The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business, and SocietyThe Web has been with us for less than a decade. The popular and commercial diffusion of the Internet has been extraordinary - instigating and enabling changes in virtually every area of human activity and society. We have new systems of communication, new businesses, new media and sources of information, new forms of political and cultural expression, new forms of teaching and learning, and new communities. But how much do we know about the Internet - its history, its technology, its culture, and its uses? What are its implications for the business world and society at large? The diffusion has been so rapid that it has outpaced the capacity for well-grounded analysis. Soem say everything will change, others that little will change. Manuel Castells is widely regarded as the leading analyst of the Information Age and the Network Society. In addition to his academic work, he acts as adviser at the highest international levels. In this short, accessible, and informative book, he brings his experience and knowledge to bear on the Internet Galaxy. How did it all begin? What are the cultures that make up and contest the Internet? How is it shaping the new business organization and re-shaping older business organizations? What are the realities of the digital divide? How has the Internet affected social and cultural organization, political participation and communication, and urban living? These are just some of the questions addressed in this much needed book. Castells avoids any predictions or prescriptions - there have been enough of those - but instead draws on an extraordinary range of detailed evidence and research to describe what is happening, and to help us understand how the Internet has become the medium of the new network society. |
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Contents
Lessons from the History of the Internet | xii |
The Culture of the Internet | 36 |
eBusiness and the New Economy | 64 |
Virtual Communities or Network Society? | 116 |
The Politics of the Internet I Computer Networks Civil Society and the State | 137 |
The Politics of the Internet II Privacy and Liberty in Cyberspace | 168 |
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activity areas ARPA ARPANET Barry Wellman basis become Berkeley Castells centers Cisco citizens companies computer networks connection content providers corporate countries diffusion digital divide e-business e-mail economy electronic emergence entrepreneurs Europe FIDONET financial markets firms flexibility forms freedom geography global networks groups growth hacker culture households hypertext increase individual industry Information Age infrastructure innovation institutions Internet access Internet content Internet domains Internet service providers Internet users Internet-based investment investors labor Linus Torvalds Linux major ment metropolitan million mobile multimedia network society nodes Nokia on-line open source organization pattern percent political population Press production projects protocols Richard Stallman share Silicon Valley social interaction social movements spatial specific strategy Sun Microsystems survey telecommunications tion traditional transformation trends United UNIX urban valuation virtual communities websites world wide web York Zook