the technologies

This page offers pointers to some basic texts about digital technology - machines, software and networks - and schools of thought. 

It covers -

• introductions
• devices
• code
• pipelines
• the GII, NII and you

     introductions

Two intelligent introductions to the global information infrastructure (GII) are Christine Borgman's From Gutenberg to the Global Information Infrastructure: Access To Information in the Networked World (Cambridge: MIT Press 2000) and Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy (Boston: Harvard Business School Press 1999) by Hal Varian & Carl Shapiro. 

Borgman concentrates on access to information rather than the performance characteristics of parts of the networks, while Varian offers an outstanding exploration of the global information economy.

The Social Life of Information (Boston: Harvard Business School Press 2000) by John Seely Brown & Paul Duguid is an essential study of the interrelationship between people, devices, networks and data in what Negroponte characterises as the "global infospace".

David Alberts & Daniel Papp edited the wide ranging Information Age Anthology (IAA), recommended for its thoughtful exploration of technologies and their social/economic consequences. The essays in The Information Technology Revolution (Cambridge: MIT Press 1986) edited by Tom Forester and Welcome To The Wired World (Harlow: FT Com 2000) by Anne Leer are also of value. 

     devices

Computer: A History of the Information Machine (New York: Basic Books 1996) by William Aspray & Martin Campbell-Kelly is an excellent historical introduction. 

Paul Ceruzzi's A History of Modern Computing (Cambridge: MIT Press 1998) is another historical study. David Harel's Computers Ltd: What They Really Can't Do (Oxford: Oxford Uni Press 2000) provides perspective.

Irv Englander's The Architecture of Computer Hardware & Systems Software (New York: Wiley 2000) is, as the blurb says, a "gentle but thorough introduction to computer architecture and systems software". It explains processors (and peripherals such as printers), software and networks.

Frank Koelsch's The Infomedia Revolution (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson 1995) is a breathless tour of personal digital assistants, video phones and things that flash or sing. The 2000 Invisible Computer conference discussed smart coffee cups, intelligent toasters, web-connected refrigerators and wearable computers.

Neil Gershenfeld's The Physics of Information Technology (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 2000) is a demanding but very lucid discussion of chips, wires and networks. Useful reading if you want to understand much of the science described in Englander's Architecture book.

Andrew Odlyzko's 1999 article on The visible problems of the invisible computer: A skeptical look at information appliances is one of the more incisive studies of convergence. Donald Norman's The Invisible Computer (Cambridge: MIT Press 1998) is essential reading. Michael Dertouzos' The Unfinished Revolution: Making Computers Human-Centric (New York: HarperBusiness 2001) is also of significance.

More detailed pointers to computer industry and technology are supplied by the Evolution of the Web profile elsewhere on this site. There are supplementary profiles and notes on RFIDs and Biometrics.

     code

Daniel Hillis' The Pattern On The Stone: The Simple Ideas That Make Computers Work (New York: Basic Books 1998) is a concise, elegant introduction to software. There's a wider-ranging account in Charles Petzold's Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware & Software (Redmond: Microsoft Press 1999).

The Fifth Language: Learning A Living In The Computer Age (Toronto: Stoddart 1995) by Robert Logan considers software as language that has to be understood by the "meatware" (ie you and you).

Martin Davis' engaging The Universal Computer: The Road From Leibniz To Turing (New York: Norton 2000) describes the philosophical and mathematical principles underlying modern computing.   

For understanding multimedia we recommend Richard Wise's Multimedia: A Critical Introduction (London: Routledge 2000) and Remediation: Understanding New Media (Cambridge: MIT Press 1999) by Jay Bolter & Richard Grusin.

     pipelines

Global Connections: International Telecommunications Infrastructure & Policy (New York: Wiley 1997) by Heather Hudson is a lucid introduction to the global pipelines - the cables, microwave, satellite and other links.   

The Last Mile: Broadband & The Next Internet Revolution (New York: McGraw-Hill 2000) by Jason Wolf & Natalie Zee is a less authoritative but useful introduction for non-technologists. Cary Lu's The Race For Bandwidth: Understanding Data Transmission (Redmond: Microsoft Press 1998) is a short guide; more accessible than most of the publications from the Gates empire. 

Robert Heldman's The Telecommunications Information Millennium (New York: McGraw-Hill 1995) offers a one volume description of communication technologies, useful as an introduction to the Harvard Information Infrastructure Project volumes noted below.

Douglas Comer's Computer Networks & Internets (Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall 1997) is a more detailed primer about hardware and software. Valuable, but not in the reading-for-pleasure category.

For historical introductions to the communications infrastructure we recommend Brian Winston's excellent Media Technology & Society: A History from the Telegraph to the Internet (London: Routledge 1999), The Struggle for Control of Global Communication: The Formative Century (Urbana: Uni of Illinois Press 2002) by Jill Hills and Peter Hughill's Global Communications Since 1844: Geopolitics & Technology (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Uni Press 1999)

Frances Cairncross' The Death of Distance (London: Orion 1997), Saskia Sassen in Globalization & Its Discontents (New York: New Press 1998) and Ithiel de Sola Pool in his Technologies Without Boundaries: On Telecommunications in a Global Age (Cambridge: Harvard Uni Press 1990) were pathbreaking efforts to place the 'internet revolution' in context and tease out some implications.

There is more detailed coverage in our Networks & GII guide, supplemented by a profile on Australasian telecommunications. 

     the GII, NII and you

Combining communication networks - satellites, fibre optic cable, microwave, copper wire - and computers that use standard protocols results in what is emerging as a seamless global information infrastructure (GII) that is more than the sum of its parts. The national equivalent is, of course, the NII - national information infrastructure - that appears throughout many government reports.

For a succinct online introduction to the internet we recommend the December 1999 paper by Vinton Cerf & Robert Kahn on What Is The Internet (And What Makes It Work), along with Weaving The Web (London: Orion 1999) by Tim Berners-Lee.

Rob Kitchin's Cyberspace: The World in the Wires (New York: Wiley 1998) is an exemplary discussion of visualising the infosphere, more perceptive than Margaret Wertheim's The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace.  Fans of the latter may wish to consult Kieron O'Hara's Plato & the Internet (London: Icon 2004).

Unspun: Key Concepts for Understanding the World Wide Web (New York: New York Uni Press 2001) edited by Thomas Swiss is less impressive than Understanding the Web: The Social, Political & Economic Dimensions of the Internet (Ames: Iowa State Uni Press 2000) edited by Alan Albarran & David Goff.

Those dimensions are also considered in Handbook of New Media: Social Shaping & Consequences of ICTs (London: Sage 2002) edited by Leah Lievrouw & Sonia Livingstone.

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