Product Description
Today’s history students must be able to use the Internet effectively, but they do not necessarily know how to tell good history Web sites from bad ones. In the school or community library all the materials have been "vetted" in some way—either through peer review or by the professor who ordered the books. But students need guidelines to locate and evaluate online materials. Some existing guides teach the uninitiated the basics of how to use a Web browser, set up an e-mail account, and other fundamentals of getting connected—which, of course, is of little or no use to students who have been using the Internet for years!Meanwhile, history students have rushed headlong onto the Internet, readily accessing online materials in the process of writing term or research papers, yet many of them still receive little if any guidance in how to use the Web effectively. So, while instructors continue to grapple with the implications of online research, students exploit the potential of the Internet, sometimes finding and misusing the historical materials they find. In answer to these problems, this brief and inexpensive text will take students and instructors (including professional historians) beyond the initial stages of Internet use by providing them with the tools necessary to use the Internet to conduct sound historical research. Far more than a glorified list of soon-to-be-outdated links, this work details the history of the Internet, the history of history on the Internet, and how to become proficient at finding and evaluating Web sites. The book contains five chapters including: a short history of the Internet and the World Wide Web; a specific primer on finding history sites using the two major search engines; how to evaluate online content; Internet resources such as mailing lists and newsgroups; and a guide to putting materials online for class presentations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

reliable resources
In this brief text, McMichael gives an undergraduate history student a synopsis of reliable history websites. Along with a history of history on the web, as he puts it so appropriately.

If your computing background is a still sketchy, be reassured that this is not unusual of history majors. Perhaps your computer and network usage has been mostly recreational, as opposed to professional. McMichael writes for you. Refreshingly little computer jargon. But enough ideas to let you do serious research using history resources on the web. ... Read more

Product Description
This title aims to answer basic questions about the Vikings, for example, why they had horns on their helmets. It also looks at how, and what, we know about living in the past. The activities and questions are directed at the readers themselves to involve them in learning about the Viking Age. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Excellent introduction
A great deal of information delivered in the very readable way with great illustrations. Well worth your purchase!

Vikings!
I bought this book as a companion to Yo, Vikings!. It is full of detailed illustrations and looks like it would be hours of educational entertainment.

Awesome Introduction to Who the Vikings Were
It was nearly impossible to find a book about Vikings that would appeal to a 4yo Viking enthusiast. "Who Were the Vikings" fit perfectly.There was enough text to be informative, and plenty of illustrations to keep a non-reader glued to the pages.

History resource
I would definitely recommend this book.It is informative, without being too descriptive for young children.It was very interesting and children of both genders were entertained while using this book to learn.

Very Entertaining and Informative!
We thoroughly enjoyed this book during our unit study of the Vikings. I read the whole book aloud to my 8yo daughter and 5yo son over the course of several days. They found it fascinating and so did I.

It is written in such a way that it is *very* complete and encompasses a HUGE amount of information on the vikings, yet it is also still very accessible and quite enjoyable. The illustrations are magnificent [as always with Usborne books] and they really add to the book.

We learned a whole lot with this book [mom included!] and it is one we will re-read through the years and one we will refer to as a reference book as well.

I think anyone would enjoy this book and really get a lot out of it. ... Read more

Product Description
An intimate, gloriously written look at the communications revolution and how it has opened up the world.

The Internet is the most remarkable thing human beings have built since the pyramids. A millennium from now, historians will look back at it and marvel that a people equipped with such clumsy tools succeeded in creating such a leviathan.

Yet even as the Net pervades our lives, we begin to take it for granted. We have lost our capacity for wonder. Most of us have no idea where the Internet came from, how it works, or who created it and why. And even fewer have any idea of what it means for society and the future.

John Naughton has written a warm and passionate book that seeks to rescue the Internet from the condescension of posterity, to celebrate the engineers and scientists who implemented their dreams in hardware and software, and to explain the values and ideas that drove them. Although its subject seems technical, the book in fact is personal. John Naughton writes about the Net like Nick Hornby writes about soccer. A Brief History of the Future is an intimate celebration of vision and altruism, ingenuity and determination, and above all the power of ideas to change the world.

". . . a fascinating and highly accessible history of the Internet packed with intriguing anecdotes and stimulating insights." --David Puttnam

"At last the Internet gets the history book it deserves." --The BooksellerAmazon.com Review
John Naughton, to judge by this learned but lightly writtenhistory of modern communications technology, is deeply interested injust about everything. It mystifies the Irish-born CambridgeUniversity scholar that so few people share his fascination with theInternet--and, he grumps, "the higher you go up the social andpolitical hierarchy the worse it gets."

A Brief History of the Future, whose title is just right, isNaughton's attempt to educate the uninitiated in how the Internet cameto be. Although its development occurred in starts and stops over ahalf-century, the Internet came into its own only in the 1990s, withthe arrival of the World Wide Web and widely available software tonegotiate it. Each of those innovations, though, drew on work thatsometimes extends deep into the past, and Naughton does a good job oftracing technical lineages. Though studded with geekspeak, hisnarrative doesn't presuppose much background knowledge on his readers'part, unlike Stephen Segaller's worthy Nerds 2.0.1., whichcovers some of the same ground. Naughton's cast of characters includessuch scientific and administrative luminaries as Norbert Wiener,Vannevar Bush, Paul Baran, Bill Gates, Linus Torvalds, and TimBerners-Lee (but, sad to say, not Al Gore), each of whom madecontributions large and small to what Naughton insists is atechnological revolution with endless possibilities for the commongood.

Well-written and richly detailed, Naughton's book is a fineintroduction to the Net, and to the countless, largely unsunginnovators who made it possible. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

I was actually disappointed ...
I recently bought the book after having read the raving reviews here on Amazon. Before I turn to my critique, it has to be said that Naughton makes a fine effort in bringing together the whole context (or at least some sort of plausible context) of "the internet". There are some not uninteresting bits of information on various side issues such as ham radio.

