This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Cooperative Information Agents, CIA 2000, held in Boston, MA, USA, in July 2000, in association with ICMAS 2000. The 15 revised full papers presented together with seven invited contributions were carefully reviewed and selected from 44 submissions. The book is divided into sections on personal information agents on the Internet, agent-based information gathering and mediation, rational information agents for e-commerce, societies of information agents, communication and collaboration, and future inspirations and design.
Zergwatch: ReviewHill and Hughes conducted extensive research online attempting to answer a basic question about the role of the Internet in the political scene: how do regular citizens actually use the Internet to discuss politics? In their research, they found a number of surprising things. For example, the lasting political content of the Internet is primarily conservative, yet when ongoing interaction is monitored it turns out that liberals outnumber conservatives among the actual users.
Among the various issues they faced in their research was determining who the users and content providers actually are. How do people tend to interact both in asynchronous political conversation--such as posting on bulletin boards or conversing through e-mail--and in such real-time communication as Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and America Online chat? They explored how political communities form online and what differences there are between U.S.-based and international communities. They looked as well at the question of how the fully open nature of the Internet, where anyone can provide information or misinformation based on any level of knowledge, can both promote and interfere with thefunctioning of a democratic system. Among the primary points to emerge from their study is that, while the Internet will grow to play a vital role in government, it is unlikely to change the nature of politics in any profound manner. On the other hand, as more people find their virtual homes and voices online, politics may have a profound influence on the nature of Internet discourse. This is a scholarly book (though not laden with a dense, academic style) loaded with thought-provoking observations. A wide variety of charts and graphs make the research results easier to follow. --Elizabeth Lewis
REVIEW
Finally! Some evidence to back up Internet claims!! This is really a very good book, and very timely as well. Too many books about the Internet, including books about politics, investing, relationships, privacy, etc., are simply pie-in-the-sky theorizing. This book, focussing on politics, actually provides evidence through what looks like lots of research to prove its assertions. I highly recommend this book to people interested in something a bit more down to earth and less breathless about politics, the Internet, and the future. Add a Review
Manuel Castells is one of the world's leading thinkers on the new information age, hailed by The Economist as "the first significant philosopher of cyberspace," and by Christian Science Monitor as "a pioneer who has hacked out a logical, well-documented, and coherent picture of early 21st century civilization, even as it rockets forward largely in a blur." Now, in The Internet Galaxy, this brilliantly insightful writer speculates on how the Internet will change our lives. Castells believes that we are "entering, full speed, the Internet Galaxy, in the midst of informed bewilderment." His aim in this exciting and profound work is to help us to understand how the Internet came into being, and how it is affecting every area of human life--from work, politics, planning and development, media, and privacy, to our social interaction and life in the home. We are at ground zero of the new network society. In this book, its major commentator reveals the Internet's huge capacity to liberate, but also its ability to marginalize and exclude those who do not have access to it. Castells provides no glib solutions, but asks us all to take responsibility for the future of this new information age. The Internet is becoming the essential communication and information medium in our society, and stands alongside electricity and the printing press as one of the greatest innovations of all time. The Internet Galaxy offers an illuminating look at how this new technology will influence business, the economy, and our daily lives.
REVIEW
The Internet Galaxy by Manuel Castells This was a requirement for a graduate course I recently took. Basically, I think this book was very uninteresting to read and I would not recommend it to others. At any point in a college degree, I think 90% of the information Mr. Castells provides is elementary. Most students know a lot of this information coming into college, much less this late in our college career. There were only a select number of things that I did not know previously, none of which will be beneficial to my degree or career. Furthermore, I also think Mr. Castells's writing was very dry and repetitious, which made it even harder to read. Overall, there were very few benefits to reading this book and many downfalls. Add a Review
