The Technology Revolution: The Not-for-Dummies Guide to the Impact, Perils, and Promise of the Internet - Hardcover

Okin, J. R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0976385724 ISBN 13: 9780976385721

Publisher: Ironbound Pr, 2005

Synopsis

Prior to the commercialization and privatization of the Internet in the early 1990s, the subject of technology, not unlike its use, was something that engaged and concerned a very small number of individuals and a relatively small number of businesses. Today, we are inundated with technology, and technology-based businesses can be found across the globe. Computers are in our homes, businesses, schools, libraries, and corner coffee shops, and many of us carry these devices with us wherever we go or rely on smaller networked devices, like cellular phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), to keep us connected and reachable at all times. The businesses that manufacture these devices or provide related services and support range in size from startups that employ a couple of people to multi-national corporations that employ tens of thousands of people. The proliferation of these businesses and the proliferation of the high-tech devices that we use and see around us every day are a sign of the times. We are living in the midst of a technology revolution, and for better or worse it has only just begun."The Technology Revolution" examines the impact, perils, and promise of the Internet and its technology. This book - the third and final book in The Internet Revololution Series - explains why the Internet is the revolution of our times. It describes the synergies created by computers, networking, and the Internet and explains how these synergies are leading to a newfound empowerment of the individual through a dramatic and unprecedented broadening in our access to information resources and our access to other individuals, groups, and communities. This book also explains the Internet's impact on the the privacy and security of our information, the role that Java has played in the evolution of the Internet, the creation and composition of the Digital Divide, how the Internet is responsible for building new types of community structures, and what caused the dot com boom and bust. It also includes a description of the author's personal experience as the Director of Software Engineering and Development at a New York City dot com called Linkshare.

About this title

About the Author

J. R. Okin is a technology consultant who specializes in systems engineering. His clients have included AT&T Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, Unix International, and the Open Software Foundation. During the dot com boom, Mr. Okin worked as the Director of Software Engineering and Development at a small Internet startup in New York City. He received a bachelor's degree from Vassar College and a master's degree from Cambridge University, both in English Literature.

From the Back Cover

Discover the REVOLUTION that is the INTERNET

This plain language guide explains:

- How information access on the Internet is impacting our privacy.
- How the Internet created the Digital Divide, what this divide looks like, and what it means.
- How Java became the "next big thing," and what it contributes to the Internet.
- Why the Internet is far greater than the sum of its parts.
- What caused the dot com boom, why the bubble burst.
- Why security is considered key to the Internet's future, and the role that trust will play in delivering security.
- How the Internet is responsible for building new types of community structures.
- Why the Internet is the revolution of our times.

The Technology Revolution is the third volume of a 3-book series that also includes:

- The Internet Revolution: The Not-For-Dummies Guide to the History, Technology, and Use of the Internet and

- The Information Revolution: The Not-For-Dummies Guide to the History, Technology, and Use of the World Wide Web.

From the Inside Flap

How do you name, describe, or characterize something that includes the potential to interconnect everyone on the planet? How do you evaluate or speculate on the significance of a system that can provide access to any and all types of information, particularly when that information can be located anywhere and stored in any number of different ways? Where do you start in studying the effects of a technology that gave form and meaning to the existence of virtual communities and instituted entirely new ways for people to communicate with one another and to share their ideas, feelings, and, ultimately, themselves? The answers all begin and end with the individual. No matter how you look at it, all of these questions, and many others just like them, lead back to you and me. They speak to the role the Internet has to play in relation to the daily life of the individual and, conversely, to the role the individual has to play in the daily workings of the Internet. TCP/IP brought the Internet onto our computers. But we brought the Internet into our lives and, in doing so, we shaped the Internet into what we see today.The Internet is a global computer network, interconnecting smaller, independent networks located throughout the world, the computers that compose those networks, and the people who own, operate, and use those computers. The Internet houses a vast quantity of information that is both broadly diverse in content and widely distributed in location. It carries countless messages every minute of every day. It brings together and engages people in such virtual constructs as interactive gaming environments and cyberspace recreations of meeting rooms, office buildings, and entire cityscapes.The Internet provides equally well for the commercial needs of corporations, the infrastructure needs of governments, the community needs of non-profit organizations, and the personal needs of individuals. It functions as a new realm for commerce, creating whole new business enterprises, changing the supply and distribution of commodities and services, and radically altering how many jobs are performed. It challenges our long-standing definitions of community and social interaction. It attracts and commands the attention of the young, the not-so-young, and people of every age in between.This book explores the Internet's impact, perils, and promise.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Most of us don't think about our privacy while we are connected to the Internet. After all, the act of sitting at a desk in our home or in an office while staring into a computer screen is, more often than not, a solitary and private activity. Moreover, when you consider how we hide our identities behind screen names, user names, and email addresses, it is easy to understand why we feel safe, secure, and hidden from view. But no matter how hard we try to remain anonymous or to mask our identity, every time we venture onto the Internet we reveal some information about ourselves and we leave bread crumbs behind, revealing the path back to our location, without our being aware of it.