Anyway, as for the core topic -- the internet -- it turns out the book is little more than a mix of pieces taken very much in sequence from the awesome and much underrated Hafner and Lyon book, some actually very funny manual type of sections on things like how to use a browser to click on hyperlinks, and towards the end a little bit of Raymond and Lessig inspired musings about how much open source is better than proprietary software, and how the internet is threatened by corporate giants.

For a serious researcher this book is almost totally useless as an original source of information. Also, there are some strange asides such as on page 147 "'Real e-mail dates from 1970" with a footnote stating that "For some reason, Hafner and Lyon ... date it as 'one day in 1972', but this must be wrong because the RFC archive shows a flurry of discussions of a mail protocol in the summer and autumn of 1971." This explanation makes no sense to me, for there have been all sorts of dead end RFCs, especially in the very early days. I could elaborate the discussion on what qualifies as the "first email ever" much further, but the crucial point is that Naughton offers very little authoritative information and introduces quite a bit of subjectivity on the sources he builds on.

As an aside, don't even waste your time with the Abbate book, just get the Hafner and Lyon book and get to the original sources of the BBN guys, the NWG, Pouzin, Cerf, and the more recent Dave Clark papers on design principles and the internet.

A Brief History of the Future
This book is essentially an overview of the development and evolution of the Internet, ending with the browser war between Netscape and Microsoft. It was initially published in the UK in 1999, then in the US in 2000. There is some discussion of the intellectual backstories such as Norbert Wiener's cybernetics and JCR Licklider's ideas on interactive computing, but the book is mainly about the birth and growth of the Net. This book lacks detail - and is in that sense superficial - but it works well as the general overview the author meant it to be.

I wish high school history had been like this
Next time you take a transcontinental flight to a technical conference, skip the airline movie and just read this wonderful book cover to cover. I wish history class in high school had been this much fun. Naughton has written the definitive history of the Internet so far. For example, when the Pentagon asked AT&T to build an early prototype of the Internet for them, AT&T pooh-poohed packet switching as a worthless idea concocted by some young whippersnapper (Paul Baran of the Rand Corp.) who knew nothing about proper telephone engineering. The book is full of anecdotes and funny stories. Great reading for old fogies and young fogies alike.

The entire history of the Internet's development
What does the Internet mean for the future? An answer partially depends upon an analysis of the past, and John Naughton's Brief History of the Future is the first book to cover the entire history of the Internet's development, from those who first thought of it in the 1940s to the scientists and engineers who brought it to life. Anecdotes blend with history to provide an intriguing blend of personal and scientific observation.

Great book - reads like a novel!
Reads like a sci-fi novel while providing a solid understanding of how and why the Internet works.At times the detail is almost overdone but this only adds to the credibilityof the author. I started with a Timex Sinclair computer and have lived through the period covered in this book without really understanding just what made the internet work. Now I know! ... Read more

Product Description
Save yourself and your students hours of research time. Now extensively revised and expanded, "The History Highway" is widely recognized as the one essential tool for students, teachers and researchers seeking a reliable guide to history sites on the web. "The History Highway" offers the broadest, most current coverage of the astonishing amount of historical information available on the Internet: provides detailed, easy-to-use, and up-to-date information on more than 3000 web sites; covers U.S. and World history and all sub-fields; features ten new chapters, with coverage of futurism, environmental history, immigration history, and Mediterranean and Middle Eastern history; all sites have been thoroughly checked by specialists in the relevant field of history; the best sites in each field are clearly identified; hard cover and paperback editions include a CD of the entire contents with live links to sites; and e-book version with live links to sites is in preparation. ... Read more

Product Description
From Gutenberg to the Internet presents 63 original readings from the history of computing, networking, and telecommunications arranged thematically by chapters. All of these readings were reset in one consistent typographic style for this edition. Most of the readings record basic discoveries from the 1830s through the 1960s that laid the foundation of the world of digital information in which we live. These readings, some of which are illustrated, trace historic steps from the early nineteenth century development of telegraph systems-the first data networks-through the development of the earliest general-purpose progammable computers and the earliest software, to the foundation in 1969 of ARPANET, the first national computer network that eventually became the Internet. The readings will allow you to review early developments and ideas in the history of information technology that eventually led to the convergence of computing, data networking, and telecommunications in the Internet.

The work begins with an illustrated historical introduction concerning the impact of the Internet on book culture. The introduction compares and contrasts the transition from manuscript to print initiated by Gutenberg's invention of printing by moveable type in the 15th century with the transition that began in the mid-19th century from a print-centric world to the present world in which printing co-exists with various electronic media that converged to form the Internet. I also provide a comprehensive and wide-ranging annotated timeline covering selected developments in the history of information technology from the year 100 up to 2004, and supply introductory notes to each reading. Some introductory notes contain supplementary illustrations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Less is More... Much, Much More!
I am very impressed with the time that took Amazon to bring this beauty right into my door. It was about 10 days, but considering you're shipping overseas, you gotta be impressed by this lag. I haven't got this time on deliveries from local Brazilian stores... and I got for only $60 bucks.

The book is amazing and, as far as i can see, it's selling performence doesn't give him justice. Solid compilation of definitive articles for the Information Technology, it is a must have for any Computer geek, or enthusiast.

Even though this item is not in sale anymore, it is still a nice shot to own it, and believe me, it's too inexpensive for what it is.
I'll try to post some photos later.

Background on this title; Not a rating
"From Gutenberg to the Internet presents 63 original readings from the history of computing, networking, and telecommunications arranged thematically by chapters. Most of the readings record basic discoveries from the 1830s through the 1960s that laid the foundation of the world of digital information in which we live.

These readings, some of which are illustrated, trace historic steps from the early nineteenth century development of telegraph systems-the first data networks- through the development of the earliest general-purpose progammable computers and the earliest software, to the foundation in 1969 of ARPANET, the first national computer network that eventually became the Internet. The readings will allow you to review early developments and ideas in the history of information technology that eventually led to the convergence of computing, data networking, and telecommunications in the Internet.

