Review by Choice Review
Oravec elucidates a range of important personal and societal issues relevant to the emerging technologies of collaborative decision making. Specifically, with the increased dependency on computer-mediated communication, developments in programming, computer linking, and ancillary equipment open up an exciting new range of possibilities for group decision making. Previous discussion of these developments has primarily focused on the technology itself; the challenges are chiefly technical. Oravec significantly broadens the spectrum of relevant issues. For her, technologies are anything but socially and politically neutral; they essentially create culture. Such developments call for sophisticated conceptual analysis, focusing on issues like identity, equality, privacy, anonymity, agency, and power and surveillance. Societal dangers are given the same attention as the potential benefits. The book provides an effective introduction to past and currently developing technologies, as well as a broad discussion of the social challenges. The work is also noteworthy in its sensitivity to relevant developments in semiotic and social constructionist literatures as they relate to technological developments. Some readers may be frustrated by the flat, technical style of writing, and may wish the author had taken a stronger stand on some of the relevant issues. Otherwise, a very important work. For upper-division undergraduates and above. K. J. Gergen Swarthmore College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
