Inf. Soc.Pub Date : 1998-11-01DOI: 10.1080/019722498128737
J. Falk
{"title":"The Meaning of the Web","authors":"J. Falk","doi":"10.1080/019722498128737","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/019722498128737","url":null,"abstract":"Speculation about the meaning of the Net (the Internet and potentially associated networks) and its most rapidly developing dimension, the Web (the World Wide Web), are both symptoms and components of a broader reshaping of world politics, economy, and culture. These changes challenge many of the categories within which we have grown used to thinking about the shape and meaning of society and its future. For individuals and local communities, the promises, hopes, and fears associated with the growth of the Web have particular poignancy as they face the challenge of establishing and asserting their identity in a ever more complicated and interdependent world and, through that, finding a strategy for achieving the sort of future they would like to live. The Net and the Web are technologies that promise us access to the world, but they and their associated social and economic trends challenge many of the premises upon which our identity is forged. The Net facilitates the development of new forms of transnati...","PeriodicalId":259468,"journal":{"name":"Inf. Soc.","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122659000","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Inf. Soc.Pub Date : 1998-11-01DOI: 10.1080/019722498128746
William Wresch
{"title":"Information Access in Africa: Problems with Every Channel","authors":"William Wresch","doi":"10.1080/019722498128746","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/019722498128746","url":null,"abstract":"Every information channel within Africa is restricted. Limited budgets cause television stations to produce few shows of their own and to fill airtime with cheap American imports-imports that are often at odds with local cultural values. Book production is complicated by high production costs. The computer database industry is miniscule by U.S. standards. The World Wide Web opens a new forum for information access, but is complicated by high phone charges.","PeriodicalId":259468,"journal":{"name":"Inf. Soc.","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116168975","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Inf. Soc.Pub Date : 1998-08-01DOI: 10.1080/019722498128827
John D. W. Guice
{"title":"Looking Backward and Forward at the Internet","authors":"John D. W. Guice","doi":"10.1080/019722498128827","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/019722498128827","url":null,"abstract":"This article reviews accounts of the origins and growth of the global Internet with an interest in their implications for the future. Many accounts take overly restricted views of technical development. For instance, the Internet is often seen simply as the outgrowth of U.S. Defense Department work and popular enthusiasm. Recent interdisciplinary studies of technology present a more complex picture of how innovations are developed. They highlight technical alternatives, contributions of diverse groups, variety in meanings of technologies, and the overall surprising character of technology development. They suggest that the Internet has multiple origins and numerous particular reasons for its spread. Current discussions of the entry of Internet technologies into consumers' homes and the convergence among computing, media, and telecommunications enterprises represent examples of more complex accounts of technology development. Such accounts will likely provide more powerful bases for policy, management, and...","PeriodicalId":259468,"journal":{"name":"Inf. Soc.","volume":"52 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116446332","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Inf. Soc.Pub Date : 1998-08-01DOI: 10.1080/019722498128836
J. Rogers
{"title":"Internetworking and the Politics of Science: NSFNET in Internet History","authors":"J. Rogers","doi":"10.1080/019722498128836","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/019722498128836","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents an account of the process of development of the NSFNET and its significance for the emergence of the Internet of the 1990s. The fact that the development of the interconnected system of computer networks occurred within the realm of academic research is not incidental. The dynamics of the world of scientific research were intimately related to the shaping of the network and to the way in which it spread to other sectors of society. The construction of computer networks crossed the boundaries between science and society in order to build the scientific realm by transforming the world in which it is embedded.","PeriodicalId":259468,"journal":{"name":"Inf. Soc.","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123969088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Inf. Soc.Pub Date : 1998-08-01DOI: 10.1080/019722498128809
G. Marx
{"title":"An Ethics For The New Surveillance","authors":"G. Marx","doi":"10.1080/019722498128809","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/019722498128809","url":null,"abstract":"The Principles of Fair Information Practice are almost three decades old and need to be broadened to take account of new technologies for collecting personal information such as drug testing, video cameras, electronic location monitoring, and the Internet. I argue that the ethics of a surveillance activity must be judged according to the means, the context and conditions of data collection, and the uses/goals, and suggest 29 questions related to this. The more one can answer these questions in a way that affirms the underlying principle (or a condition supportive of it), the more ethical the use of a tactic is likely to be. Four conditions are identified that, when breached, are likely to violate an individual's reasonable expectation of privacy. Respect for the dignity of the person is a central factor and emphasis is put on the avoidance of harm, validity, trust, notice, and permission when crossing personal borders.","PeriodicalId":259468,"journal":{"name":"Inf. Soc.","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128012833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Inf. Soc.Pub Date : 1998-08-01DOI: 10.1080/019722498128818
J. Cappel, Leon A. Kappelman
