Information and Communication Technologies - Visions and Realities

This text illuminates the social and economic implications of advances in information and communication technologies. It includes explanations on issues such as how social factors influence technilogical innovation and convergence.

Information and Communication Technologies Visions and Realities illuminates the social and economic implications of advances in information and communication technologies. It has been written and edited to reach a broad audience across the social sciences interested in constructive ways of thinking about the social dynamics of the revolution in digital media. Based on a decade of research undertaken by the UK''s Programme on Information and Communication Technologies (PICT), this book explains: BL how social factors influence technological innovation and convergence;BL why organizations seek to transform work, services, and management; BL ways in which households domesticate new media; and BL how public policy and regulation shape the impact of technology on employment, media concentration, privacy, and access in an information society. The thirty contributors include leading figures in the field such as Walter Baer, Jay Blumler, Peter Cochrane, Rod Coombs, Bill Dutton, Chris Freeman, Nicholas Garnham, John Goddard, Kenneth Kraemer, Donald MacKenzie, Robin Mansell, Bill Melody, Roger Silverstone, Robin Williams, and Steve Woolgar.