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Digital Universe: The Global Telecommunication Revolution

Digital Universe: The Global Telecommunication Revolution

by Peter B. Seel
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Release Date: February 2012
ISBN: 9781405153294
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Book Description

For the student and general reader, a tour of the digital universe that offers critical observations and new perspectives on human communication and intelligence.

  • Traces the development and diffusion of digital information and communication technologies, providing an analysis of trans-cultural effects among developed and developing nations

  • Provides a balanced analysis of the pros and cons of the adoption and diffusion of digital technologies

  • Explores privacy, censorship, the digital divide, online games, and virtual and augmented realities

  • Follows a thematic structure, allowing readers to access the text at any point, based on their interests

  • Accompanying resources provide a wealth of related online content

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    Table of Contents

    1. Cover Page
    2. Dedication
    3. Title Page
    4. Copyright
    5. Contents
    6. Preface
    7. Acknowledgments
    8. Some Key Terms
    9. Part I: Introduction and Framing
      1. Chapter 1: The Digital Universe: A “Quick-Start” Introduction
        1. Three Types of Digital Literacy
        2. Becoming Critically Literate
        3. Rhetorical Literacy
        4. Cybernetics
        5. Navigating this Text
        6. Notes
      2. Chapter 2: Thinking About Moore's Law
        1. The Prediction
        2. Implications for Computing and the Digital Universe
        3. Technological Determinism
        4. The Rise of Nanotechnology and the Future of Moore's Law
        5. Notes
      3. Chapter 3: Critical Perspectives
        1. E-mail and the Age of Interruption
        2. Jacques Ellul's Critique of Technology
        3. The Tao of Digital Technology – Yin and Yang
        4. Is the Digital Future One of Doom and Gloom?
        5. Negotiating the Role of Technology in Modern Life
        6. Notes
    10. Part II: Internet and Web History
      1. Chapter 4: Origins of the Internet
        1. Foundations
        2. DARPA's Information-Processing Technology Office
        3. Paul Baran and the Survivable Communications Network
        4. Development of the ARPANET
        5. Licklider to Taylor to Roberts at ARPA
        6. Building the ARPANET
        7. The Father of All Demos 43
        8. Notes
      2. Chapter 5: Internet Evolution
        1. Part 1 – From ARPANET to Internet
        2. The Development of TCP/IP
        3. The Emergence of the Personal Computer
        4. Internet Growth in the 1980s
        5. Notes
      3. Chapter 6: The Web
        1. The First Web of Information
        2. Ted Nelson's Dream of Xanadu and Douglas Engelbart's oN-Line System
        3. The Development of the Web
        4. Mosaic, AOL, and the growth of the Web
        5. Web 2.0 and the Architecture of Participation
        6. Facebook as a Case Study
        7. Notes
    11. Part III: Telecommunication and Media Convergence
      1. Chapter 7: Telecommunication and the “Flat” World
        1. “What hath God wrought”
        2. The Atlantic Cable
        3. Communication, Empire, and Harold Innis
        4. Evolution of the Flat World
        5. Notes
      2. Chapter 8: Digital Media Convergence
        1. Convergence
        2. Analog to Digital
        3. Xerox's PARC
        4. Atoms and Bits – Benefits to Digitization
        5. Five Digital Attributes
        6. Notes
    12. Part IV: Internet Control, Cyberculture, and Dystopian Views
      1. Chapter 9: The Public and Private Internet
        1. Internet Management and Governance
        2. Privatization of the US Internet in the 1990s
        3. The International Struggle Over Internet Governance
        4. The Day that Jon Postel Seized Control of the Top-Level Domains
        5. ICANN as the Middle Path
        6. The Internet as a Medium of Democratic Communication
        7. The Social Embeddedness of the Internet
        8. Notes
      2. Chapter 10: Censorship and Global Cyberculture
        1. Censoring the Internet
        2. Internet Censorship in Iran
        3. The Great Firewall of China
        4. Bypassing the Great Firewall
        5. The US Government and WikiLeaks
        6. Global Information and Communication Technology Use
        7. Notes
      3. Chapter 11: The Dark Side
        1. Privacy and the Digital Universe
        2. Privacy and Population
        3. Changing Public Perceptions of Privacy
        4. The Online Privacy Continuum
        5. The Surveillance Society
        6. The Invisible Databases
        7. Global Threats to the Internet
        8. Cyber Warfare
        9. Notes
    13. Part V: New Communication Technologies and the Future
      1. Chapter 12: Wired and Wireless Technologies
        1. Wired is Not Tired
        2. The Diffusion of Broadband Internet Access
        3. The Wireless Phone Revolution
        4. Global Wireless Telephony
        5. The Social Effects of Mobile Phone Use
        6. Notes
      2. Chapter 13: Virtual and Augmented Worlds
        1. The Sensorama and Morton Heilig
        2. The State of Digital Reality
        3. Sketchpad and Computer Graphics
        4. Virtual Reality
        5. From ArchMac to Google Earth
        6. Video Games as Virtual Worlds
        7. Two Virtual Worlds: Second Life and World of Warcraft
        8. Augmented Reality
        9. Replicating the World in 4-D
        10. Notes
      3. Chapter 14: The Future of the Digital Universe
        1. The Future of the Cloud
        2. Augmented Human Intelligence
        3. The Flash Crash and Other Dystopian Tales
        4. Predictions of Superhuman Intelligence
        5. Critical Perspectives
        6. A Humanistic Perspective
        7. Notes
    14. Index