Knowledge: Everything You Really Need to Know about the Internet - Softcover

John Naughton

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0857384252 ISBN 13: 9780857384256

Publisher: Quercus, 2012

Synopsis

Our society has gone through a weird, unremarked transition: we've gone from regarding the Net as something exotic to something that we take for granted as a utilitarian necessity, like mains electricity or running water. In the process we've been remarkably incurious about its meaning, significance or cultural implications. Most people have no idea how the network works, nor any conception of its architecture; and few can explain why it has been - and continues to be - so uniquely disruptive in social, economic and cultural contexts. In other words, our society has become dependent on a utility that it doesn't really understand. John Naughton has distilled the noisy chatter surrounding the internet's relentless evolution into nine clear-sighted and accessible areas of understanding. In doing so he affords everyone the requisite knowledge to make better use of the technologies and networks around us, and see lucidly into their future implications. Along the way FROM GUTENBERG TO ZUCKER

About this title

About the Author:

John Naughton is Professor of the Public Understanding of Technology at the Open University and a Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge. He is also the Observer's 'Networker' columnist and a prominent blogger at memex.naughtons.org. His last book was A Brief History of the Future: The Origins of the Internet.

Review:

'An accessible guide to the internet, which covers the nine need-to-know ideas about its cultural significance. Naughton draws on more than two decades of study to explain how the internet works and the challenges and opportunities it will offer to future generations' The Times. * The Times * 'As Naughton points out, most internet users are far more ignorant than they realise. His book is as useful to them as to neophytes' Mail on Sunday. * Mail on Sunday * 'From Gutenberg to Zuckerberg comes at a point when much of the traffic associated with desktop computers is migrating to mobile devices and cloud computing is a new thing. It helps those of us stuck in the old paradigm (or no paradigm at all) to catch up on what it all means' Glasgow Herald. * Glasgow Herald * 'A fantastic read and a marvel of economy. This is the kind of primer you want to slide under your boss's door' Cory Doctorow, Observer. * Cory Doctorow, Observer *

About this edition

• Publisher: Quercus
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0857384252
• ISBN 13: 9780857384256
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352