The editor has written a lengthy illustrated historical introduction concerning the impact of the Internet on book culture. It compares and contrasts the transition from manuscript to print initiated by Gutenberg's invention of printing by moveable type in the 15th century with the transition that began in the mid-19th century from a print-centric world to the present world in which printing co-exists with various electronic media that converged to form the Internet. He also provided a comprehensive and wide-ranging annotated timeline covering selected developments in the history of information technology from the year 100 up to 2004, and supplied introductory notes to each reading. Some introductory notes contain supplementary illustrations." -- Publisher's note

Contents:

1. From Gutenberg's Press to the Foundations of the Internet
2. From Gutenberg to the Internet Timeline. Developments in the History of Information Technology from the Years 100 to 2004
3. Human Computers
4. Mechanizing the Production of Mathematical Tables
5. The Earliest Data Networks
Optical Telegraphy
Electric Telegraphy
Telephones
Wireless Telegraphy
Television
6. Origins of the General Purpose Programmable Computer-Babbage's Analytical Engine
7. The Theory of the Universal Machine
8. Logical Design and Production of the First Electronic Digital Computers
9. The Origins of Computer Programming
10. Early Applications of Electronic Computers
11. Computing and Intelligence
12. Communication Theory
13. Origins of the Internet
... Read more

Product Description
The Internet's remarkable growth has been fueled by innovation. New applications continually enable new ways of using the Internet, and new physical networking technologies increase the range of networks over which the Internet can run. Questions about the relationship between innovation and the Internet's architecture have shaped the debates over open access to broadband networks, network neutrality, nondiscriminatory network management, and future Internet architecture. In Internet Architecture and Innovation, Barbara van Schewick explores the economic consequences of Internet architecture, offering a detailed analysis of how it affects the economic environment for innovation.

Van Schewick describes the design principles on which the Internet's original architecture was based—modularity, layering, and the end-to-end arguments—and shows how they shaped the original architecture. She analyzes in detail how the original architecture affected innovation—in particular, the development of new applications—and how changing the architecture would affect this kind of innovation.

Van Schewick concludes that the original architecture of the Internet fostered application innovation. Current changes that deviate from the Internet's original design principles reduce the amount and quality of application innovation, limit users' ability to use the Internet as they see fit, and threaten the Internet's ability to realize its economic, social, cultural, and political potential. If left to themselves, network providers will continue to change the internal structure of the Internet in ways that are good for them but not necessarily for the rest of us. Government intervention may be needed to save the social benefits associated with the Internet's original design principles. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

whither net neutrality?
A good part of the book is devoted to the history and technical architecture of the internet.Light reference to the burning issue of net neutrality and extensive discussion of its surrogate "end-to-end arguments" of the narrow and broad types is puzzling.The internet is not end-to-end but based on hops, box 3.4, as stated on p. 384, so what is the big deal with end-to-end hop-less connectivity, except for real-time communication which was not part of the original design of the internet? This is the first time I learned that Salzer, Reed and Clark (1981) take credit for original "end-to-end" arguments (p. 58), overshadowing Vinton Cerf, Bob Kahn and Jon Postel who "invented" the Internet well before 1981. van Schewich ought to explain why she considers Salzer et al phrase "end-to-end" to be the catchphrase and linguistic keyword for the entire book, instead of relegating it to a mere historical artifact.

Ignoring the unnecessary exposition on the Application/ Transport/ Internet and Link layers, known to every Cisco technician, van Schewich deserves credit for building the next two sections of the book: Net Neutrality and competition, and Net Neutrality and innovation.van Schewich comprehensively surveys the literature of the internet + competition (Varian genre) and internet+innovation (von Hippel genre).The conclusions are predictably unpalatable to the financial health of Comcast and Verizon, that erosion of transparent "end-to-end" connectivity (net neutrality) would be anti-competitive and would stifle innovation.

Confuses Architecture and Implementation
The principal problem with the book is the author's lack of understanding of the engineering process. Engineers, unlike law professors writing books about engineering, don't work from first principles like the Internet's retrospective end-to-end arguments principle; they make tradeoffs and design toward a goal or set of goals. Thus, when the Internet was built the project manager, Bob Kahn, adapted a design that had already been proved in the French research network CYCLADES rather than starting with a blank slate. CYCLADES designer Louis Pouzin went with an "architecture" that was appropriate for a research network, and not very suitable for an everyday network for unskilled people. The Internet has proved difficult to manage and expensive to operate because this research-centric design is still there. Security, privacy, viruses, spam, and denial of service attacks raise the price and lower the utility of the Internet, all a direct consequence of its organization.

The author is right that the Internet's organization makes it easy for some application programmers to bring new information services on-line, but wrong about the scope of the innovations it permits. Regardless of the system architecture, the services offered by a network constrain application developers. The telephone network is innovation-limiting because it's a slow, narrow-band system, not because it lacks end-to-end architecture. The end-to-end architecture is misleading in any case, as any network has an end-to-end element.

Because the Internet offers poor support for performance-intensive real-time applications (gaming, video conferencing, other forms of communication-oriented rather than content-oriented apps) the designers of these applications pay an innovation tax in the form of extra effort that effectively subsidizes content-oriented applications. They also end up bypassing most of the Internet through Content Delivery Networks and managed services. So the author is wrong regarding her claim that the Internet is the best of all possible networks from the innovator's perspective; it's good for some applications, but not for others.

If you must read this book for your job or a school assignment, wait for the Kindle version if you can (MIT Press says it will be three years from now;) it's just a bit tedious on paper.

One of the most important books in tech policy in a decade
This is an important and brilliant book, which I consider required reading for anyone interested in or serious about the Internet or innovation.

I have written a review of this book on my blog ([...]) and on the Huffington Post.

