The first generation of "Digital Natives" - the Internet Age generation- are coming of age, and soon our world will be reshaped in their image. Our economy, our politics, our culture and even the shape of our family life will be forever transformed.
But who are these Digital Natives? How are they different from older generations? or "Digital Immigrants"? and what is the world they're creating going to look like? In Born Digital, leading Internet and technology experts John Palfrey and Urs Gasser offer a sociological portrait of these young people, describing the myriad ways downloading, text-messaging, Massively Multiplayer Online Games-playing, YouTube-watching youth are transforming society.
Based on extensive original research, including interviews with Digital Natives around the world, Born Digital explores a broad range of issues, from the highly philosophical to the purely practical: What does identity mean for young people who have dozens of online profiles and avatars? Should we worry about privacy issues? or is privacy even a relevant concern for Digital Natives? How does the concept of safety translate into an increasingly virtual world? Are online games addictive, and how do we need to worry about violent video games? What is the Internet's impact on creativity and learning? What lies ahead - socially, professionally, and psychologically - for this generation?
A smart, practical guide to a brave new world and its complex inhabitants, Born Digital will be essential reading for parents, teachers, and the myriad of confused adults who want to understand the digital present - and shape the digital future.
"Born Digital offers an excellent primer on what it means to live digitally. It should be required reading for adults trying to understand the next generation." -Nicholas Negroponte, author of "Being Digital"
"From now on, any attempt to understand what it is like to grow up or to live one's life in a digital world must begin with this outstanding, original synthesis." -Howard Gardner, author of "Five Minds for the Future" and "Multiple Intelligences"
Access Denied
MIT Press
Co-authors:
Ronald J. Deibert , Rafal Rohozinski, and Jonathan Zittrain
Book description:
Many countries around the world block or filter Internet content, denying access to information?often about politics, but also relating to sexuality, culture, or religion?that they deem too sensitive for ordinary citizens. "Access Denied" offers the first rigorously conducted study of this accelerating trend. This book documents and analyzes Internet filtering practices in over three dozen countries, with each country profile outlining the types of content blocked by category and documenting key findings.
Internet filtering takes place in at least 40 states worldwide including many countries in Asia and the Middle East and North Africa. Related Internet content control mechanisms are also in place in Canada, the United States and a cluster of countries in Europe.
Drawing on a just-completed survey of global Internet filtering undertaken by the OpenNet Initiative (a collaboration of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, and the University of Cambridge) and relying on work by regional experts and an extensive network of researchers, "Access Denied" examines the political, legal, social, and cultural contexts of Internet filtering in these states from a variety of perspectives.
Chapters discuss the mechanisms and politics of Internet filtering, the strengths and limitations of the technology that powers it, the relevance of international law, ethical considerations for corporations that supply states with the tools for blocking and filtering, and the implications of Internet filtering for activist communities that increasingly rely on Internet technologies for communicating their missions.
"No one had a clear sense of the nature of Internet censorship until now. This extraordinary work maps the unfreedom of the Net. Unfortunately, that state is becoming the norm." - Lawrence Lessig, author of "Code" and "Free Culture"
