Navigating Information Literacy captures a range of skills and topics essential for students who intend positioning themselves in academic or workplace environments that are globally connected and competitive.

The clear, well-structured and informative text leads the reader through all aspects of information literacy and provides practical advice and relevant examples from a variety of international contexts.

Ithiel de Sola Pool was a pioneering social scientist, a distinguished scholar of the political process, and one of the most original thinkers in the development of the social sciences. Passionately engaged in politics, he continued his role of leadership throughout his life, building the MIT Political Science Department into an outstanding group. He organized international teams of social scientists and collaborated widely to develop the understanding of social change. He was a frequent adviser to governments as consultant and in-house critic, and a successful advocate of limits on government regulation. "Politics in Wired Nations" presents his writings on the social and political impact of different communication systems and new telecommunications technology. Included in this volume is the first study of trends in a global information society, and the first study of social networks and the "small world" phenomenon that creates new relationships and routes of informal influence and political power, both domestic and international. Pool's essays on the politics of foreign trade, the influence of American businessmen on Congress, and changeable "unnatural" institutions of the modern world (e.g., bureaucracies, mega-cities, and nation-states) are herein contained. Pool describes a nonviolent revolution in freedom and political control that is possible as the world changes from the era of one-way mass communications--targeted to national audiences--to a new era of abundant, high-capacity, low-cost, interactive, and user-controlled communications on a global scale. He discusses policy choices for freedom, the battlegrounds ahead, and the risks of government involvement in the regulation of new telecommunication technologies.

This comprehensive and innovative Research Handbook tackles the pressing issues confronting us at the dawn of the global network society, including freedom of speech, government transparency and the digital divide. Representing a milestone in information policy research, this new volume edited by Alistair Duff brings together leading contributors from a wide range of disciplines to discuss important topics such as genetic information, news and privacy, and provides case studies on cyber harms, freedom of information and national digitization policy. Engaging with controversial problems of public policy including freedom of expression, copyright and information inequality, the Research Handbook on Information Policy offers a well-rounded exploration of the history and future of this vital field. Systematically addressing both general theory and specific issues, as well as providing international perspectives, this Research Handbook will be of particular interest to academics and students in the disciplines of information science, journalism and media studies, politics, sociology, philosophy and law.

What causes one system to break down and another to rebound? Are we merely subject to the whim of forces beyond our control? Or, in the face of constant disruption, can we build better shock absorbers--for ourselves, our communities, our economies, and for the planet as a whole?
Reporting firsthand from the coral reefs of Palau to the back streets of Palestine, Andrew Zolli and Ann Marie Healy relate breakthrough scientific discoveries, pioneering social and ecological innovations, and important new approaches to constructing a more resilient world. Zolli and Healy show how this new concept of resilience is a powerful lens through which we can assess major issues afresh: from business planning to social develop-ment, from urban planning to national energy security--circumstances that affect us all.
Provocative, optimistic, and eye-opening, Resilience sheds light on why some systems, people, and communities fall apart in the face of disruption and, ultimately, how they can learn to bounce back.

The regulation and flow of information continues to have a critical impact upon how people live their lives and the way society functions. In recent times, disinformation and privacy violation have become the 'information pollution' of the 21st century. This book explores ways and means of protecting the 'information environment' by drawing upon four theories of contemporary environmentalism: welfare economics, the commons, ecology, and public choice theory. Welfare economics highlights the need to focus on costs (as well as benefits) when evaluating regulatory structures. The commons encourages queries about the validity of propertisation. Ecology speaks to the importance of diversity and resilience. And public choice theory hazards against the regulatory effect of concentrated interests. The lessons from each inspire the proposed information environmental governance framework. By neatly capturing the metaphorical relationship between the physical environment and the information environment, Robert Cunningham explores progressive regulatory pathways for the digital age. This book will be a thought-provoking read for scholars and students with an interest in intellectual property or the regulation of information.

In the years following her role as the lead author of the international bestseller, Limits to Growth--the first book to show the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet-- Donella Meadows remained a pioneer of environmental and social analysis until her untimely death in 2001.

Meadows' newly released manuscript, Thinking in Systems, is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute's Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, showing readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that thought leaders across the globe consider critical for 21st-century life.