As I say there, this book is one of the very few books in the field of Internet policy that is in the same league as Larry Lessig's Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace, Version 2.0, in 2000, and Yochai Benkler's The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, in 2006, in terms of its originality, depth, and importance to Internet policy and other disciplines. I expect the book to affect how people think about the Internet; about the interactions between law and technical architectures in all areas of law; about entrepreneurship in general. I also think her insights on innovation economics, which strike me as far more persuasive than lawyers' usual assumptions, should influence "law and economics" thinking for the better.

Books this good don't come along every day--or even every year-and I'm already late to the praise-party. Harvard Law professor Larry Lessig (the trail-blazing cyberlaw champion) recommended it in the New York Times this week; Susan Crawford (a law professor who served as a top White House advisor) recommended it in an op-ed in Salon/GigaOm yesterday; Brad Burnham, the venture capitalist who was featured earlier this week in the NYT's Room for Debate, also posted an endorsing review on his blog. MIT engineering professor David Reed (one of the key architects of the IP protocol, inventor of the UDP protocol) praises it on the book jacket.

It is not easy material--the Internet's technologies and how innovation actually evolves--but she writes for a general audience, not a technologist or lawyer, and you will learn a lot from, and be challenged by, the ideas in this book. ... Read more

Product Description
The conception - day gift includes a means of storing information (memory) and of transmitting information (speech). Memory & Speech could thus be considered as a first generation of media. However, natural selection can explain our evolution only to a hunter - gatherer society. How have we managed the transitions over historical time to an agricultural, an industrial, and now an information society? We have learned how to extend our nervous systems by storing information (Print & Film - second generation), by transmitting information (Telephone & Television - third generation), and by both storing and transmitting information outside our bodies (Multimedia & Internet - fourth generation). A History of Media tells this story of the co-evolution of the person and media as extensions.

This long perspective will help us better understand our turbulent transitional times as we assimilate the fourth generation of media. This third transition will be clarified by analogy with the first and second transitions as we assimilated the second and third generations of media. The work of Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan, and their successors in the Toronto School of Media Studies will help illuminate those transitions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Forget the past?
I have not read this in detail yet, but in addition to references to McLuhan, I expected to see Walter Ong mentioned somewhere. Although the book is informative as far as it goes, it assumes (from my perspective at least) that the world as it existed before literacy appeared is no longer relevant to the present age. As if the voices of nature are only items to satisfy curiosity by downloading MP3 recordings of crows, robins, thunder etc.
I would read David Abram (The Spell of the Sensuous) to see how little of the voices of that world are ignored. "If you can't see it on the iPhone screen, it doesn't exist." ... Read more

Product Description
Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2008.

When we think of the Internet, we generally think of Amazon, Google, Hotmail, Napster, MySpace, and other sites for buying products, searching for information, downloading entertainment, chatting with friends, or posting photographs. In the academic literature about the Internet, however, these uses are rarely covered. The Internet and American Business fills this gap, picking up where most scholarly histories of the Internet leave off—with the commercialization of the Internet established and its effect on traditional business a fact of life. These essays, describing challenges successfully met by some companies and failures to adapt by others, are a first attempt to understand a dynamic and exciting period of American business history.

Tracing the impact of the commercialized Internet since 1995 on American business and society, the book describes new business models, new companies and adjustments by established companies, the rise of e-commerce, and community building; it considers dot-com busts and difficulties encountered by traditional industries; and it discusses such newly created problems as copyright violations associated with music file-sharing and the proliferation of Internet pornography.

Contributors:
Atsushi Akera, William Aspray, Randal A. Beam, Martin Campbell-Kelly, Paul E. Ceruzzi, James W. Cortada, Wolfgang Coy, Blaise Cronin, Nathan Ensmenger, Daniel D. Garcia-Swartz, Brent Goldfarb, Shane Greenstein, Thomas Haigh, Ward Hanson, David Kirsch, Christine Ogan, Jeffrey R. Yost. ... Read more

Product Description
"Frameworks must be lived with and explored before they can be broken." Thomas Kuhn
Discovery is a scientific process that must unfold in time. Oxygen was first described as 'air itself entire', and Uranus was assumed to be a comet because all the planets were known and named. It takes time for us to realise that something has arrived that did not previously exist, and to stop imposing old terminology and expectations upon it. Using a host of vivid historical examples, Edward Burman uses the 'paradigm shift' thinking explored by Thomas Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (over a million copies sold) to assess the Internet as a scientific breakthrough like any other. Dismissing its attempted hijack by 'dot com' business as cynical and doomed to failure, he unravels the past and predicts a time close ahead when barriers will fall, perceptions will change, and the Internet will penetrate our way of life with a power greater than electricity, the car or the telephone.
If you thought the Internet was someone else's business, think again. ... Read more

Product Description
Beginning with the development of the compass, Ruling the Waves examines a series of technological revolutions that promised, in their time, to transform the world's politics and business. With Debora Spar's gifted storytelling, each chapter reads like an adventure tale as she recounts the histories of the printing press and maps; of the telegraph, radio, and satellite television; of software, encryption, and the advent of digital music. At each of these junctures Spar suggests that invention led to both a wave of commerce and of chaos. Entrepreneurs such as Samuel Morse and Rupert Murdoch carved new markets from the emerging technology and proclaimed that the old rules no longer applied. And for a while, they were right. But eventually--and inevitably--even cowboys need rules: rules of property, rules of coordination, rules of competition. The erstwhile pioneers thus turn to government, lobbying for order and setting the stage for the next wave of discovery. A fascinating history of business, Ruling the Waves is also an original, thought-provoking analysis of the parallels between past innovations and inventions and our own tumultuous times. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Fascinating look at emerging technologies, commerce, and government
_Ruling the Waves_ by Debora L. Spar is a fascinating book on the history of business and politics in the fields of emerging technologies, one I honestly feel everyone should read, as it is invaluable for the sense of context and perspective it provides.

Much has been made about how truly revolutionary the internet is, how that its very existence breaks all the old rules, that it is going to steer the world towards a new social order, perhaps even sever the link between the market and the state. Many prophets have proclaimed how the internet will create a realm where government has no force, where big business is powerless, and where many things - such as music - will essentially be free.

