Social Dimensions of Information Technology: Issues for the New Millennium

Social Dimensions of Information Technology: Issues for the New Millennium

G. David Garson

Copyright: © 2000 |Pages: 362

ISBN13: 9781878289865|ISBN10: 1878289861|EISBN13: 9781466601123

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-878289-86-5

Cite Book Cite Book

MLA

Garson, G. David, editor. Social Dimensions of Information Technology: Issues for the New Millennium. IGI Global, 2000. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-878289-86-5

APA

Garson, G. D. (Ed.). (2000). Social Dimensions of Information Technology: Issues for the New Millennium. IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-878289-86-5

Chicago

Garson, G. David, ed. Social Dimensions of Information Technology: Issues for the New Millennium. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2000. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-878289-86-5

Export Reference

Favorite Full-Book Download

This anthology brings together multiple viewpoints on the social dimensions of the revolution in information technology. The chapters cover social, political, educational, personal, and international dimensions of information technology impacts. Each chapter focuses on different aspects of the effects of computing and the new information technologies that have accelerated every area of human life.

Social Dimensions of Information Technology: Issues for the New Millennium raises important issues with profound implications for public policy and societal development.

Table of Contents

Reset

Front Materials

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

Chapters

The Social Dimension of Information Technology

Chapter 1

Virtual Communities and Social Capital (pages 6-22)

Anita Blanchard, Tom Horan

Robert Putnam (1993) has developed a theory of social capital to explain the effect of decreasing community participation and civic engagement on declining institutional performance. Subsequently, there has been much speculation as...

Chapter 2

Human Capital Issues and Information Technology (pages 23-36)

Byron L. Davis, Edward L. Kick

Local technological applications and their implications for human welfare depend not only on the most proximal environment, but also upon successively larger embedded social structures. In a world with a complex international...

Chapter 3

The Progress of the Internet (pages 37-45)

Grant Blank

By simplifying communication, the Internet is causing significant, broad changes. This chapter describes some effects of the Internet on teaching and research: the use of Web pages in teaching, spread of remote statistical analysis...

Chapter 4

The Co-Evolution of Society and Multimedia Technology (pages 46-62)

James Stewart, Robin Williams

Multimedia technology is becoming ubiquitous in modern society, and it is having profound effects on institutions and our expectations of the future. The technology is very fluid, and its development is shaped by a great many social...

The Political Dimension of Information Technology

Chapter 5

The World Wide Web and Local Media and the 1996 Presidential Election (pages 64-85)

Patrick Novotny

The advent of technology is reshaping the landscape of political campaigns. Cable television, satellite uplinks, cellular telephones, facsimile machines, and related communications and software applications offer ever more...

Chapter 6

Electronic Communities: Assessing Equality of Access (pages 86-108)

Eric Riedel, Marc J. Wagoner, Libby Dresel, John L. Sullivan, Eugene Borgida

The impacts of new technologies often belie the hopes of proponents and the fears of detractors. For example, Claude Fischer (1992) in his thorough analysis of the diffusion and social effects of the telephone, suggests that the...

Chapter 7

Ethics, Law and Information Technology: The Transformative Role of Rhetoric (pages 109-120)

Brian M. O’Connell

Following a brief consideration of the role of rhetoric in law, science and policy, this chapter explores how rhetorical accounts of new technologies influence the course of legislative, judicial and regulatory decisions. It proposes...

Chapter 8

Creating a Democratic Public Sphere through Political Discussion (pages 121-139)

Steven M. Schneider

Computer-mediated discussion is an increasingly popular method of engaging in political talk with other citizens. This article presents a case study of a Usenet newsgroup focused on abortion and discusses the creation of public...

The Educational Dimension of Information Technology

Chapter 9

Changing Roles in Information Dissemination and Education (pages 141-159)

Brian Kroeker

The World Wide Web (WWW) is changing the face of today’s academic libraries — the way we use them and how we give value to them. In this article I will explain what the WWW means to the academic library and why it has become worthy...

Chapter 10

Technological Change, Virtual Learning, and Higher Education: Prospects, Problems, Potentials (pages 160-176)

Mark A. Shields

This chapter takes a critical look at the current enthusiasm for on-line distance education and virtual learning, as well as some deeper cultural and institutional implications of technological modernization for higher education’s...

Chapter 11

The Role of Information Technology in Quality Education (pages 177-197)

G. David Garson

Discusses the rise of information technology functions in higher education and the related advent of quality standards for on-line education. The limited nature of existing guidelines is emphasized, particularly in the dimension of...

Chapter 12

The Paradox of Paperless Classes (pages 198-211)

Paula Lackie

In just about every field, people are working to cut back resource use while expanding services and productivity. This extends to the teaching of college courses as many schools work to economize and/or technically enhance their...

The Personal Dimension of Information Technology

Chapter 13

Personal Computers, Mass Media, and Other Uses of Free Time (pages 213-235)

John P. Robinson, Meyer Kestnbaum, Andrew Kohut

One measure of the impact of the personal computer is in terms of its time displacement of other activities; mass media generally are considered a prime candidate given the on-line profusion of information and entertainment services....

Chapter 14

Manufacturing Knowledge: Technology, Culture, and Social Inequality at Work (pages 236-254)

Steven Vallas

Research on the restructuring of work has tended to neglect the autonomous effects that symbolic or cultural influences can have on the utilization of new technologies. This article draws on fieldwork conducted in three pulp and...

Chapter 15

Researching Telework: Past Concerns and Future Directions (pages 255-276)

Nicole B. Ellison

This chapter examines the state of the art in telework research. The author reviews the most central scholarly literature examining the phenomenon of telework (also called home-based work or telecommuting) and develops a framework...

The International Dimension of Information Technology

Chapter 16

The Information Age: Apartheid, Cultural Imperialism, or Global Village? (pages 278-290)

R. Alan Hedley

This chapter1 examines implications of the information revolution for the global inequalities between North and South. A multidimensional empirical taxonomy of information technology is provided to chart its diffusion throughout the...

Chapter 17

Networking for Sustainable Development: Innovative Approaches Outside the "Global Village" (pages 291-300)

Karina Funk

This chapter reviews novel initiatives for improving the content of information on sustainable development and novel initiatives for increasing access to this information with an emphasis on outreach to rural areas in developing...

Chapter 18

Information In and On Africa: Past, Present and Future (pages 301-322)

Roger Pfister

Talking about Africa’s right to information means talking about communication in Africa and in the Third World generally. In Africa the channels of communication were underdeveloped or inappropriate as a consequence of the...

Chapter 19

World Information Flows and the Impact of New Technology (pages 323-339)

Kerry Ferguson

Communication is the fastest growing industry in the world due to a transformation of world information flows caused by the convergence of telecommunication, information technology and mass media institutions. The emerging...

Chapter 20

International Network for Integrated Social Science (pages 340-356)

William Sims Bainbridge

Computer-related developments across the social sciences are converging on an entirely new kind of infrastructure that integrates across methodologies, disciplines, and nations. This chapter examines the potential outlined by a...

Back Materials

About the Authors

Index

You do not own this content. Please login to recommend this title to your institution's librarian or purchase it from the IGI Global bookstore.

Username or email: *

Password: *

Forgot individual login password?

Create individual account