Some of the biggest problems facing the world--war, hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation--are essentially system failures. They cannot be solved by fixing one piece in isolation from the others, because even seemingly minor details have enormous power to undermine the best efforts of too-narrow thinking.

While readers will learn the conceptual tools and methods of systems thinking, the heart of the book is grander than methodology. Donella Meadows was known as much for nurturing positive outcomes as she was for delving into the science behind global dilemmas. She reminds readers to pay attention to what is important, not just what is quantifiable, to stay humble, and to stay a learner.

In a world growing ever more complicated, crowded, and interdependent, Thinking in Systems helps readers avoid confusion and helplessness, the first step toward finding proactive and effective solutions.

The phenomenal international bestseller that shows us how to stop trying to predict everything - and take advantage of uncertainty What have the invention of the wheel, Pompeii, the Wall Street Crash, Harry Potter and the internet got in common? Why are all forecasters con-artists? Why should you never run for a train or read a newspaper? This book is all about Black Swans: the random events that underlie our lives, from bestsellers to world disasters. Their impact is huge; they're impossible to predict; yet after they happen we always try to rationalize them. 'Taleb is a bouncy and even exhilarating guide ... I came to relish what he said, and even develop a sneaking affection for him as a person' Will Self, Independent on Sunday 'He leaps like some superhero of the mind' Boyd Tonkin, Independent

Proofs play a central role in advanced mathematics and theoretical computer science, yet many students struggle the first time they take a course in which proofs play a significant role. This bestselling text's third edition helps students transition from solving problems to proving theorems by teaching them the techniques needed to read and write proofs. Featuring over 150 new exercises and a new chapter on number theory, this new edition introduces students to the world of advanced mathematics through the mastery of proofs. The book begins with the basic concepts of logic and set theory to familiarize students with the language of mathematics and how it is interpreted. These concepts are used as the basis for an analysis of techniques that can be used to build up complex proofs step by step, using detailed 'scratch work' sections to expose the machinery of proofs about numbers, sets, relations, and functions. Assuming no background beyond standard high school mathematics, this book will be useful to anyone interested in logic and proofs: computer scientists, philosophers, linguists, and, of course, mathematicians.

organized around health and human development, environment and sustainability, and communities and social change Includes agent-based modeling, system dynamics, and network analysis Indroductory framing essays for each section

Make the most of your Mac with this witty, authoritative guide to macOS Big Sur. Apple updates its Mac operating system every year, adding new features with every revision. But after twenty years of this updating cycle without a printed user guide to help customers, feature bloat and complexity have begun to weigh down the works. For thirty years, the Mac faithful have turned to David Pogue's Mac books to guide them. With Mac Unlocked, New York Times bestselling author Pogue introduces readers to the most radical Mac software redesign in Apple history, macOS Big Sur. Beginning Mac users and Windows refugees will gain an understanding of the Mac philosophy; Mac veterans will find a concise guide to what's new in Big Sur, including its stunning visual and sonic redesign, the new Control Center for quick settings changes, and the built-in security auditing features. With a 300 annotated illustrations, sparkling humor, and crystal-clear prose, Mac Unlocked is the new gold-standard guide to the Mac.

The World Wide Web is truly astounding. It has changed the way we interact, learn and innovate. It is the largest sociotechnical system humankind has created and is advancing at a pace that leaves most in awe. It is an unavoidable fact that the future of the world is now inextricably linked to the future of the Web. Almost every day it appears to change, to get better and increase its hold on us. For all this we are starting to see underlying stability emerge. The way that Web sites rank in terms of popularity, for example, appears to follow laws with which we are familiar. What is fascinating is that these laws were first discovered, not in fields like computer science or information technology, but in what we regard as more fundamental disciplines like biology, physics and mathematics. Consequently the Web, although synthetic at its surface, seems to be quite 'natural' deeper down, and one of the driving aims of the new field of Web Science is to discover how far down such 'naturalness' goes. If the Web is natural to its core, that raises some fundamental questions. It forces us, for example, to ask if the central properties of the Web might be more elemental than the truths we cling to from our understandings of the physical world. In essence, it demands that we question the very nature of information. Understanding Information and Computation is about such questions and one possible route to potentially mind-blowing answers.

