Internet & World Wide Web - General & Miscellaneous, LANs & WANs
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Overview
Separating myth from reality, and fact from hype, Goodman examines the Information Superhighway from the perspective of the layman and shows what lies ahead. The working, learning, and living habits of the average American have already changed immeasurably in the last few years, as the world has taken the first steps towards establishing a global network. And the pace will only accelerate. Today's instant communication tools - answering machines and voice mail, cellular telephones, fax machines, and personal computers - will evolve overnight into affordable technologies that will forever change our personal communications with family, friends, and colleagues; will alter the way knowledge is gathered from the world's information resources; and refashion how we spend our time and money on entertainment. As the old world infrastructure disappears and day-to-day life becomes more demanding, the potential benefits of the Information Superhighway are great. But so too are the potential risks to privacy, security, and free choice. The sooner these issues are understood, the more control consumers will have in shaping the technologies and services of the future. Goodman educates readers to the promises and pitfalls of the Information Superhighway and provides an action plan - steps we can take today to prepare for the day that the Information Superhighway reaches our front door.Award-winning author Danny Goodman prepares us for the inevitable day when the information superhighway on-ramp reaches our front door. Goodman brings together, for the first time, coherent explanations of the latest technology--as well as the risks to privacy and free speech that tomorrow's telecommunications technologies create.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Goodman (The Complete HyperCard Handbook) punctures the misconceptions and hype surrounding the ``information superhighway'' in his savvy, levelheaded, valuable guide, part primer and part journalistic report. This much-touted communications network, he notes, is being built by competing commercial interests; far from being a single, all-encompassing system that will allow hook-up of your computer to all digitized knowledge anywhere on the globe, the ``superhighway,'' if fully realized 10 to 15 years from now, will include many different, often overlapping conduits, available on an uneven basis. Critically surveying the Internet, online services, CD-ROMs, interactive multimedia and mobile, hand-held personal digital assistants (PDAs) that can link up with a huge variety of services, Goodman warns of potholes and hurdles such as theft, fraud and invasion of privacy. He also explains how consumers, businesses and communities can devise an ``action plan'' to prepare for the unfolding highway. 25,000 first printing. (Feb.)Book Details
Published
January 31, 1995
Publisher
New York : Random House, c1994.
Pages
244
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780679439349