned the hard way.

Gamers at Work presents an inside look at how 18 industry leaders play the odds, seize opportunities, and transform small businesses into great businesses. Here, in Gamers at Work, you will find their stories replete with their personal struggles, corporate intrigue, and insights into strategy, leadership, and management.

Gamers at Work: Explores the formation of entertainment software companies from the perspectives of successful founders who played the odds Provides insight into why experienced professionals sacrifice the comfort of gainful employment for the uncertainty and risk of the startup Shares the experiences and lessons that shape the lives, decisions, and struggles of entrepreneurs in this volatile business

Featured Entrepreneurs: Trip Hawkins, Electronic Arts (Madden NFL) Nolan Bushnell, Atari (Pong) Wild Bill Stealey, MicroProse Software (Sid Meier's Civilization) Tony Goodman, Ensemble Studios (Age of Empires) Feargus Urquhart, Obsidian Entertainment (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II) Tim Cain, Troika Games (Arcanum, Vampire: the MasqueradeBloodlines) Warren Spector, Junction Point Studios (Disney Epic Mickey) Doug & Gary Carlston, Broderbund Software (Prince of Persia, Carmen Sandiego) Don Daglow, Stormfront Studios (Neverwinter Nights, Tony La Russa Baseball) John Smedley, Verant Interactive (EverQuest, PlanetSide) Ken Williams, Sierra On-Line (King's Quest, Leisure Suit Larry) Lorne Lanning, Oddworld Inhabitants (Oddworld) Chris Ulm, Appy Entertainment (FaceFighter, Trucks & Skulls) Tobi Saulnier, 1st Playable (Kung Zhu, Yogi Bear) Christopher Weaver, Bethesda Softworks (The Elder Scrolls) Jason Rubin, Naughty Dog (Crash Bandicoot, Uncharted) Ted Price, Insomniac Games (Spyro, Resistance)

Other books in the Apress At Work Series: Coders at Work, Seibel, 978-1-4302-1948-4 Venture Capitalists at Work, Shah & Shah, 978-1-4302-3837-9 CIOs at Work, Yourdon, 978-1-4302-3554-5 CTOs at Work, Donaldson, Seigel, & Donaldson, 978-1-4302-3593-4 Founders at Work, Livingston, 978-1-4302-1078-8 European Founders at Work, Santos, 978-1-4302-3906-2 Women Leaders at Work, Ghaffari, 978-1-4302-3729-7 Advertisers at Work, Tuten, 978-1-4302-3828-7 What you'll learn How to lead and execute strategy as an entrepreneur About developing meaningful, long-term business relationships Recognize strategic opportunities and threats How and when to take the next step without compromising principles About balancing dreams with practical considerations To avoidthe pitfalls that can trigger disaster To learn from mistakes and make informed course corrections

Who this book is for

Software professionals or managers, usually working in the video games industry Game developers interested in starting an independent studio Gamers who are interested in the history of games and game studios Table of Contents 1. Trip Hawkins Electronic Arts, 3DO, Digital Chocolate 2. Nolan Bushnell Atari 3. Wild Bill Stealey MicroProse Software 4. Tony Goodman Ensemble Studios 5. Feargus Urquhart Obsidian Entertainment 6. Tim Cain Troika Games 7. Warren Spector Junction Point Studios 8. Doug & Gary Carlston Broderbund Software 9. Don Daglow Stormfront Studios 10. John Smedley Verant Interactive 11. Ken Williams Sierra On-Line 12. Lorne Lanning Oddworld Inhabitants 13. Chris Ulm Malibu Comics, High Moon Studios, Appy Entertainment 14. Tobi Saulnier 1st Playable Productions 15. Christopher Weaver Bethesda Softworks 16. Jason Rubin Naughty Dog 17. Ted Price Insomniac Games

