The Challenges of ICTs

Many scholars have documented the way information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been entwined with major changes in society since the invention of electrical telegraphy in the 1830s. For some, the early ICTs, as well as those stemming from the invention of the microprocessor in the late 1960s, are best characterized as being revolutionary. This is because of the cascade of opportunities they created for new forms of media and information and communication services and for new ways of organizing society. The book is organized around four themes covering topics that policy makers and those in other settings where ICTs are encountered will find informative: the knowledge economy; organizational dynamics, strategy, and design; governance and democracy; and culture, community, and new media literacies.