Spar readily acknowledges that the net is indeed radical and that it will produce many changes in society, politics, government, and business. However, she sought through this book to show that the emergence of the internet is not without precedent, that it is perhaps just another arc along technology's frontier. By comparing the changes brought about by the development of transoceanic commerce during the Age of Exploration and the arrival of the telegraph, radio, satellite television, and publicly available encryption technology with the rise (and possible fall) of Microsoft (looking at both the issue of operating systems and web browsers) and the advent of MP3 technology, Spar showed how the worlds of government and commerce have coped again and again with what were at the time paradigm-shattering revolutionary developments. The end of the dominance of big business and government has been predicted several times before and in each case the prophets were wrong. In truth, there were significant changes and for a time governments were more or less powerless in some instances thanks to a gap between technology and policy, but these gaps did not last for long. While new technologies can wound government, they never kill it, and the very pirates and pioneers who for a time gleefully predicted its demise (or at least its powerlessness over them and their new realm of business) have in the end craved the stability and order offered by government. In essence, once they staked their claim in a new technological frontier, they wanted someone to protect that stake.

Each of these revolutions followed a predictable pattern as Spar brilliantly showed, beginning the book with an overview of this pattern and then in the following chapters showing how this pattern was followed in each instance (and along the way providing some fascinating history and anecdotes).The first phase is that of innovation, the stage of "tinkerers and inventors," not a phase marked by much if any commerce. It is populated by people interested in technology for its own sake, a world of fellow enthusiasts. Often in this early stage the new technology and its adherents are either largely unknown to the public or not accorded much respect. When Samuel Morse first demonstrated the telegraph to Congress in 1838, many just laughed. Generally in this stage most if not everyone involved is unaware ofany real commercial use for the new technology; when the radio first appeared it was seen as perhaps a useful adjunct to the telegraph, a way to communicate with ships at sea, not as a mass market for broadcasting music.

The second phase is populated by pioneers, individuals who have moved into the new technological frontier and have seen ways to make profits - often very large profits - from the new technology, carving new empires and entire new fields of commerce where previously none had existed, out of the reach of government and existing businesses. This phase is truly frontier-like; speed is essential, as many scramble to stake their claim, the individuals in question often being quite young (Marconi was 20 when he started marketing his radio in the UK while Marc Andreessen was 23 when he founded Netscape). Pirates exist of course too, drawn by the new wealth and near complete lack of rules. There is little to stop them as public policy simply has not caught up yet with the new frontier (such as when Rupert Murdoch started to broadcast satellite TV into the tightly controlled British market in the early 1980s).

The third phase is what she termed creative anarchy. This is the stage when the pioneers, those who are seeking to make a profit, start to demand rules. Property rights for instance are not an issue in the first phase, as many early inventors -such as with the telegraph or the internet - essentially distributed their breakthroughs for free. As the technology matures and early pioneers establish profitable enterprises in the new frontier, they seek protection from the chaos and pirates of the second phase. For instance while the relatively few users of radio in the 1910s could transmit signals to their heart's content as the radio waves seemed infinite and owned by none, by the 1920s established radio stations were keen to protect their stretch of the airwaves as what had once seemed infinite was now congested and crowded and early radio stations sought to keep from being drowned out by amateurs or competing stations. Before government stepped in this new market was in danger of grinding to a halt with the constant din of rival signals.Similar problems occur over issues of coordination; whose standard is going to prevail in terms of say operating systems, and with competition, as often a single dominant pioneer emerges and creates a virtual monopoly, solving some problems but creating others (as with Western Union, Marconi, and Microsoft).

The final phase is the establishment of rules, when government reenters the scene, nearly always at the urging of the dominant companies in a new field. The original rush away from government has come full circle as "the rebels return to the state," needing the state to secure their new wealth, to enforce issues of contracts, property rights, and provisions for standardization. Spar believed that the internet will reach this phase.

The history of network monopolies (real or otherwise)
Spar tries to organize her thoughts with a 'staged' scheme for technological diffusion:
1. Inventor/pioneer creates the technology
2. Merchant salesmen popularize the technology
3. Pirates then fight to monopolize the business
4. Responsible citizens call in a government regulator.

These stages are established via a cartoonish detour into 16th century piracy. Captain Kidd, Blackbeard and the British crown serve as exemplars, but it doesn't work. For a much better review of the relationship between technology, pirates and government, see 'The Governors General'.

Fortunately, things pick-up when we get to the real subject matter: electronic networks. The story really starts with Morse and his version of telegraphy. At this point, Spar can turn to the matters that really interest her: communication network regulations. The subject matter is of great interest and makes for easy reading.

This isn't a technical history as much as legal history. Spar isn't very interested in technical infrastructure, 19th century job descriptions or the evolution of technology packaging. Her interest seems to be 'good regulation'.I initially expected a broad brush history of electronic networks, but Spar is fairly selective in subjects.We only focus on monopolies, generally first established via a patent or government grant.The first is the telegraph monopoly of Morse, and the second Marconi's radio telegraphy monopoly.Neither Morse nor Marconi established long term monopolies.Later, she turns to less convincing monopolies in satellite television, computer operating systems, and music.

I remain unconvinced her stages have any predictive value. As she warms to her drama about lawyers saving America from reckless young technophiles and profiteering businessmen, her pioneer/businessman/pirate/regulator scheme become something of a moral tale, and as such is both fascinating and banal.

Spar omits any serious discussion of how networking companies used their role as 'news' distributors to secure the election of governmental figures willing to protect the corporation's economic agenda.In particular, Spar fails to investigate the role of newspapers as consumers of network services and molder of public opinion.The emergence of positive feedback loops between newspapers, political parties and network corporations never gets any attention. For example, the dictators of the 30s: Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin get little attention, but relied heavily on radio to maintain political power. One might ask if they were pirates or regulators, but the question never comes up.

