| The Technology Revolution | |
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ISBN: 0-9763857-1-6 (Paperback) ISBN: 0-9763857-2-4 (Hardback) Pages: 288 Publication Date: December 2005
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How do you name, describe, or characterize something
that includes the potential to interconnect everyone on the planet?
How do you evaluate or speculate on the significance of a system that
can provide access to any and all types of information, particularly
when that information can be located anywhere and stored in any number
of different ways? Where do you start in studying the effects of
a technology that gave form and meaning to the existence of
virtual communities and instituted entirely new ways for people to
communicate with one another and to share their ideas, feelings, and,
ultimately, themselves? The answers all begin and end with the individual. No matter how you look at it, all of these questions, and many others just like them, lead back to you and me. They speak to the role the Internet has to play in relation to the daily life of the individual and, conversely, to the role the individual has to play in the daily workings of the Internet. TCP/IP brought the Internet onto our computers. But we brought the Internet into our lives and, in doing so, we shaped the Internet into what we see today. The Internet is a global computer network, interconnecting smaller, independent networks located throughout the world, the computers that compose those networks, and the people who own, operate, and use those computers. The Internet houses a vast quantity of information that is both broadly diverse in content and widely distributed in location. It carries countless messages every minute of every day. It brings together and engages people in such virtual constructs as interactive gaming environments and cyberspace recreations of meeting rooms, office buildings, and entire cityscapes. The Internet provides equally well for the commercial needs of corporations, the infrastructure needs of governments, the community needs of non-profit organizations, and the personal needs of individuals. It functions as a new realm for commerce, creating whole new business enterprises, changing the supply and distribution of commodities and services, and radically altering how many jobs are performed. It challenges our long-standing definitions of community and social interaction. It attracts and commands the attention of the young, the not-so-young, and people of every age in between. This book explores the Internet's impact, perils, and promise. |