Aleksander Zgrzywa, Kazimierz Choroś, and Andrzej Siemiński (Eds.) Multimedia and Internet Systems: Theory and Practice During the last 20 years we have witnessed a rapid development of Multimedia and Network Information Systems. What is even more important, the pace of change does not show any sign of slowing. When we look back we see how many research projects that have originated at various universities or in research facilities are now part of our everyday life. This monograph offers the reader a very broad review of the most recent scientific investigations in that area. The book is a collection of carefully selected and the most representative investigations, solutions, and applications presented by scientific teams from several countries. The content of the monograph has been divided into four parts: 1. Multimedia Information Technology 2. Information Systems Specification 3. Information Systems Applications 4. Web Systems and Network Technologies The book is aiming to attract more scholars to work on the area of multimedia and Internet applications and to inspire the research community already working on the domain.

The mushroom-like growth of new media technologies is radically challenging traditional media outlets. The proliferation of technologies like DVDs, MP3s and the Internet has freed the public from what we used to understand as mass media. In the face of such seismic shifts and ruptures, the theoretical and pedagogical foundations of film and TV studies are being shaken to their core. New Media demands a necessary rethinking of the field. Writing from a range of disciplines and perspectives, the scholars here outline new theses and conceptual frameworks capable of engaging the numerous facets of emergent digital technology.

Although practice theory has been a mainstay of social theory for nearly three decades, so far it has had very limited impact on media studies. This book draws on the work of practice theorists such as Wittgenstein, Foucault, Bourdieu, Barth and Schatzki and rethinks the study of media from the perspective of practice theory. Drawing on ethnographic case studies from places such as Zambia, India, Hong Kong, the United States, Britain, Norway and Denmark, the contributors address a number of important themes: media as practice; the interlinkage between media, culture and practice; the contextual study of media practices; and new practices of digital production. Collectively, these chapters make a strong case for the importance of theorising the relationship between media and practice and thereby adding practice theory as a new strand to the study of anthropology of media.

It is 5 years since the publication of the seminal paper on “Design Science in Information Systems Research” by Hevner, March, Park, and Ram in MIS Quarterly and the initiation of the Information Technology and Systems department of the Communications of AIS. These events in 2004 are markers in the move of design science to the forefront of information systems research. A suf cient interval has elapsed since then to allow assessment of from where the eld has come and where it should go. Design science research and behavioral science research started as dual tracks when IS was a young eld. By the 1990s, the in ux of behavioral scientists started to dominate the number of design scientists and the eld moved in that direction. By the early 2000s, design people were having dif culty publishing in mainline IS journals and in being tenured in many universities. Yes, an annual Workshop on Information Technology and Systems (WITS) was established in 1991 in conju- tion with the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) and grew each year. But that was the extent of design science recognition. Fortunately, a revival is underway. By 2009, when this foreword was written, the fourth DESRIST c- ference has been held and plans are afoot for the 2010 meeting. Design scientists regained respect and recognition in many venues where they previously had little.

The internet has fundamentally transformed society in the past 25 years, yet existing theories of mass or interpersonal communication do not work well in understanding a digital world. Nor has this understanding been helped by disciplinary specialization and a continual focus on the latest innovations. Ralph Schroeder takes a longer-term view, synthesizing perspectives and findings from various social science disciplines in four countries: the United States, Sweden, India and China. His comparison highlights, among other observations, that smartphones are in many respects more important than PC-based internet uses. Social Theory after the Internet focuses on everyday uses and effects of the internet, including information seeking and big data, and explains how the internet has gone beyond traditional media in, for example, enabling Donald Trump and Narendra Modi to come to power. Schroeder puts forward a sophisticated theory of the role of the internet, and how both technological and social forces shape its significance. He provides a sweeping and penetrating study, theoretically ambitious and at the same time always empirically grounded.The book will be of great interest to students and scholars of digital media and society, the internet and politics, and the social implications of big data.

The overall mission of this book is to provide a comprehensive understanding and coverage of the various theories and models used in IS research. Specifically, it aims to focus on the following key objectives: To describe the various theories and models applicable to studying IS/IT management issues. To outline and describe, for each of the various theories and models, independent and dependent constructs, reference discipline/originating area, originating author(s), seminal articles, level of analysis (i.e. firm, individual, industry) and links with other theories. To provide a critical review/meta-analysis of IS/IT management articles that have used a particular theory/model. To discuss how a theory can be used to better understand how information systems can be effectively deployed in today’s digital world. This book contributes to our understanding of a number of theories and models. The theoretical contribution of this book is that it analyzes and synthesizes the relevant literature in order to enhance knowledge of IS theories and models from various perspectives. To cater to the information needs of a diverse spectrum of readers, this book is structured into two volumes, with each volume further broken down into two sections. The first section of Volume 1 presents detailed descriptions of a set of theories centered around the IS lifecycle, including the Success Model, Technology Acceptance Model, User Resistance Theories, and four others. The second section of Volume 1 contains strategic and economic theories, including a Resource-Based View, Theory of Slack Resources, Portfolio Theory, Discrepancy Theory Models, and eleven others. The first section of Volume 2 concerns socio-psychological theories. These include Personal Construct Theory, Psychological Ownership, Transactive Memory, Language-Action Approach, and nine others. The second section of Volume 2 deals with methodological theories, including Critical Realism, Grounded Theory, Narrative Inquiry, Work System Method, and four others. Together, these theories provide a rich tapestry of knowledge around the use of theory in IS research. Since most of these theories are from contributing disciplines, they provide a window into the world of external thought leadership.

The classic book on a major modern theory