How the technology was won
Professor Debrora Spar's explanation of key factors in the creation, building, and usage of key technologies over the last millineum.Her chronology starts with the beginnings of global navigation (pre Columbus) and the corresponding mayhem that ensued over the years via profit making, profiteering and pirating - all of which are not only inner-related but have gray boundaries been them.The chronology brings us through the development of communication first by telegraphy, then radio, television, cryptography, computers (a la Microsoft's trials and tribulations), internet and finally to the continuing saga of MP3 music.

The book actually opens with the story of the Vatican's dismissal of a too-liberal French bishop Jacques Gaillot to the remote Sahara outpost of Partenia.Not to be silenced, Bishop Gaillot continues his ministry and in fact expands it, by bringing his case to the internet - Partenia has thus become his soap box to be read by many more people than he ever could have reached had he be allowed to remain in France and only speak to those he came in personal contact with.Thus it has been throughout history - the new technology and the messages they carry are unstoppable.

Interwoven in this scholarly yet entertaining book are the concepts of each technologies stages of chaos, anarchy, self-regulation, deal making and deal braking, piracy, monopoly, and attempts at government control.Interestingly, in most cases the founders and early pioneers end up with little more than historical recognition.

There is no simple solution, no way to predict the future; Spar suggests a number of stages and issues that seem to repeat.Interestingly while enjoying this book, I read a paragraph to my wife, slightly changing a few of the words and leaving off a few minor details that would have given away the time and the company.Halfway through, my wife blurted out, "Oh you're talking about Microsoft!".No, the paragraph was about Western Union, the telegraph company and the time was well before the beginning of the twentieth century!

If such history appeals to you or if you're interested in some clues of how technologies mature, this is an excellent book.

Great book
Ruling the Waves: Cycles of Discovery, Chaos, and Wealth from the Compass to the Interne by Debora L. Spar's is a interesting and exceptionally well-written description of the practices in which new technologies create innovative markets, which in turn urge demand for new policy, standards, and possession rights to govern them. Sketching on the work of financial historian Douglass North, Spar argues that with no rules business cannot flourish. Ruling the Waves shows the accounts the growth of a number of technologies that were innovative in their time from progresses in navigation and shipbuilding that made nautical journeys feasible in the fifteenth century, to telegraphy in the nineteenth century, to radio in the twentieth century, digital television and satellite, encryption technologies and the Internet, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Net browsers, and MP3 online music technology.

In telling these stories, the author puts newer technologies, like MP3 and the interne t, in historical perspective. Sailing voyages opened the unexplored surface of the high seas to market pirates and pioneers alike, but finally the great trading governments and companies were able to nearly abolish the curse of piracy by defining and banning the practices and impose these laws. Ruling the Waves disputes rules to classify foul and fair play, principles, and possession rights.
Spar depicts four stages in the expansion of new markets and technologies: commercialization, rules, innovation, creative and anarchy. Her example demonstrates how these stages have showed diverse innovations and in different industries, as well as the relationship between government and business in the creation of new companies. Spar talks about the problems of congestion, coordination, or monopoly that have occurred in some of these new corporations and explains how these problems were dealt with. In some cases, new regulations had to be fashioned for new markets, such as the government's licensing and portion of radio frequencies, while in other, old policies were practical to new innovations, such as the claim of United States antitrust law in United States v Microsoft.
The narratives themselves are fascinating, and Spar is a exceptionally good quality narrator. Her style is dynamic, clever, and handy throughout the book. Ruling the Waves is enjoyable, while making a intuitive, stylish, and persuasive argument about what happens when technology soar in advance of existing law and how policies often get shaped in new corporations because industry wants them. The book is extensive in range and covers a lot of accounts, but still offers quite in depth accounts of how the technologies and markets developed. Spar also centers on the character, innovators, pioneers, and pirates, and their particular tales, victories, and the unsuccessful from Samuel Morse, to Prince Henry of Portugal, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, and a number of others. Ruling the Waves is a fantastic book for a person interested in the growth new technologies, the roles of government and industry in influential new markets, the political history of technology.

Ruling the Waves
An excellent, well-researched account of the recurring patterns that accompany technological development.This book is short on lofty, meaningless predictions on the digital age and long on meaningful insight into the struggles between the commercial and government sectors that usually shape new technologies. ... Read more

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Product Description
There is a wealth of data on the Web for those researching a family tree. However, the sheer volume of information and diversity of websites can make starting your search confusing and time-consuming. Help is at hand with this clear and authoritative guide from The National Archives.The Genealogist's Internet starts by explaining how the internet works for the beginner. It continues by detailing the major sources of primary data available to family historians on-line and highlights the most helpful directories and gateways. Use it to contact others with the same surname or to access the numerous forums, discussion groups, mailing lists and newsgroups focusing on genealogy.This edition includes new information on fully-updated URLS as well as covering:* developments in the indexes to births, marriage and deaths on-line* the expansion in the census and wills data available on-line* the new websites of the National Archives and General Register Office* new sites with historical maps and photographs* the Online Parish Clerk schemes (for putting parish data on the Web)* lottery-funded projects relating to historical material which have come to fruition since the previous edition* sites on the use of DNA testing in genealogy and DNA surname studies* genealogy blogs, a type of on-line journal which has become popular* major changes in the world of search engines* future developments in on-line genealogy* a timeline of on-line genealogy resources for the British IslesThe Genealogist's Internet is accompanied by its own website with updates on all the information covered in the book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

great overview especially if overseas ancestors
Easy to read. great references. full of information for those interested in researching ancestors overseas by computer.

