A History of the Internet and the Digital Future
Distributed for Reaktion Books
246 pages
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5 1/2 x 8 1/2
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© 2010
- Contents
- Review Quotes
Table of Contents
Contents
Preface: The Great Adjustment
Phase I: Distributed Network, Centrifugal Ideas
1 A Concept Born in the Shadow of the Nuke
2 The Military Experiment
3 The Essence of the Internet
4 Computers Become Cheap, Fast and Common
Phase II: Expansion
5 The Hoi Polloi Connect
6 Communities Based on Interest, not Proximity
7 From Military Networks to the Global Internet
8 The Web!
9 A Platform for Trade and the Pitfalls of the Dot-com
Phase III: The Emerging Environment
10 Web 2.0 and the Return to the Oral Tradition
11 New Audiences, the Fourth Wall and Extruded Media
12 Two-way Politics
13 Promise and Peril
Glossary
References
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Index
Phase I: Distributed Network, Centrifugal Ideas
1 A Concept Born in the Shadow of the Nuke
2 The Military Experiment
3 The Essence of the Internet
4 Computers Become Cheap, Fast and Common
Phase II: Expansion
5 The Hoi Polloi Connect
6 Communities Based on Interest, not Proximity
7 From Military Networks to the Global Internet
8 The Web!
9 A Platform for Trade and the Pitfalls of the Dot-com
Phase III: The Emerging Environment
10 Web 2.0 and the Return to the Oral Tradition
11 New Audiences, the Fourth Wall and Extruded Media
12 Two-way Politics
13 Promise and Peril
Glossary
References
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Index
Review Quotes
Phil Madsen, online politics pioneer (campaign manager of Jesse Ventura, 1998)
"Ryan understands the power shift that the Internet is. If you see the Internet as Ryan does, you will understand how Craigslist kills newspapers, how Facebook rises from nothing and why everything is being invented anew."
Susanne Dirks
"Ryan describes a fundamental shift and dispersion of power from traditional centres of power to the networked individual. This is a must-read for both governments and companies who need to fully understand this shift in power and the implications it has on how they interact with the networked individuals who represent their citizens, customers, suppliers."– Susanne Dirks, Leader, Global Centre for Economic Development(IBM Institute for Business Value)
Jonathan Zittrain
"Johnny Ryan has admirably captured the sweep of the Internet’s development from its earliest days, showing us how its profound impact is in part an accident of history, a phenomenon whose most interesting and liberating aspects could fade without reinforcement of its core values."– Jonathan Zittrain, author of The Future of the Internet – And How to Stop It
Marc Benioff
"Thanks to the proliferation of cloud services, ubiquitous, low-cost bandwidth, and new devices like smartphones and the iPad, there are fewer obstacles to innovation than ever before. In the next decade, the ‘office’ need not be much more than an Internet connection. Johnny Ryan takes us through the history of the Internet to demonstrate how it has changed everything. But that’s not all; he also identifies what’s to come in the future.We are in a new era of transformation that has been powered by the Internet. Understanding the trends driving this revolution is pivotal to success. Consider this book your road map to getting there."–Marc Benioff, Chairman and ceo of salesforce.com
Tim Wu
"Both an enormously useful work and a great read. Read it and understand what has made the Internet different."–TimWu, Columbia Law School
PopMatters.com
"Amidst the RANDs and ARPANETs, the dates and somewhat dry details, and the numerous footnotes (the book is about as well-researched as any I’ve read), Ryan weaves in stories. These stories are what make this such a wonderful read. . . . Ryan’s stories and analogies serve several functions—first they make the book interesting and accessible. Second, the historical references put the Internet and all its technology into perspective and suggest that while inventions/technologies may change, people and the way people react to these technologies pretty much stay the same. . . . A History of the Internet and the Digital Future is a thoughtful book that is well researched and well written. The stories and historical references add color and life to the text and help show important cultural connections between today’s digital age and earlier times."
Independent
“The WikiLeaks saga may have drawn us into new, and scary, galaxies of cyberspace, but this survey of the online story so far offers a handy catch-up that will prove a boon to geeks and dabblers alike.”
Cory Doctorow | Boing Boing
“An engrossing, well-written account of the Internet’s founding and the backstory of the underlying protocols and plumbing, which draws on that rich history to make predictions about the net’s future.”
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