The Science of Deep Learning emerged from courses taught by the author that have provided thousands of students with training and experience for their academic studies, and prepared them for careers in deep learning, machine learning, and artificial intelligence in top companies in industry and academia. The book begins by covering the foundations of deep learning, followed by key deep learning architectures. Subsequent parts on generative models and reinforcement learning may be used as part of a deep learning course or as part of a course on each topic. The book includes state-of-the-art topics such as Transformers, graph neural networks, variational autoencoders, and deep reinforcement learning, with a broad range of applications. The appendices provide equations for computing gradients in backpropagation and optimization, and best practices in scientific writing and reviewing. The text presents an up-to-date guide to the field built upon clear visualizations using a unified notation and equations, lowering the barrier to entry for the reader. The accompanying website provides complementary code and hundreds of exercises with solutions.

For the past 50 years, the advancements of technology have equipped architects with unique tools that have enabled the development of new computer-mediated design methods, fabrication techniques, and architectural expressions. Simultaneously, in contemporary architecture new frameworks emerged that have radically redefined the traditional conceptions of design, of the built environment, and of the role of architects. Cybernetic Architectures argues that such frameworks have been constructed in direct reference to cybernetic thinking, a thought model that emerged concurrently with the origins of informatics and that embodies the main assumptions, values, and ideals underlying the development of computer science. The book explains how the evolution of the computational perspective in architecture has been parallel to the construction of design issues in reference to the central ideas fostered by the cybernetic model. It unpacks and explains this crucial relationship, in the work of digital architects, between the use of information technology in design and the conception of architectural problems around an informational ontology. This book will appeal to architecture students and scholars interested in understanding the recent transformations in the architectural landscape related to the advent of computer-based design paradigms.

We are often told that we are 'living in an information society' or that we are 'information workers'. But what exactly do these claims mean, and how might they be verified? In this important methodological study, Alistair Duff cuts through the rhetoric to get to the bottom of the 'information society thesis'.
Wide-ranging in coverage, this study will be of interest to scholars in information science, communication and media studies and social theory. It is a key text for the newly-unified specialism of information society studies, and an indispensable guide to the future of this discipline.

The Virtual Embodied is intended to inform, provoke and delight. It explores the ideas of embodiment, knowledge, space, virtue and virtuality to address fundamental questions about technology and human presence. It juxtaposes cutting-edge theories, polemics, and creative practices to uncover ethical, aesthetic and ecological implications of why, how and in particular where, human actions, observations and insights take place.
In The Virtual Embodied, many of the authors, artists, performers and designers apply their interdisciplinary passions to questions of embodied knowledge and virtual space. In doing so it chooses to acknowledge the limitations of the conventional linear book and uses them creatively to challenge existing genres of multi-media and networked consumerism.

The last two decades have seen the development of a number of models that have proven particularly important in advancing understanding of message-production processes. Now it appears that a "second generation" of theories is emerging, one that reflects considerable conceptual advances over earlier models. "Message Production: Advances in Communication Theory" focuses on these new developments in theoretical approaches to verbal and nonverbal message production. The chapters reflect a number of characteristics and trends resident in these theories including:
* the nature and source of interaction goals;
* the impact of physiological factors on message behavior;
* the prominence accorded conceptions of goals and planning;
* attempts to apply models of intra-individual processes in illuminating inter-individual phenomena;
* treatments which involve hybrid intentional/design-stance approaches; and
* efforts to incorporate physiological constructs and to meld them with psychological and social terms.
The processes underlying the production of verbal and nonverbal behaviors are exceedingly complex, so much so that they resist the development of unified explanatory schemes. The alternative is the mosaic of emerging theories such as are represented in this book -- each approach according prominence to certain message-production phenomena while obscuring others, and providing a window on some portion of the processes that give rise to those phenomena while remaining mute about other processes. The amalgam of these disparate treatments, then, becomes the most intellectually compelling characterization of message-production processes.

This volume includes edited and revised versions of the papers delivered and discussed at the recent Advertising and Consumer Psychology Conference. Following the theme of the conference -- "Measuring Advertising Effectiveness" -- the book blends academic psychology, marketing theory, survey methodology, and practical experience, while simultaneously addressing the problems and limitations of advertising.
Acknowledging that advertisements are subtle, diverse, complex phenomena that require detailed investigation, this compilation explores the multidimensional nature of advertising's diverse effects from both academic and applied perspectives. Updates on theories and methods -- along with expert commentaries -- help to make this a valuable collection that will be of interest to advertising and marketing specialists and communications experts alike.

