Information and computer technologies are used every day by real people with real needs. The authors contributing to Shaping the Network Society describe how technology can be used effectively by communities, activists, and citizens to meet society's challenges. In their vision, computer professionals are concerned less with bits, bytes, and algorithms and more with productive partnerships that engage both researchers and community activists. These collaborations are producing important sociotechnical work that will affect the future of the network society. Traditionally, academic research on real-world users of technology has been neglected or even discouraged. The authors contributing to this book are working to fill this gap; their theoretical and practical discussions illustrate a new orientation--research that works with people in their natural social environments, uses common language rather than rarefied academic discourse, and takes a pragmatic perspective. The topics they consider are key to democratization and social change. They include human rights in the ''global billboard society''; public computing in Toledo, Ohio; public digital culture in Amsterdam; ''civil networking'' in the former Yugoslavia; information technology and the international public sphere; ''historical archaeologies'' of community networks; ''technobiographical'' reflections on the future; libraries as information commons; and globalization and media democracy, as illustrated by Indymedia, a global collective of independent media organizations.
Author(s): Douglas Schuler, Peter Day
Publisher: The MIT Press
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 444
Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 3
Contents......Page 5
Introduction vii ......Page 7
1 Shaping the Network Society: Opportunities and Challenges 1 ......Page 11
I Civilizing the Network Society 17 ......Page 27
2 U.S. Global Cyberspace 19 ......Page 29
3 Shaping Technology for the “Good Life”: The Technological Imperative versus the Social Imperative 43......Page 53
4 Human Rights in the Global Billboard Society 67 ......Page 77
II Global Tales of the Civil Network Society 83 ......Page 93
5 A Census of Public Computing in Toledo, Ohio 85 ......Page 95
6 A Polder Model in Cyberspace: Amsterdam Public Digital Culture 111 ......Page 121
7 Community Networks Go Virtual: Tracing the Evolution of ICT in Buenos Aires and Montevideo 137 ......Page 147
8 Civil Networking in a Hostile Environment: Experiences in the Former Yugoslavia 159 ......Page 169
9 Rethinking Telecenters: Microbanks and Remittance Flows—Reflections from Mexico 185 ......Page 195
10 The Role of Community Networks in Shaping the Network Society:Enabling People to Develop Their Own Projects 199 ......Page 209
III Building a New Public Sphere in Cyberspace 227 ......Page 237
11 Information Technology and the International Public Sphere 229 ......Page 239
12 What Do We Need to Know about the Future We're Creating? Technobiographical Reflections 253 ......Page 263
13 Libraries: The Information Commons of Civil Society 279 ......Page 289
14 The Soil of Cyberspace: Historical Archaeologies of the Blacksburg Electronic Village and the Seattle Community Network 301 ......Page 311
15 Globalization and Media Democracy: The Case of Indymedia 325 ......Page 335
16 Prospects for a New Public Sphere 353 ......Page 363
References 377 ......Page 387
Contributors 407 ......Page 417
Index 413 ......Page 423
