"In her reading of cyberculture studies after the affective turn, the author argues for a new cyberculture studies that goes beyond dominant cultural narratives of the Internet as dystopian or utopian space, and pays attention to the ways in which online culture has become embedded in everyday lives. The book intervenes in narratives of virtual reality to propose that the Internet can be re-read as a space of fantasy.
Social Beings, Future Belongings is a collection of sociological essays that address an increasingly relevant matter: what does belonging look like in the twenty-first century? The book critically explores the concept of belonging and how it can respond to contemporary problems in not only the traditional domains of citizenship and migration, but also in detention practices, queer and feminist politics, Australian literature and fashion, technology, housing and rituals. Drawing on examples from Australia, Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States, each topic is examined as a different kind of problem for the future – as a toil, an intensity or a promise. Ultimately, the collection argues that creating new ways to belong in contemporary times means reimagining the traditional terms on which belonging can happen, as well as the social itself. Read on their own, each chapter presents a compelling case study and develops a set of critical tools for encountering the empirical, epistemological and ontological challenges we face today. Read together, they present a diverse imagination that is capable of answering the question of belonging in, to and with the future. Social Beings, Future Belongings shows how belonging is not a static and universal state, but a contingent, emergent and ongoing future-oriented set of practices. Balancing empirical and theoretical work, this book will appeal to researchers, students and practitioners alike.
Report ... addresses the far-reaching impact that digital technologies, the Internet in particular, have had on intellectual property (IP) and the international IP system.
This book examines the harmonisation of Intellectual Property (IP) policy, law and administration in Africa. Two recent developments have brought this topic to the fore. The first is the escalation of long-standing efforts to establish a Pan-African Intellectual Property Organisation (PAIPO), a continental initiative. The second is the current sub-regional attempt to operationalise the IP provisions of the Southern African Development Community (SADC)’s Protocol on Trade (articles 9b and 24) and its Protocol on Science, Technology and Innovation (article 2m). Intellectual Property Policy, Law and Administration in Africa discusses the viability of such initiatives with particular reference to the current socio-economic status of Africa’s nations. With a view to contributing to future developments in Africa at both a continental and sub-regional level, the author considers this issue through the lens of advancing the public interest in IP. Ncube argues that harmonisation initiatives ought to be crafted in a way that is supportive of the development aspirations of African states. Consequently, she urges due consideration of individual states’ unique conditions and aspirations in any harmonisation venture, a necessity outlined in article 7 of the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. This book will be of great relevance to scholars and policy makers with an interest in IP law and African law in general.
The importance of property as an investment medium continues to grow. Investors in property or those involved with the provision of expert advice to investors have had to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their decision making. The aim of this book is to lay down the theoretical foundations of investment decision making, incorporating the techniques and procedures of modern management science, so that particular decisions regarding property investment can be made efficiently and rationally.
Until recently, issues of intellectual property were relegated to the experts—attorneys, legal scholars, rightsholders, and technology developers who wrangled over interpretations and enforcement of copyright, patent, and trademark protections. But in today's knowledge-based economy, intellectual property protection has taken on fundamentally new proportions, as a subject of urgency for businesses (whose survival depends on protection of their intangible assets) and as a subject of cultural importance that grabs front-page headlines (as the controversy over Napster and high-profile revelations of plagiarism, for example, have illustrated). This landmark set of essays brings new clarity to the issues, as societies around the world grapple with the intricacies and complexities of intellectual property, and its impact on business, law, policy, and culture. Featuring insights from leading scholars and practitioners, Intellectual Property and Information Wealth provides rigorous analysis, historical context, and emerging practical applications from the public, private, and non-profit sectors. Volume 1 focuses on protections to novels, films, sound recordings, computer programs, and other creative products, and covers such issues as authorship, duration of copyright, fair use of copyrighted materials, and the implications of the Internet and peer-to-peer file sharing. Volume 2 explains the fundamental protections to inventors of devices, mechanical processes, chemical compounds, and other inventions, and examines such issues as the scope and limits of patent protection, research exemptions and infringement, IP in the software and biotech industries, and trade secrets. Volume 3 looks at the protections to distinctive symbols and signs, including brand names and unique product designs, and features chapters on consumer protection, trademark and the first amendment, brand licensing, publicity and cultural images, and domain names. Volume 4 takes the discussion to the global level, addressing a wide range of issues, including not only enforcement of IP protections across borders, but also their implications for international trade and investment, economic development, human rights, and public health.
The Property Rights of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons: Beyond Restitution pursues a rigorous examination of the various ways in which the protection of housing and property rights can contribute to durable solutions to displacement.
Live broadband streaming of the 2008 Beijing Olympics accounted for 2,200 of the estimated 3,600 total hours shown by the American NBC-Universal networks. At the 2012 London Olympics, unprecedented multi-platforming embraced online, mobile devices, game consoles and broadcast television, with the BBC providing 2,500 hours of live coverage, including every competitive event, much in high definition and some in 3D. The BBC also had 12 million requests for video on mobile phones and 9.2 million browsers on its mobile Olympics website and app. This pattern will only intensify at future sport mega events like the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics, both of which will take place in Brazil. Increasingly, when people talk of the screen that delivers footage of their favorite professional sport, they are describing desktop, laptop, and tablet computer screens as well as television and mobile handsets. Digital Media Sport analyzes the intersecting issues of technological change, market power, and cultural practices that shape the contemporary global sports media landscape. The complexity of these related issues demands an interdisciplinary approach that is adopted here in a series of thematically-organized essays by international scholars working in media studies, Internet studies, sociology, cultural studies, and sport studies. .
The two-volume set LNCS 6987 and 6988 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Conference on Web Information Systems and Mining, WISM 2011, held in Taiyuan, China, in September 2011. The 112 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 472 submissions. The second volume includes 56 papers organized in the following topical sections: management information systems; semantic Web and ontologies; Web content mining; Web information classification; Web information extraction; Web intelligence; Web interfaces and applications; Web services and e-learning; and XML and semi-structured data.