In an age when the United Nations has declared access to the Internet a human right, and universal access to high-speed broadband is a national goal, urban areas have been largely ignored by federal policy. The cost of that neglect may well be the failure to realize the social benefits of broadband and a broadly-connected digital society.
Technology offers unparalleled advantages for innovation in urban areas - in the economy, health care, education, energy, transportation, government services, civic engagement, and more. With their density and networks of activity, cities hold the most potential for reaping the benefits of technology. But there are surprisingly substantial disparities in broadband adoption across cities. More puzzlingly, rather than promoting innovation or addressing the high cost of broadband access, the US has mostly funded expensive rural infrastructure in sparsely-populated areas.
Digital Cities tells the story of information technology use and inequality in American metropolitan areas and discusses directions for change. The authors argue that mobile-only Internet, the form used by many minorities and urban poor, is a second-class form of access, as they offer evidence that users with such limited access have dramatically lower levels of online activity and skill. Digital citizenship and full participation in economic, social and political life requires home access. Using multilevel statistical models, the authors present new data ranking broadband access and use in the nation's 50 largest cities and metropolitan areas, showing considerable variation across places. Unique, neighborhood data from Chicago examines the impact of poverty and segregation on access in a large and diverse city, and it parallels analysis of national patterns in urban, suburban and rural areas. Digital Cities demonstrate the significance of place for shaping our digital future and the need for policies that recognize the critical role of cities in addressing both social inequality and opportunity.

In recent years, IT application scenarios have evolved in very innovative ways. Highly distributed networks have now become a common platform for large-scale distributed programming, high bandwidth communications are inexpensive and widespread, and most of our work tools are equipped with processors enabling us to perform a multitude of tasks. In addition, mobile computing (referring specifically to wireless devices and, more broadly, to dynamically configured systems) has made it possible to exploit interaction in novel ways. To harness the flexibility and power of these rapidly evolving, interactive systems, there is need of radically new foundational ideas and principles; there is need to develop the theoretical foundations required to design these systems and to cope with the many complex issues involved in their construction; and there is need to develop effective principles for building and analyzing such systems.

Reflecting the diverse and wide spectrum of topics and interests within the theoretical computer science community, Exploring New Frontiers of Theoretical Informatics, is presented in two distinct but interrelated tracks:

-Algorithms, Complexity and Models of Computation,
-Logic, Semantics, Specification and Verification.

Exploring New Frontiers of Theoretical Informatics contains 46 original and significant contributions addressing these foundational questions, as well as 4 papers by outstanding invited speakers. These papers were presented at the 3rd IFIP International Conference on Theoretical Computer Science (TCS 2004), which was held in conjunction with the 18th World Computer Congress in Toulouse, France in August 2004 and sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP).

Jeffrey James is one of the relatively few academics to have systematically taken on the topic of IT and development. In this timely book he undertakes a methodological critique of prominent topics in the debate. Challenging the existing literature by international and governmental institutions, the book looks not only at the digital divide but also at issues such as digital preparedness, leapfrogging and low-cost computers. James also raises important issues which have been largely neglected in the literature, such as the implications for poverty in developing countries and the macroeconomics of mobile phones. The book argues that benefits from IT are captured in a different form in developing as opposed to developed countries. In the latter, gains come from technology ownership and use, whereas in the former, benefits cannot be captured as much in this way because ownership is more limited. Interestingly, the author shows that developing countries have responded to this distinction with a series of local innovations which are often low-cost and pro-poor. This finding contradicts the widely held view that poor countries are unable to generate major innovations within their own borders. Accessible and clearly written, this book will be of great interest to scholars of development economics and development studies, and is relevant to both policy-makers and academics.

Seldom has any business been in such turmoil as the Communication Service Providers (CSP) business is today. Telecom operators providing communication services constructed the infrastructure of the global information society with their trillion investments on various telecommunication technologies from broadband to mobile. Their investments on software turned their technology-specific in-house procedures into modern layered OSS/BSS.

This book analyzes the status and the future evolution of OSS/BSS software industry from multiple viewpoints including technology diffusion, vertical disintegration and evolution of a vertical software industry. The analysis uses both commercial databases on software market transactions and interviews of operators in Europe and Far East, using quantitative and qualitative methods.

This research complying academic standards aims at serving the practical business needs in the companies shaping the future of communications: the CSPs and the software developers sometimes found in a single enterprise."

