Describes how patterns of information, knowledge, and cultural production are changing. The author shows that the way information and knowledge are made available can either limit or enlarge the ways people create and express themselves. He describes the range of legal and policy choices that confront.

This is a book about the politics and history of the Internet. The Internet has been in existence for over fifty years. The way we live our lives has changed considerably because of this new medium. As the Internet has become increasingly popular, it has been drawn into age-old struggles over censorship and freedom of expression. It has played an increasing role in commerce, and controversies have erupted over privacy, security, consumer rights, intellectual property rights, taxation, and other matters. With the rise of Internet-connected smartphones, the Internet has become part of daily life for billions of people. One major theme explored in this book is the contrast between the dream and the reality of the Internet. Many of the creators of the Internet shared a vision of building a system that would empower individuals anywhere in the world to share their knowledge and creativity. This profoundly democratic dream came out of an age in which many pre-existing power structures were being questioned. This book argues that the Internet has actually resulted in the creation of new centers of power and influence, many of which are anti-democratic.

Are all film stars linked to Kevin Bacon? Why do the stock markets rise and fall sharply on the strength of a vague rumour? How does gossip spread so quickly? Are we all related through six degrees of separation? There is a growing awareness of the complex networks that pervade modern society. We see them in the rapid growth of the internet, the ease of global communication, the swift spread of news and information, and in the way epidemics and financial crises develop with startling speed and intensity. This introductory book on the new science of networks takes an interdisciplinary approach, using economics, sociology, computing, information science and applied mathematics to address fundamental questions about the links that connect us, and the ways that our decisions can have consequences for others.

Looks at how the Internet is affecting businesses, education, and government, touching on the twelve themes of the new economy and privacy issues

This book provides a game theoretic model of interaction among VoIP telecommunications providers regarding their willingness to enter peering agreements with one another. The author shows that the incentive to peer is generally based on savings from otherwise payable long distance fees. At the same time, termination fees can have a countering and dominant effect, resulting in an environment in which VoIP firms decide against peering. Various scenarios of peering and rules for allocation of the savings are considered. The first part covers the relevant aspects of game theory and network theory, trying to give an overview of the concepts required in the subsequent application. The second part of the book introduces first a model of how the savings from peering can be calculated and then turns to the actual formation of peering relationships between VoIP firms. The conditions under which firms are willing to peer are then described, considering the possible influence of a regulatory body.

This volume is a collection of selected papers using the framework of inframarginal analysis of the division of labour held at Monash University on 6-7 July 2001. This framework, pioneered mainly by Professor Xiaokai Yang, (with joint researches involving all the three editors and many of the authors), has been recommended by Professor James Buchanan (Nobel Laureate in Economics) as the most important analysis in economics in the world today.