With respect to privacy - and associated issues like copyright protection and even free speech - it's clear that the Internet and its technology has outpaced both the law and the development of any behavioral expectations or ethical standards. How can we expect to keep our personal information under our control and private when the very definition of what constitutes our personal information is neither clear nor complete. The new technology has created new ways to collect, store, and share information about us; and, in the process, it has also created new types of personal information to collect. But who draws the line to separate private information from public information? Who determines, and how do they determine, what information belongs to us and what information belongs to them (e.g., Web site owners, Internet advertisers, and affiliate management organizations)? Who has the right to collect our personal information in the first place, and who gave them that right?

Even if we were able to get all of these questions answered to our satisfaction, we have to consider that the Internet is global. Every country has different laws and manifests different social expectations with respect to an individual's right to privacy and to the oftentimes related right of free speech. National borders are difficult to discern on the Internet, but they are always there, given that every computer, whether personal or part of a business, is connected to a local network inside one country or another. Today, the networks that interconnect to form the Internet neither recognize nor erect any standardized checkpoints along these borders that are designed to serve and protect the individual and his or her right to privacy. Instead, the Internet information guards that do exist, and which examine and control the flow of information between countries, serve the interests of the local governments, with no regard for the individual, his or her information, or any stated or implied privacy rights.

Some people put their trust in the law. No doubt we will see more and more laws, some comprehensive in nature, others targeted to specific technologies or specific actions, that will attempt to define what constitutes our personal information, what we can reasonably expect regarding the handling of that information, how we can retain control over it, and how adherence to the law will be enforced. Many laws already exist, but, so far, they raise more questions than they answer. Moreover, at best they exhibit an ignorance of the technology they are attempting to legislate or constrain, and at worst a blatant disregard for how that technology functions. More significantly, there seem to be as many laws trying to secure or defend the state's right to access and collect our personal information (under the assertion - or guise - of better protecting us) as there are laws trying to protect our right to privacy. The convergence of the legal system, the technology of the Internet, the interests of the state, and the interests of the individual is, simply put, a new frontier.

Other people put their trust in the technology. For them, the best means to retain control of our personal information and guard against its collection, use, and abuse by others is through the technology itself. Data encryption is one path that is being actively pursued. It promises to secure our data by rendering it unreadable and by protecting its contents behind an impenetrable lock; we control the key to that lock and hand it out only to those individuals and organizations we trust. However, secure data encryption will not appeal to law enforcement agencies and the government. They view our personal information and our right to privacy from a perspective unlike ours and unlike that of commercial organizations on the Internet. They view our behavior on the Internet, the information resources we access, and the information we communicate as if it were, or might be, connected to some criminal activity or terrorist act. For them, the privacy of the individual is of secondary importance compared to the security of the state, and the Internet carries a wealth of information that should be at their disposal. Data encryption and other comparable technologies that are capable of protecting our personal information pose a threat to their unconstrained use of that information, unless they were able to secure some sort of master key.

The following sections examine how privacy issues relate to specific activities (e.g., email or Internet shopping) and how technology can work both for and against us in our effort to retain control over our private lives. They also explore some of the different perspectives on privacy, such as those of business and the government, and some general issues related to Internet technology and privacy. The final section deals with the the abuse of the Internet to obliterate the notion of privacy, quickly, furiously, and irrevocably. An incident related to former U.S. president Bill Clinton provides a perfect example of such abuse.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ironbound Pr
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0976385724
• ISBN 13: 9780976385721
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288