The recent evolution of western societies has been characterized by an increasing emphasis on information and communication. As the amount of available information increases, however, the user -- worker, student, citizen -- faces a new problem: selecting and accessing relevant information. More than ever it is crucial to find efficient ways for users to interact with information systems in a way that prevents them from being overwhelmed or simply missing their targets. As a result, hypertext systems have been developed as a means of facilitating the interactions between readers and text. In hypertext, information is organized as a network in which nodes are text chunks (e.g., lists of items, paragraphs, pages) and links are relationships between the nodes (e.g., semantic associations, expansions, definitions, examples -- virtually any kind of relation that can be imagined between two text passages). Unfortunately, the many ways in which these hypertext interfaces can be designed has caused a complexity that extends far beyond the processing abilities of regular users. Therefore, it has become widely recognized that a more rational approach based on a thorough analysis of information users' needs, capacities, capabilities, and skills is needed. This volume seeks to meet that need.
From a user-centered perspective -- between systems and users -- this volume presents theoretical and empirical research on the cognitive processes involved in using hypertext. In so doing, it illustrates three main approaches to the design of hypertext systems:
*cognitive, which examines how users process multilayered hypertext structures;
*ergonomical, which explores how users interact with the design characteristics of hardware and software; and
*educational, which studies the learning objectives, frequency and duration of hypertext sessions, type of reading activity, and the user's learning characteristics.
This volume also tries to provide answers for the questions that have plagued hypertext research:
*What is hypertext good for?
*Who is hypertext good for?
*If it is useful for learning and instruction, then what type?
*What particular cognitive skills are needed to interact successfully with a hypertext system? Anyone interested in the fields of computer science, linguistics, psychology, education, and graphic design will find this volume intriguing, informative, and a definitive starting point for future research in the field of hypertext.

Coding theory came into existence in the late 1940's and is concerned with devising efficient encoding and decoding procedures.
The book is intended as a principal text for first courses in coding and algebraic coding theory, and is aimed at advanced undergraduates and recent graduates as both a course and self-study text. BCH and cyclic, Group codes, Hamming codes, polynomial as well as many other codes are introduced in this textbook. Incorporating numerous worked examples and complete logical proofs, it is an ideal introduction to the fundamental of algebraic coding.

The Universal Service Desk (USD) - Implementing, controlling and improving service delivery defines what a USD is, why it is valuable to an organisation and how to build and implement one. It also discusses the evolution of the USD as part of integrated workplace management. Understand the essentials of any USD - buy this book today!

Characterized by its multi-level interdisciplinary character, communication has become a variable field -- one in which the level of analysis varies. This has had important ramifications for the study of communication because, to some extent, the questions one asks are determined by the methods one has available to answer them. As a result, communication research is characterized by the plethora of both qualitative and quantitative approaches used by its practitioners. These include survey and experimental methods, and content, historical, and rhetorical analyses.
A variety of tools has been developed in cognitive psychology and psychophysiology which attempts to measure "thinking" without asking people how they do it. This book is devoted to exploring how these methods might be used to further knowledge about the process of communication. The methods chosen have all been used extensively in cognitive and experimental psychology. Each chapter in this book is designed to describe the history of the method being introduced, the theory behind it, how to go about using it, and how it has already been used to study some area of communication. The methods introduced here vary widely in terms of the amount of equipment and training needed to use them. Some require only theoretical knowledge and a paper and pencil; others require more elaborate hardware and software for implementation. These methods also vary widely in terms of what sorts of variables they can be used to measure. Some of them adapt quite readily to traditional communication variables like persuasion, attitude change, and knowledge; others are more applicable to process type variables such as attention, arousal, involvement, encoding, and retrieval.

