Information Age

A must-read for anyone who cares about the future of business, Enterprise.Com boldly defines the future of the cyber-economy, demonstrating the value of information technology, as well as its impact on competition and market leadership. At the heart of the book is Papows's vision of the "market-facing enterprise", a vision that will redefine the essence of business processes and relationships worldwide.

While making the case that information technology is no longer just a tool but a defining element of business, Papows shows managers and executives in any industry how to anticipate trends, make wise investment decisions, and harness the power of technology to achieve new levels of growth.

American politics today is run on scandal and sound bites because our politicians have become disconnected from the government and public that they serve. Vast changes brought about by the information revolution and the global economy -- and by the new "Choice Generation" of Americans under the age of thirty -- have yet to impact America's centralized, one-size-fits-all government programs.

Enter Andrei Cherny, who uses his unique vantage point as a twenty something with experience working closely with the President and Vice President of the United States to consider what these vast changes will mean for American government and society. Cherny convincingly argues that Americans are coming to demand a Choice Revolution in government -- expanding democracy by taking decision-making power out of the hands of experts and putting back into the hands of ordinary people.

But more individual power doesn't mean just more individualism. Cherny proposes a truly interactive government in which increased government responsiveness is met with an increased commitment on the part of the public to the common good.

Passage of the European Data Protection Directive and other national laws have increased the need for companies and other entities to improve their data protection and privacy controls. Clients, stakeholders, and the public are clamoring for it. Klosek introduces the various legal means to protect personal data in the United States and the European Union, targeting her book at American and international businesses that may have difficulty complying with the European Directive. She explains its main elements and practical effects, presents primary components of national privacy laws abroad and in the United States, and gives advice on some steps companies can take to improve the level of protection they afford to the data they possess.

This book surveys and synthesizes the material currently available on the electronic globalization of higher education. Rossman provides detailed information on experiments, organizations, and ideas related to computer networks and colleges and universities. He also discusses the electronic organization of knowledge, electronic textbooks, and the many ways in which students may use computers and related technology to enhance their educational experience. At the heart of his discussion is a vision of an emerging worldwide electronic university in which students, faculty, and research libraries will be connected electronically across continents.

This provocative and accessible text is addressed to prospective and practicing teachers who believe schools must be fundamentally reformed to meet student needs in an information age. Drawing on interviews with frontline educators, the authors integrate descriptive accounts of learning and teaching in schools today with emerging multicultural curricula, information technologies, organizational structures that support innovations, and democratic dialogue. Jones and Maloy offer analytic perspectives for rethinking the social, historical, and philosophical foundations of education along with strategies for teacher renewal and organizational change.

Halbert examines the expansion of intellectual property rights in the information age. She critiques the theoretical foundations and current American approach to copyright law, and she suggests that we should not extend copyright law without critically assessing the impact such a move would have on the free exchange of information.

How have disabled Americans been portrayed by the media through the years and how are images and the role of the handicapped changing? Jack Nelson and a series of experts in communication and the disabled offer an easy-to-read overview of key issues, continuing problems, new opportunities, and new technological tools. Professionals and teachers in communication, along with experts and general readers interested in public policy and social issues, will find this short study, with its illustrations, descriptions and lists of organizations and its bibliographical materials, a handy reference.

Essays about conflict in the information age that show how the information revolution is altering the nature of conflict.

Advanced information technologies will have a profound effect on our national security. Driven by the need to understand this revolution and to take steps towards defending against information attack, the editors provided this thorough examination of information warfare, with implications for the U.S. and other countries.

China's economic and social progress toward modernization is one of the defining features of the last quarter of the 20th century. The emergence of China coincides with another development of equally important international implications--the revolution in information and telecommunication technology. But how compatible are the new China and the information age? The Chinese Communist Party intends to embrace market-oriented economic development while maintaining centralized control over politics, culture, and public discourse. The contradictions and tensions of this goal are especially acute in telecommunication and information technology markets, where the rest of the world is moving rapidly toward liberalization and globalization. Will China's economic reforms allow it to join the information revolution, or will its unique political structure keep it insulated from the main currents of global economic development? This volume is the first detailed examination of how China's reform process is playing out in the realm of information and telecommunications.