This book contains the refereed proceedings of the Third International Conference on Software Business (ICSOB) held in Cambridge, MA, USA, in June 2012. The software business refers to commercial activities in the software industry, aimed at generating revenues from the design, delivery, and maintenance of software products and IT services to enterprises and individual customers, as well as from digital content. Although this business shares common features with other knowledge-intensive markets, it carries many inherent features making it a challenging domain for research. The 20 full and 10 short papers accepted for ICSOB were selected from 60 submissions and are organized in sections on software product management, organizational transformation, industry transformation, software platforms and ecosystems, and emerging trends.

Online news sites play an ever-pervasive role in the daily gathering and flow of political information. Media has always played an intermediary role in the way that citizens receive and process news, but, with the speed of information transmission, the segmentation of news sources, and the rise of citizen journalism, issues of authority, audience, and even the definition of "news " have shifted and become blurred. News on the Internet synthesizes research on developing and current patterns of online news provision with the literature on traditional, offline media to create a conceptual map for understanding the way that public affairs and news are presented and consumed on the internet. Tewksbury and Rittenberg look at the dual role of the internet as a source of authoritative news and as a vehicle for citizens in contemporary democracies to create and share political information. Throughout, they address the tension between the benefits of internet news provision, specifically increased citizen engagement, and the negative, perhaps counterintuitive, effects: the fragmentation of knowledge and polarization of opinion in contemporary democracies. News on the Internet focuses on these points of conflict and contradiction in the online news environment and offers conclusions and predictions for how these phenomena will develop in the future.

This book provides a game theoretic model of interaction among VoIP telecommunications providers regarding their willingness to enter peering agreements with one another. The author shows that the incentive to peer is generally based on savings from otherwise payable long distance fees. At the same time, termination fees can have a countering and dominant effect, resulting in an environment in which VoIP firms decide against peering. Various scenarios of peering and rules for allocation of the savings are considered. The first part covers the relevant aspects of game theory and network theory, trying to give an overview of the concepts required in the subsequent application. The second part of the book introduces first a model of how the savings from peering can be calculated and then turns to the actual formation of peering relationships between VoIP firms. The conditions under which firms are willing to peer are then described, considering the possible influence of a regulatory body.

If there's a software startup company in your developer heart, this is the book that will make it happen.

The Web Startup Success Guide is your one-stop shop for all of the answers you need today to build a successful web startup in these challenging economic times. It covers everything from making the strategic platform decisions as to what kind of software to build, to understanding and winning the Angel andventure capitalfunding game, to the modern tools, apps and services that can cut months off development and marketing cycles, to how startups today are using social networks like Twitter and Facebook to create real excitement and connect to real customers.

Bob Walsh, author of the landmark Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality, digs deep into the definition, financing, communitybuilding, platform options, and productivity challenges of building a successful and profitable web application today. What you'll learn How to define the value your web app will deliver to its users Evangelizing your startup via social mediafrom Twitter to Facebook, from YouTube to your own social network Which web app pricing strategies work, and which don't What alternatives to traditional business structures will let you launch and run your startup without all the legal mumbojumbo What services and web apps exist today to help your startup succeed How to get meaningful online press for your web app

Plus, interviews with David Allen (Getting Things Done), Rafe Needleman (CNET), Marshall Kirkpatrick (ReadWriteWeb), Guy Kawasaki (Garage Technology Ventures), Dharmesh Shah (OnStartups, HubSpot), Joel Spolsky (Fog Creek Software), Eric Sink (SourceGear), Pamela Slim (Escape from Cubicle Nation), and 40 others whose advicecan help your startup succeed. Who this book is for

If you are a software developer (web, desktop, or mobileit doesn't matter) who wants to create successful, revenueproducing web businesses, The Web Startup Success Guide is for you. And if you're just curious about how someone goes about creating an online business from the ground up, this book is an excellent choice. Table of Contents Introduction: What Was Is Not What IsValue Is the Core of Your StartupSo Many Platforms, So Many OptionsTools and Groups for StartupsMoney: Raise, Manage, MakeSocial Media and Your StartupClarity MattersGetting It DoneSix Wise PeopleWhat's Next?