Great book
It gives great resourses for the internet.Glad to have the book.Would recomend it to others

A must have reference for those who want to use the internet to its fullest
The Internet is perhaps the greatest innovation in the past hundred years for the amateur or professional genealogist. "The Genealogist's Internet" is an updated and expanded fourth edition of this acclaimed reference for the genealogist who embraces the internet as an invaluable tool. Outlining major resources to look for, joining discussion groups to aid one's search, sifting through general information, and more, "The Genealogist's Internet" is a must have reference for those who want to use the internet to its fullest.

a good resource
I borrowed the second edition from the local library and have decided to buy the third edition. While the reviews of software and how to set up a website can become a little dated, you only need get one or two good ideas out of a book like this to make it more than worth the cost. ... Read more

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Computers have changed not just the way we work but the way we love. Falling in and out of love, flirting, cheating, even having sex online have all become part of the modern way of living and loving. Yet we know very little about these new types of relationship. How is an online affair where the two people involved may never see or meet each other different from an affair in the real world? Does online sex still involve cheating on your partner? Why do people tell complete strangers their most intimate secrets? What are the rules of engagement? Will online affairs change the monogamous nature of romantic relationships? These are just some of the questions Professor Aaron Ben Ze'ev, distinguished writer and scholar, addresses in the first full length study of love online. Accessible, shocking, entertaining,enlightening, this book will change the way you look at cyberspace and love forever.Aaron Ben Ze'ev is a Professor at the Univeristy of Haifa in the Philosophy Department and has been the Rector of the University since 2000. He has published articles for many journals such as Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Philosophical Psychology, and Theory & Psychology among others.He has also had numerous books published including The Subtlety of Emotions (MIT Press, 2000) and The Perceptual System: A Philosophical and Psychological Perspective (Peter Lang,1993), both of which have been translated into Hebrew. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Insightful
I thought this book was very insightful. I wanted to learn more about how people express affection on the internet. "Love Online" explained in a scholarly fashion just how the internet may encourage the kind of conversational yet increasingly intimate chat and e-mail that often gets people into trouble with their relationships.

Ben Ze'ev is a philosopher, much more so than a psychoanalyst. He is keen to demonstrate how the philosophical mores of the internet (independence, lack of censorship, etc.) break down the usual barriers to intimacy (shyness, vulnerability, truth, attraction, availability, etc.).Thus, the power inherent in internet communication fosters immense changes in traditional social relationships.

Ben Ze'ev reinforces the old adage that the mind is most sexual organ, while highlighting the ways the internet is conditioned to sustain romantic and sexual cerebral play. Once the communicators begin their online exchange, qualities that are most keenly activated among offline lovers emerge. However, the links between the two conversants remain tenuous and ephemeral. Out of this soup of verbal chat, IM, e-mail, web videos, and blogging, many of the real world circumstances that seem to contain offline relationship disappear.For instance, regarding marriage, the author describes in great detail how the internet may undermine a commitment by flooding it with illicit sexual and romantic communication without the knowledge or consent of both partners.Though emotional and sexual infidelity of this sort may be obvious to some, what is not so apparent are the mechanisms in the human psyche that make this so attractive and powerful in the first place. Further, the author also details how such verbal intimacy is introducing new norms in marriage, such as sexually open, internet-based relationships.

In the end, Ben Ze'ev is making a strong case for the transformation of modern marriage into a relationship that accommodates internet influenced intimacies. For those who have fallen prey to internet romantic and sexual love, and the unfulfilled hopes and expectations that usually arise, this book will help to understand what happened.Anyone who thinks that legislating marriage between one man and one woman is useful hasn't spent much time lately using the internet.

The Most Complete Book About Internet Relationships!
I liked very much this book, because it's the most complete book about the relationships that occur in the Internet I've ever found. It's helping me a lot in my post-graduation course.

The best book ever on the lures of the cyberspace
This is, quite easily, the best book ever on the potential lures of the cyberspace; a unique analysis of one of the hottest topics of our times.

The book should be of tremendous value for academics and the interested public alike. The analysis of emotions - online and offline - is based on comprehensive academic research and previous work done by the author (Ben-Ze'ev, A. (2000). The Subtlety of Emotions. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; also available at Amazon), and is combined with insightful perspectives on the aims and ends of online relationships. The style of writing is analytically sharp, witty and poetic at the same time. ... Read more

Product Description
Learn how CDnow founders Jason Olim and Matthew Olim turned a small investment into a big business on the Internet, beating MCI, Blockbuster and Tower Records. Readers will also learn the tricks of the trade from these two successful Internet entrepreneurs, and discover how to apply the techniques to their own businesses. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

From Rags to Riches- Indeed!
Every detail about this man is worth reading. It tells you that if youhave the urge within you to do something you really can do it. It hasdefinitely motivated me a lot. It is also very well written and makes youfeel "I wish I was a part of the Amazon family"

Interesting.
I get the impression from this book is that the only the author has written before was his signature. While the story was very interesting it was quite poorly written.

Read High St@kes, No Prisoners by CharlesFerguson instead.

A fascinating story of an idea turning into a business.
If you want to understand what's involved with starting an internet business from scratch, this book will provide a detailed look at how CDnow became successful, despite humble beginnings.The story of Jason andMatthew Olim's business, from concept to profitable operation, isfascinating, and instructive for entrepreneurs and corporate types alike. With the able guiding hand of Peter Kent (the journalist/author) this bookis well-written and easy to read.I'd recommend it highly.

Kids, don't try this at home....unless you read this first.
Jason and Matthew Olim, along with veteran Internet writer Peter Kent, have done a marvelous job of documenting the meteoric rise of the Internet's number one online music service.The CDNow Story takes thereader from the conceptualization stage, through the rocky startup, intothe current stabilization and growth phase, and finishes with a look to thefuture.While this story chronicles a music-oriented business, parallelscan be drawn to just about any business or industry.

The CDNow Storybegins just five years ago with an idea that Jason Olim had about startinga music distribution business online.Joined by childhood and collegefriends, as well as his twin brother Matthew, this unlikely group gavebirth to CDNow in the basement of their parents' home.Using a cobbledtogether collection of computers and networking hardware, they built theinitial iteration of the CDNow system.Not only were they met with achallenge of putting together the hardware, but also the software that goesalong with such an endeavor.This was years before your average computerstore even had a shelf full of Internet books.Most of what they used aspart of their system, was written by either one of the brothers, or one ofthe band of friends that followed the Olims.Add to the rest of thesuccess is the supportive parents, often maxing out their credit cards tosupport the CDNow corporation.