{"title":"The Year 2000 Problem and Ethical Responsibility: A Call to Action","authors":"J. Cappel, Leon A. Kappelman","doi":"10.1080/019722498128818","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/019722498128818","url":null,"abstract":"Many organizations have made substantial progress in solving the year 2000 computer problem, while many others lag perilously behind. With the year 2000 deadline looming ever closer, this article examines several key issues, including the nature of the year 2000 problem itself, its potential to do harm, the progress that organizations have made to date on this issue, and factors that have worked to inhibit or facilitate organizational responses to this problem. An ethical analysis of the year 2000 problem is presented that reveals that both top management and IS professionals have an ethical responsibility to act on this issue. Organizations are urged to make the completion of their year 2000 problem efforts a top priority, because it is their responsibility and it serves as an investment for the future.","PeriodicalId":259468,"journal":{"name":"Inf. Soc.","volume":"74 5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128365618","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Inf. Soc.Pub Date : 1998-08-01DOI: 10.1080/019722498128845
E. Monteiro
{"title":"Scaling Information Infrastructure: The Case of Next Generation IP in Internet","authors":"E. Monteiro","doi":"10.1080/019722498128845","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/019722498128845","url":null,"abstract":"An information infrastructure has to scale, and hence change, as it expands. This creates a dilemma. The expansion fuels new patterns of use, which require changes, while on the other hand, the diffusion of and investments in the information infrastructure have a strong, conservative influence-the intertia of the installed base. The changes required to implement the scaling have to be in small steps. An information infrastructure is not ''changed,'' but rather it undergoes transitions. These transitions are highly involved sociotechnical negotiations. This article is based on a case study of the efforts to change the Internet Protocol (IP) in the Internet to facilitate further growth. The revision of IP is the most serious challenge to the continued scaling of the Internet during its nearly 30 years of existence.","PeriodicalId":259468,"journal":{"name":"Inf. Soc.","volume":"77 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122811627","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Inf. Soc.Pub Date : 1998-05-01DOI: 10.1080/019722498128890
L. Lievrouw
{"title":"Our Own Devices: Heterotopic Communication, Discourse and Culture in the Information Society","authors":"L. Lievrouw","doi":"10.1080/019722498128890","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/019722498128890","url":null,"abstract":"The main premise of this article is that in information societies generally, and in virtual social contexts particularly, a distinctive style of interaction to facilitate the communication of difference, heterotopic communication , has emerged. It rests on two cultural foundations: an ideological belief in the positive, socially integrating power of communication, and a prevailing ethic of instrumental rationality, subjective individualism, and strategically practiced self-interest. The former is demonstrated by the use of simulation and spectacle as sources of information; exhibitionism/voyeurism as a communicative style; and the awareness of surveillance. The latter is seen in the competitive use of knowledge as a commodity; a surface globalism masking deep parochialism; lateral as well as vertical information inequity; and the use of public versus private as strategies for engagement rather than as spaces. Those who engage in heterotopic communication resort to their ''own devices'' both in the sense o...","PeriodicalId":259468,"journal":{"name":"Inf. Soc.","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131592544","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Inf. Soc.Pub Date : 1998-05-01DOI: 10.1080/019722498128926
L. Paccagnella
{"title":"Language, Network Centrality, and Response to Crisis in On-line Life: A Case Study in the Italian Cyberpunk Computer Conference","authors":"L. Paccagnella","doi":"10.1080/019722498128926","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/019722498128926","url":null,"abstract":"The unobtrusive application of some techniques of research (namely, network analysis and content analysis) permits us to quantitatively identify some aspects of the social ''climate'' and context which govern a particular group of people interacting with each other through computers: the Italian cyber punk computer conference has been analyzed over a period of 19 months, through a succession of crises and moments of renewal. Monthly variations in the network measurements observed (density, reciprocity of links, etc.) may be taken as a ''barometer'' of the social liveliness of the conference. The analysis of the lexicon used in the messages reveals the presence of an underlying ''analogical'' linguistic component and of strategies for the construction of one's own social presence despite the seemingly limited possibilities of expression offered by the net. Used together, both techniques describe the expectations related to the roles of newcomer or leader. Conclusions include: a) a proposed framework to exp...","PeriodicalId":259468,"journal":{"name":"Inf. Soc.","volume":"46 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134138757","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Inf. Soc.Pub Date : 1998-05-01DOI: 10.1080/019722498128917
M. Mehta, Eric Darier
{"title":"Virtual Control and Discipline on the Internet: Electronic Governmentality in the New Wired World","authors":"M. Mehta, Eric Darier","doi":"10.1080/019722498128917","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/019722498128917","url":null,"abstract":"Current interest in the electronic highway is the latest expression of a technotopia that is about to resolutely tilt Western contemporary society into postmodernity, or at least into virtual modernity. The enthusiasm for the electronic highway is already having numerous ''power effects'' (Burchell et al., 1991). One of these effects is to radically intensify modern forms of power in a new regime we call electronic governmentality. This article examines these effects by drawing on examples from the Internet, and demonstrates how this communication and information infrastructure challenges some of our most tightly held beliefs about progress, technology, and power.","PeriodicalId":259468,"journal":{"name":"Inf. Soc.","volume":"15 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131815030","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}