20% des IT-Personals sind Freiberufler. Hier steckt Potenzial, das Unternehmen nicht ausschoepfen, weil sie den Freiberufler wie Bleistifte, Klopapier oder Schmierstoffe mittels Ausschreibungen und Auktionen uber den Grosshandel einkaufen. Gleichzeitig beklagen Unternehmen einen Fachkraftemangel, der Wachstum und Weiterentwicklung behindert. Unternehmen, die als Gewinner aus diesem Dilemma hervorgehen wollen, sollten den Menschen, die fur sie arbeiten, mehr Aufmerksamkeit und Wertschatzung entgegenbringen. Dazu gehoeren die Freiberufler. Das Buch, in dem alle Beteiligten zu Wort kommen, konzentriert sich auf die Situation von Freiberuflern und nennt Schwachstellen und Handlungsbedarf. Es werden Loesungen entwickelt, die Win-Win-Situationen schaffen, damit das volle Potenzial dieser so wichtigen Ressource auch in den Unternehmen ankommen kann.

Chance discovery means discovering chances - the breaking points in systems, the marketing windows in business, etc. It involves determining the significance of some piece of information about an event and then using this new knowledge in decision making. The techniques developed combine data mining methods for finding rare but important events with knowledge management, groupware, and social psychology. The reader will find many applications, such as finding information on the Internet, recognizing changes in customer behavior, detecting the first signs of an imminent earthquake, etc.

This first book dedicated to chance discovery covers the state of the art in the theory and methods and examines typical scenarios, and it thus appeals to researchers working on new techniques and algorithms and also to professionals dealing with real-world applications.

Th s book developed as the collective product of the Internat onal Federat on for Informat on Process ng (IFIP) Wo k ng Group 8 6, a workmg group ded cated to the study of d ffus on and adoptlon of nformat on technology nnovat ons The book proceeds from the IFIP Workmg Conference on Busmess Aglhty and IT D ffus on held In Atlanta, Georg a, In May of 2005 The conference employed a p bl c call for papers and attracted a total of 42 subm ss ons These ncluded 27 full research papers, and 15 other papers, case stud es, pract t oner experlence reports, posters, and panels The conference program committee efereed subm ss ons In a double-blmd revlew process Select on of the papels for ncluslon In thls book (and appearance at the conference) was d fficult, as the quahty of these subm ss ons led to an Impresswe number of pos t ve revlews Ult mately we selected 13 research papers, two case stud es, and three experlence reports, along with three panels The papers s ibm tted by the conference's three keynote speakers here ed torlally rev ewed and also appear In th s book Staglng a conference and p oduclng a book 1s never poss ble w thout the commitment and hard work of many nd v duals and organlzatlons We want to thank IFIP and the sponsors for promotmg the confe ence and prov d ng support and fimdmg for ts lmplementat on The sponsors are IFIP, Georg a State Unners ty, Rob nson College of Busmess, Gartner, M crosoft, and Intel Also the conference has been supported by the Computer Informat on Systems Department and Center for Process Innovat on at Georg a State Unl ers ty

Like many other incipient technologies, Web services are still surrounded by a substantial level of noise. This noise results from the always dangerous combination of wishful thinking on the part of research and industry and of a lack of clear understanding of how Web services came to be. On the one hand, multiple contradictory interpretations are created by the many attempts to realign existing technology and strategies with Web services. On the other hand, the emphasis on what could be done with Web services in the future often makes us lose track of what can be really done with Web services today and in the short term. These factors make it extremely difficult to get a coherent picture of what Web services are, what they contribute, and where they will be applied.
Alonso and his co-authors deliberately take a step back. Based on their academic and industrial experience with middleware and enterprise application integration systems, they describe the fundamental concepts behind the notion of Web services and present them as the natural evolution of conventional middleware, necessary to meet the challenges of the Web and of B2B application integration.

Rather than providing a reference guide or a "how to write your first Web service" kind of book, they discuss the main objectives of Web services, the challenges that must be faced to achieve them, and the opportunities that this novel technology provides. Established, as well as recently proposed, standards and techniques (e.g., WSDL, UDDI, SOAP, WS-Coordination, WS-Transactions, and BPEL), are then examined in the context of this discussion in order to emphasize their scope, benefits, and shortcomings. Thus, the book is ideally suited both for professionals considering the development of application integration solutions and for research and students interesting in understanding and contributing to the evolution of enterprise application technologies.