Summary Explains in easy-to-understand terms what executives and senior managers need to know and do about the ever-changing cyber threat landscape. Gives strategic, business-focused guidance and advice relevant to C-suite executives. Provides an effective and efficient framework for managing cyber governance, risk and compliance. Explains what is required to implement an effective cyber security strategy. Description With high-profile cyber attacks, data breaches and fines for GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) non-compliance hitting the headlines daily, businesses must protect themselves and their reputations, while reassuring stakeholders they take cyber security seriously. Cyber attacks are becoming more sophisticated and prevalent, and the cost of data breaches is soaring. In addition, new regulations and reporting requirements make cyber security a critical business issue. Board members and senior management must understand the threat landscape and the strategies they can employ to establish, implement and maintain effective cyber resilience throughout their organisation. How Cyber Security Can Protect your Business - A guide for all stakeholders provides an effective and efficient framework for managing cyber governance, risk and compliance, which organisations can adapt to meet their own risk appetite and synchronise with their people, processes and technology. It explains what is meant by governance, risk and compliance, how it applies to cyber security and what is required to implement an effective cyber security strategy. The pocket guide: Gives readers a greater understanding of cyber governance, risk and compliance; Explains what executives, senior managers and their advisors need to know and do about the ever-changing cyber threat landscape; Provides context as to why stakeholders need to be aware of and in control of their organisation's cyber risk management and cyber incident response; Gives guidance on building an appropriate and efficient governance framework that enables organisations to demonstrate their cyber approach in a non-technical, strategic, business-focused way; Details an overview process to enable risk assessment, assess existing defence mitigations and provide a framework for developing suitable controls; and Includes a checklist to help readers focus on their higher-priority cyber areas. Suitable for all managers and executives, this pocket guide will be of interest to non-cyber specialists, including non-executive directors, who may be required to review cyber arrangements. For cyber specialists, it provides an approach for explaining cyber issues in non-jargonistic, business-based language. Kick-start your journey to becoming cyber secure - buy this pocket guide today!

This book aims to provide the latest research developments and results in the domain of AI techniques for smart cyber ecosystems. It presents a holistic insight into AI-enabled theoretic approaches and methodology in IoT networking, security analytics using AI tools and network automation, which ultimately enable intelligent cyber space. This book will be a valuable resource for students, researchers, engineers and policy makers working in various areas related to cybersecurity and privacy for Smart Cities. This book includes chapters titled "An Overview of the Artificial Intelligence Evolution and Its Fundamental Concepts, and Their Relationship with IoT Security", "Smart City: Evolution and Fundamental Concepts", "Advances in AI-Based Security for Internet of Things in Wireless Virtualization Environment", "A Conceptual Model for Optimal Resource Sharing of Networked Microgrids Focusing Uncertainty: Paving Path to Eco-friendly Smart Cities", "A Novel Framework for a Cyber Secure Smart City", "Contemplating Security Challenges and Threats for Smart Cities", "Self-Monitoring Obfuscated IoT Network", "Introduction to Side Channel Attacks and Investigation of Power Analysis and Fault Injection Attack Techniques", "Collaborative Digital Forensic Investigations Model for Law Enforcement: Oman as a Case Study", "Understanding Security Requirements and Challenges in the Industrial Internet of Things: A Review", "5G Security and the Internet of Things", "The Problem of Deepfake Videos and How to Counteract Them in Smart Cities", "The Rise of Ransomware Aided by Vulnerable IoT Devices", "Security Issues in Self-Driving Cars within Smart Cities", and "Trust-Aware Crowd Associated Network-Based Approach for Optimal Waste Management in Smart Cities". This book provides state-of-the-art research results and discusses current issues, challenges, solutions and recent trends related to security and organization within IoT and Smart Cities. We expect this book to be of significant importance not only to researchers and practitioners in academia, government agencies and industries, but also for policy makers and system managers. We anticipate this book to be a valuable resource for all those working in this new and exciting area, and a "must have" for all university libraries.

This book introduces machine learning for readers with some background in basic linear algebra, statistics, probability, and programming. In a coherent statistical framework it covers a selection of supervised machine learning methods, from the most fundamental (k-NN, decision trees, linear and logistic regression) to more advanced methods (deep neural networks, support vector machines, Gaussian processes, random forests and boosting), plus commonly-used unsupervised methods (generative modeling, k-means, PCA, autoencoders and generative adversarial networks). Careful explanations and pseudo-code are presented for all methods. The authors maintain a focus on the fundamentals by drawing connections between methods and discussing general concepts such as loss functions, maximum likelihood, the bias-variance decomposition, ensemble averaging, kernels and the Bayesian approach along with generally useful tools such as regularization, cross validation, evaluation metrics and optimization methods. The final chapters offer practical advice for solving real-world supervised machine learning problems and on ethical aspects of modern machine learning.

First book on the subject, illustrative examples, some original results, self-contained material, a reference book.