Europe's Digital Revolution assesses the impact of digital broadcasting on regulatory practices in Europe. The current roles and responsibilities of nation states and the EU will have to respond to rapid technological and market developments. Levy considers how these responsibilities are likely to be divided in the future, and which are the emerging issues and problems.
In light of the EU's commitment to making the Single Market fit for the digital age, leading scholars analyse new and urgent issues in the field of contract, data protection, copyright and private international law.
The way we talk, work, learn, and think has been greatly shaped by modern technology. These lifestyle changes have made digital literacy the new written literacy, where those who are not able to use computers are unable to function and perform everyday tasks. The Handbook of Research on Comparative Approaches to the Digital Age Revolution in Europe and the Americas explores the new ways that technology is shaping our society and the advances it is bringing, along with potential drawbacks, such as human jobs being replaced by computers. This expansive handbook is an essential reference source for students, academics, and professionals in the fields of communication, information technology, sociology, social policy, and education; it will also prove of interest to policymakers, funding-agencies, and digital inclusion program developers. This handbook features a broad scope of research-based articles on topics including, but not limited to, computational thinking, e-portfolios, e-citizenship, digital inclusion policies, and information literacy as a form of community empowerment.
Thanks to inexpensive computers and data communications, the speed and volume of human communication are exponentially greater than they were even a quarter-century ago. Not since the advent of the telephone and telegraph in the nineteenth century has information technology changed daily life so radically. We are in the midst of what Gerald Brock calls a second information revolution. Brock traces the complex history of this revolution, from its roots in World War II through the bursting bubble of the Internet economy. As he explains, the revolution sprang from an interdependent series of technological advances, entrepreneurial innovations, and changes to public policy. Innovations in radar, computers, and electronic components for defense projects translated into rapid expansion in the private sector, but some opportunities were blocked by regulatory policies. The contentious political effort to accommodate new technology while protecting beneficiaries of the earlier regulated monopoly eventually resulted in a regulatory structure that facilitated the explosive growth in data communications. Brock synthesizes these complex factors into a readable economic history of the wholesale transformation of the way we exchange and process information. Table of Contents: Acknowledgments Abbreviations 1. Introduction The Promise of Regulation Conceptual Framework 2. The First Information Revolution The Development of Telegraph Services The Telephone and State Regulation Radio and Federal Regulation 3. Technological Origins of the Second Information Revolution, 1940-1950 Radar The Transistor Electronic Digital Computers 4. The SAGE Project I. THE SEPARATE WORLDS OF COMPUTERS AND COMMUNICATIONS, 1950-1968 5. The Early Semiconductor Industry The Creation of a Competitive Market Innovation and the Integrated Circuit Falling Prices, Rising Output 6. The Early Commercial Computer Industry Vacuum-Tube and Transistor Computers The System/360 and IBM Dominance Alternatives to IBM Computers 7. The Regulated Monopoly Telephone Industry Antitrust and the 1956 Consent Decree Microwave Technology and Potential Long Distance Competition Central Office Switches Terminal Equipment II. BOUNDARY DISPUTES AND LIMITED COMPETITION, 1969-1984 8. Data Communications Packet-Switching and the Arpanet Network Protocols and Interconnection Local Area Networks and Ethernet 9. From Mainframes to Microprocessors Intel and the Microprocessor Personal Computers and Workstations 10. The Computer-Communications Boundary Computer-Assisted Messages: Communications or Data Processing? Smart Terminals: Teletypewriters or Computers? Interconnection of Customer-Owned Equipment with the Telephone Network The Deregulation of Terminal Equipment The Deregulation of Enhanced Services 11. Fringe Competition in Long Distance Telephone Service Competition in Specialized Services Competition in Switched Services The Transition to Optical Fiber 12. Divestiture and Access Charges The Divestiture Access Charges The Enhanced Service Provider Exemption III. INTERCONNECTED COMPETITION AND INTEGRATED SERVICES, 1985-2002 13. Mobile Telephones and Spectrum Reform Early Land Mobile Telephones Cellular Spectrum Allocation Cellular Licensing Problems Spectrum Institutional Reform PCS and Auctions 14. Local Competition and the Telecommunications Act of 1996 Competitive Access Providers Interconnection: CAP to CLEC The Telecommunications Act of 1996 Implementation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 15. The Internet and the World Wide Web The Commercial Internet and Backbone Interconnection The Development of the Web The New Economy Financial Boom and Bust Real Growth in Telecommunication and Price Benefits 16. Conclusion Technological Progress and Policy Evolution The Process of Institutional Change Final Comment References Index Reviews of this book: The Second Information Revolution is important reading for anyone who needs to understand the functioning of American telecommunications, either to be able to analyse today's financial markets or to understand or influence public policy in this area. --Wendy M. Grossman, Times Higher Education Supplement [UK] Reviews of this book: Brock traces a phenomenon he refers to as the 'second information revolution.' According to Brock, there have been two times in history when information technology has dramatically changed daily life. The first 'information revolution' occurred with the advent of the telephone and telegraph, which made communication less expensive and more readily available. The second information revolution is currently in progress...A concise, thorough, and well-written history of the transformation in exchanging and processing of information. --K. A. Coombs, Choice
Containing state-of-the-art contributions on the various domains of European media policies, this Handbook deals with theoretical approaches to European media policy: its historical development; specific policies for film, television, radio and the Internet; and international aspects of the fragmented policy domain.
A green digital economy could change the future of the Old Continent. The new Smart Europe will be based on three elements: new communication technologies, new sources of energy and new modes of mobility. But the transition will require a transformation of the continental infrastructure. Jeremy Rifkin, advisor to the European Union and main architect of the Third Industrial Revolution, has been promoting over the last few years the importance of this approach, enabling collaboration in "vast virtual and physical global networks to create a more ecologically sustainable and equitable quality of life". This is the fourth essay in the Big Ideas series created by the European Investment Bank.
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.
Digitization promises to reshape fiscal policy by transforming how governments collect, process, share, and act on information. More and higher-quality information can improve not only policy design for tax and spending, but also systems for their management, including tax administration and compliance, delivery of public services, administration of social programs, public financial management, and more. Countries must chart their own paths to effectively balance the potential benefits against the risks and challenges, including institutional and capacity constraints, privacy concerns, and new avenues for fraud and evasion. Support for this book and the conference on which it is based was provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation “Click Download on the top right corner for your free copy..."
The events of 1989/90 in Europe demonstrated the renewed relevance of the mid-nineteenth century uprisings: both by showing, once again, how a revolutionary initiative could quickly spread through different European countries, but also by calling into question the nature of revolution and the criteria for a revolution's success and failure. To commemorate the 1848 revolution in a spirit of renewed critical inquiry, an international team of prominent historians have come together to produce what must be the most comprehensive work on this topic to date and to offer a synthesis that sums up the current state of scholarly research, emphasizing the many new interpretations that have developed over several decades.