This book identifies vulnerabilities in the physical layer, the MAC layer, the IP layer, the transport layer, and the application layer, of wireless networks, and discusses ways to strengthen security mechanisms and services. Topics covered include intrusion detection, secure PHY/MAC/routing protocols, attacks and prevention, immunization, key management, secure group communications and multicast, secure location services, monitoring and surveillance, anonymity, privacy, trust establishment/management, redundancy and security, and dependable wireless networking.

The papers containedin this volume were presentedat the 5th IFIP InternationalC- ference on Theoretical Computer Science (IFIP TCS), 7-10 September 2008, Milan, Italy. TCS is a bi-annual conference.The ?rst conferenceof the series was held in Sendai (Japan, 2000), followed by Montreal (Canada, 2002), Toulouse (France, 2004) and Santiago (Chile, 2006).TCS is organizedby IFIP TC1 (Technical Committee 1: Fo- dations of Computer Science) and Working Group 2.2 of IFIP TC2 (Technical C- mittee 2: Software: Theory and Practice). TCS 2008 was part of the 20th IFIP World Computer Congress (WCC 2008), constituting the TC1 Track of WCC 2008. The contributed papers were selected from 36+45 submissions from altogether 30 countries. A total of 14+16 submissions were accepted as full papers. Papers in this volume are original contributions in two general areas: Track A: Algorithms, C- plexity and Models of Computation;and Track B: Logic, Semantics, Speci?cation and Veri?cation. The conference also included seven invited presentations, from Luca Cardelli, Thomas Ehrhard, Javier Esparza, Antonio Restivo, Tim Roughgarden, Gr- gorz Rozenberg and Avraham Trakhtman. These presentations are included (except one) in this volume. In particular, Luca Cardelli, Javier Esparza, Antonio Restivo, Tim Roughgarden and Avraham Trakhtman accepted our invitation to write full papers - lated to their talks.

This book covers content recognition in text, elaborating on past and current most successful algorithms and their application in a variety of settings: news filtering, mining of biomedical text, intelligence gathering, competitive intelligence, legal information searching, and processing of informal text. Today, there is considerable interest in integrating the results of information extraction in retrieval systems, because of the demand for search engines that return precise answers to flexible information queries.

This is a book about creating information systems within firms that will truly give managers the information they need to make informed business decisions. The author contends that information is part of an ecological system in which it undergoes a process of evolution and adaptation to the requirements of the local users. The book explains ecological planning tools that guide managers to develop information systems to meet their changing needs.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of Industry Oriented Conferences held at IFIP 20th World Computer Congress in September 2008.

The IFIP series publishes state-of-the-art results in the sciences and technologies of information and communication. The scope of the series includes: foundations of computer science; software theory and practice; education; computer applications in technology; communication systems; systems modeling and optimization; information systems; computers and society; computer systems technology; security and protection in information processing systems; artificial intelligence; and human-computer interaction. Proceedings and post-proceedings of refereed international conferences in computer science and interdisciplinary fields are featured. These results often precede journal publication and represent the most current research. The principal aim of the IFIP series is to encourage education and the dissemination and exchange of information about all aspects of computing.

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.

Research interest in the service sector has boomed in recent years as deindustrialisation became entrenched. Instead of being regarded as merely supplementary to traditional industry and manufacturing, services have generated progressively rising levels of growth in developed economies while at the same time coming to be recognised as major drivers of innovation. Among the factors which have helped service companies notch up swifter growth rates than all other sectors are the outsourcing of such services by other sectors, including the development of information and communication technologies, and changes to the regulatory, legal and market frameworks as well as globalisation and internationalisation. The result is a cluster of highly innovative firms which can loosely be grouped under the heading of Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS). Knowledge Intensive Business Services and Regional Competitiveness charts the development of these firms and explores their success through four mutually linked parts: KIBS and industrial dynamics; KIBS and their context; KIBS and their contribution to regional competitiveness and economic development; and finally, KIBS and public policy. This book is suitable for researchers and policy makers interested in the rise of these influential actors and their influence on regional competitiveness.

This book provides a unique account of the history of integrated circuit, the microelectronics industry and the people involved in the development of transistor and integrated circuit. In this richly illustrated account the author argues that the group of inventors was much larger than originally thought. This is a personal recollection providing the first comprehensive behind-the-scenes account of the history of the integrated circuit.