Presenting profiles of the mathematicians, engineers, and other scientists who helped create and develop communications technologies, Bray (Imperial College London) begins his volume in the mid-18th century, looking at people like Ampere, Ohm, Faraday, and Hertz, who created the mathematical and scientific foundations of telecommunications. He proceeds to offer chapters on telegraph and cable engineers, telephone engineers, inventors of the thermionic valve, pioneers of radio and television broadcasting, microwave radio-relay engineers, the inventors of the transistor and the microchip, the creators of information theory and digital techniques, satellite communication engineers, pioneers optical fiber communications, and inventors of the Internet and mobile communications. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The fledgling United States fought a war to achieve independence from Britain, but as John Adams said, the real revolution occurred “in the minds and hearts of the people” before the armed conflict ever began. Putting the practices of communication at the center of this intellectual revolution, Protocols of Liberty shows how American patriots—the Whigs—used new forms of communication to challenge British authority before any shots were fired at Lexington and Concord. To understand the triumph of the Whigs over the Brit-friendly Tories, William B. Warner argues that it is essential to understand the communication systems that shaped pre-Revolution events in the background. He explains the shift in power by tracing the invention of a new political agency, the Committee of Correspondence; the development of a new genre for political expression, the popular declaration; and the emergence of networks for collective political action, with the Continental Congress at its center. From the establishment of town meetings to the creation of a new postal system and, finally, the Declaration of Independence, Protocols of Liberty reveals that communication innovations contributed decisively to nation-building and continued to be key tools in later American political movements, like abolition and women’s suffrage, to oppose local custom and state law.

Never before in human history has technology advanced as quickly as today. The biggest changes are taking place in communications and computers, which are being combined in new and astonishing ways. In this updated and revised addition, Frances Cairncross analyzes the impact of this revolution on business, government and society.

The past 50 years have witnessed a revolution in computing and related communications technologies. The contributions of industry and university researchers to this revolution are manifest; less widely recognized is the major role the federal government played in launching the computing revolution and sustaining its momentum. Funding a Revolution examines the history of computing since World War II to elucidate the federal government's role in funding computing research, supporting the education of computer scientists and engineers, and equipping university research labs. It reviews the economic rationale for government support of research, characterizes federal support for computing research, and summarizes key historical advances in which government-sponsored research played an important role. Funding a Revolution contains a series of case studies in relational databases, the Internet, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality that demonstrate the complex interactions among government, universities, and industry that have driven the field. It offers a series of lessons that identify factors contributing to the success of the nation's computing enterprise and the government's role within it.

The industrial nations of the world have become Information Societies. Advanced technologies have created a communication revolution, and the individual, through the advent of computers, has become an active participant in this process. The "human" aspect, therefore, is as important as technologically advanced media systems in understanding communication technology. The flagship book in the Series in Communication Technology & Society, Communication Technology introduces the history and uses of the new technologies and examines basic issues posed by interactive media in areas that affect intellectual, organization, and social life. Author and series co-editor Everett M. Rogers defines the field of communication technology with its major implications for researchers, students, and practitioners in an age of ever more advanced information exchange.

World-renowned economist Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, explains that we have an opportunity to shape the fourth industrial revolu­tion, which will fundamentally alter how we live and work. Schwab argues that this revolution is different in scale, scope and complexity from any that have come before. Characterized by a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, the developments are affecting all disciplines, economies, industries and governments, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human. Artificial intelligence is already all around us, from supercomputers, drones and virtual assistants to 3D printing, DNA sequencing, smart thermostats, wear­able sensors and microchips smaller than a grain of sand. But this is just the beginning: nanomaterials 200 times stronger than steel and a million times thinner than a strand of hair and the first transplant of a 3D printed liver are already in development. Imagine “smart factories” in which global systems of manu­facturing are coordinated virtually, or implantable mobile phones made of biosynthetic materials. The fourth industrial revolution, says Schwab, is more significant, and its ramifications more profound, than in any prior period of human history. He outlines the key technologies driving this revolution and discusses the major impacts expected on government, business, civil society and individu­als. Schwab also offers bold ideas on how to harness these changes and shape a better future—one in which technology empowers people rather than replaces them; progress serves society rather than disrupts it; and in which innovators respect moral and ethical boundaries rather than cross them. We all have the opportunity to contribute to developing new frame­works that advance progress.

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