Road warriors : dreams and nighmares along the information highway /

The media frenzy over the potential for commercialization of the Internet has created many viewpoints and a great deal of hyperbole in the discussions. The exaggerated claims both positive and negative have left most casual consumers in a quandary about whom and what to believe. The authors of this book address one of the most important components of cyberspace architecture: the individual players with all their foibles and idiosyncrasies. The individuals providing the leadership and vision for the businesses that drive the development of cyberspace are the most critical in predicting the future of the medium for delivery of entertainment, business, and information. Too many other authors dwell on the narrow and less critical technical aspects of the emerging market and delivery systems. A good complement to Clifford Stoll's Silicon Snake Oil, Second Thoughts on the Information Highway (CH, Dec'95), a less than enthusiastic view of the potential of the information superhighway, this book would be good supplemental reading for students of management information systems. General readers; undergraduate and graduate students. N. J. Johnson Metropolitan State University

Unlike books that hype the national information superhighway (e.g., Nicholas Negroponte's Being Digital, LJ 2/15/95) or criticize it (e.g., Clifford Stoll's Silicon Snake Oil, LJ 3/1/95), this work presents a balanced, comprehensive account of the benefits and problems associated with the digital revolution. Burstein (Turning the Tables, LJ 1/93) and Kline, an editor of Wired magazine, conducted over 100 interviews with industry leaders in computers and communications, technology visionaries, and policy experts, some of which are recorded in appendixes. The authors offer chapters on the Internet, virtual reality, the usability of computer products, the gap between information "haves" and "have nots," the global challenge, and promoting competition among companies in computers and communications. The authors pay much attention to the contest for supremacy in the lucrative information markets of tomorrow. This readable and informative book belongs in all libraries.-Leonard Grundt, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, N.Y. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A down-to-earth guide to the digital revolution (a.k.a. Information Highway) that's ushering in an era of momentous change. Burstein (Turning the Tables, 1993, etc.) and Kline (a contributing editor of Wired) caution that it could take 50 or more years to complete the postindustrial makeover of the Global Village's cultural, governance, institutional, and socioeconomic structures. There's still no telling the exact shape of things to come, they assert, largely because the high-tech frontier has almost no sheriffs. By way of example, the authors cite the Internet. Given the anarchic character of this widely dispersed, wholly unregulated web, Burstein and Kline speculate that its future is as a sort of people's bazaar rather than as a roadway for the financial traffic of corporate America. They go on to offer a rundown on other of the brave new world's unanswered questions. Cases in point range from the commercial fate of interactive television through the stability of the alliances being formed among cable TV operators and regional telephone companies; whether the CD-ROM is a passing fancy; and how to determine what the consuming public really wants from multimedia. Covered as well are Washington's frequently perverse reactions to the digital revolution and the risk that it could widen the gap between haves and have-nots. Burstein and Kline then make their own proposals for the productive domestic development of the Information Highway. Among other possibilities, they commend total deregulation of telecommunications (with reregulation, if need be, as benefits and drawbacks come into focus), establishment of a coherent technical policy by the federal government, incentives to keep more manufacturing in-country, and leaving censorship to adult consumers, not legislators. A thoughtful, instructive survey on what may lie ahead on a winding road that's still under construction.