Once the Olims had their prototypesystem up and functioning, the unanticipated growth presented veryinteresting problems.Moving from the basement to a less than suitableoffice, these two novice entrepreneurs continued to move forward, taking ona tremendously steep learning curve along the way.Many lessons werelearned the hard way, from the basic facts that it takes money to makemoney...to the fact that there's a time and a place for a ponytail andsneakers in big business.Meeting with venture capitalists is one of thoseplaces where trips to the barber shop and shoeshine center make sense.Thelessons learned might have been painful and sometimes embarrassing, but thebrothers' Olim were able to find the expertise they lacked in order to makethe business self sustaining.Like Ronald Reagan, these young mensurrounded themselves with the expertise they would need to go forth andslay dragons, real or imagined.

The CDNow Story preaches very soundInternet commerce principles.These principles go to the heart of anotherbook by Peter Kent, Poor Richard's Web Site.The key concept coveredchampions the merit of providing Internet Web Surfers exceptional contentand a reason to return to the site.It fights the notion that a coolwebsite will bring in lots of money and surfers.The truth of the matteris that there are still many web surfers out there still using 56K orslower modems...and they are not willing to wait the length of time many websites take to load.Due to current downloading bandwidth restrictions, thebottom line answer is that content will out perform "cool" any time on theWeb.

Towards the end of the book where the tone of the story goes fromhistorical to projecting into the future, I began to get a little bitscared.This is where the average reader might be tempted to go out andstart something on the Internet, just for the sake of doing it.Thediscussions of the kind of profits businesses can handle are deceptivelyalluring.The book goes on to warn people that the profits of thosebusinesses will be astonishing, while the losses will be horrendous.

Ithink that anyone reading this book will learn a great deal about what abusiness might want to consider when setting up shop on the informationsuperhighway, but there are many twists, curves, and stretches along thisroad that are definitely negotiated at a safe speed.An enjoyable andinformative book, the CDNow Story should definitely make your Internetreading list.Like most things though, it might be good to keep this inmind:Kids, don't try this at home.These are professionals!

Apostscript added by Peter Kent sets an impressive hook with a reader.Thismuch-shortened outline of Kent's recent work, Poor Richard's Web Site: Geek-Free, Commonsense Advice on Building a Low-Cost Web Site is anexcellent quick reference guide for any potential Internet entrepreneur. Poor Richard's Web Site is a must read for any entrepreneur interested ingetting their product, company or image on the World Wide Web.

Brilliant insight into starting up an online business
I found the CDnow Story facinating.It told the story of how two young men followed a dream to develop a highly successful and innovative business with virtually nothing but their instinct and dedication.They were thetrue pioneers of online shopping, which spurred on many other onlineshopping enterprises.The Olim brothers had a fantastic intuition aboutthe powers of the Internet, and created a business that many have attemptedto follow. ... Read more

Product Description
The Internet permeates contemporary American life, creating enormous possibilities for innovative use in history classrooms and student projects.This concise guide focuses on practical ways that students and teachers can utilize the growing body of library and archival catalogs, primary sources, web sites, images, and sounds to complement and enhance traditional ways of learning, teaching, and researching the human past.Available either as a separate work or packaged with textbooks in United States, Western Civilization, World History, and upper division history courses, this guide will help students to learn how to use e-mail, surf the Internet for quality history sites, employ search engines effectively, create online student projects, and explore the emerging world of multimedia history. Helpful for instructors who wish to learn how to use scholarly networks, professional web sites, and evaluate reliable web resources to bring new dimensions to the craft of understanding the past.An extensive appendix provides links to the best history-related sites on the Internet by time period and subject as well as resources for scholars and samples of innovative CD-ROM projects in history. ... Read more

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This is a fantastic new edition of the internet-linked reference title of life in Roman times. It includes all sorts of information on Roman people from the food they ate, the clothing they wore, gods they worshipped and what they did for fun. Illustrations, maps and timelines make learning easy. Internet links teach children real Roman recipes, allow them to take a virtual tour of a Roman villa, teach them the rules to Roman ball games and much more. ... Read more

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Netizens, one of the first books detailing the Internet, looks at the creation and development of this participatory global computer network. The authors conducted online research to find out what makes the Internet "tick". This research results in an informative examination of the pioneering vision and actions that have helped make the Net possible.

The book gives you the needed perspective to understand how the Net can impact the present and the turbulent future. These questions are answered: What is the vision that inspired or guided these people at each step? What was the technical or social problem or need that they were trying to solve? What can be done to help nourish the future extension and development of the Net? How can the Net be made available to a broader set of people?Amazon.com Review
A netizen, as Ronda and Michael Hauben use the term, is morethan just somebody who uses the Internet. It is somebody who hasdemonstrated a devotion to being a good citizen of an onlinecommunity. Some have been involved in constructing parts of the Netand forming it into a major social force. Others are simply members ofmailing lists and discussion groups, quietly lending a helping hand toothers and sharing information, support, and aid through the wires. TheHaubens tell the history of the Internet through netizens.

While itwas technical necessity and political desire that made the Net happen,it was the often idealistic vision of the netizens that shaped it. TheHaubens look at both sides--the technical problems being faced and thesocial ideas that guided the developers. They take both the outsidedevelopments in computing technology and governmental regulatoryissues into account.

Most of the emphasis of the book is on Usenet,the vast array of bulletin board-like message areas where people canfind discussions about everything from the most esoteric scientificwork in progress to the mundane necessities of daily life tooff-the-wall treatments of pop culture. They show how it developed asa form of "poor man's ARPANET" to become a backbone ofinternational conversation. The authors hold Usenet up as an exampleof user-controlled communication, showing how communities can besuccessful even in an area lacking formal rules--or lacking the meansto enforce the rules. And while they stop short of exploring Usenet'scurrent problems with commercial junk posts, they do explore the manyprevious predictions of the "imminent death of theInternet," showing how a devoted population of netizens hasrepeatedly been able to work around threats to its community'sexistence. ... Read more