Civilizing Cyberspace: Policy, Power, and the Information Superhighway [Hardcover]

Stephen J. Miller (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201847604 | ISBN-13: 978-0201847604 | Publication Date: November 27, 1995 | Edition: 1

"Steve Miller has written a readable, thought-provoking guide to the information policy conundrums of the age. He is at his best when he pierces the rhetorical redoubt of deregulation and asks what results we are seeking -- bigger monopolies? broader competition? an information elite? -- from public action. E-mail to policy makers: Read This Book." --Rep. Edward J. Markey, U.S. Congress "Finally, here is a book that clarifies the issues and lets those of us who are not computer jocks -- female or male -- understand what's going on behind the headlines so that we may become part of the decision-making process." --Letty Cottin Pogrebin, founding editor, Ms. Magazine The Information Superhighway explained! This is the book that lets the rest of us finally understand what it is, what impact it will have, and what we can do to shape our own future. What is behind the headline-grabbing mega-mergers of media companies besides speculative grabbing after windfall profits? Will deregulation and competition lead to widespread service, lower costs, and consumer satisfaction or information redlining, higher prices, and teleconglomerate monopoly?Who will benefit and who will be hurt if the United States uses high technology for competitive advantage in the global market? Is the internet a hot bed of pornography and crime, or a tool for learning and democratic power? Miller weaves together business trends, political economy, American history, technological savvy, and an awareness of our everyday needs, to focus on the issues that really matter and to make the choices clear. Readable, comprehensive, and insightful, Civilizing Cyberspace is for nontechnical people as well as computer professionals, concerned citizens as well as official policymakers. Civilizing Cyberspace explains: *how universal service can be achieved while avoiding the creation of information "haves and have nots" *what is necessary to protect privacy and prevent the erosion of free speech and civil liberties *what we can do to protect our standard of living in a multinational economy *how telecommunications can be used to strengthen democracy and community rather than simply as a new method of media manipulation 0201847604B04062001

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In Civilizing Cyberspace Steven Miller presents a sweeping view of the many important issues facing society as a result of cybertechnology. But while he writes about technological and philosophical concerns, his writing is free of jargon, making his presentation easily comprehensible to those new to cyberspace. He starts by looking at how past technologies--from the railroads to cable TV--have transformed daily life and then examines computer technology in that light. As he showcases how technology might effect everything from personal privacy to the way we conduct daily business--and even run democratic governance processes--he gives a polite ear both to those who hail technology as a savior and those who rail against it as an enslaver. He then shows how a more moderate path has always prevailed in the past and is likely to again. Although the issues are complex, Miller steps deftly through the interrelated matters of government involvement, business and economic concerns, rights of individuals, and the social aspects of online communities. People who know the territory, such as Vinton Cerf of MCI, Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center and Jonathan Weber of the Los Angeles Times, help introduce key chapters with their own take on key issues.

From the Inside Flap

Some people believe that we are totally autonomous individuals who are free to create a personal world, invent a personal future, and inhabit a personal reality. These people believe that we negotiate our separate ways into society starting as totally isolated and independent creatures seeking to trade our autonomy for some discrete list of benefits. Some people believe that our only responsibility to others arises from our personal interpretation of self-interest.

I'm not one of those people.

Although I strongly believe in the power of individual initiative and the importance of personal responsibility, I see all of us as social creatures. We can learn much about ourselves and our condition through isolated self-reflection, but we reach our human potential only through interaction with others.

Furthermore, the structure and culture of our social environment make some things easier and other things almost impossible. Hikers are theoretically capable of walking in any direction, but they are much less likely to head straight up a cliff than to follow level ground, just as country footpaths tend to take the easy way through a rolling landscape. Similarly, we are free agents in the world, but we make our conscious and unconscious choices in a historically determined context that tends to guide our collective motion. For all our individualism, in the aggregate we are like raindrops that fall individually, bounce around in their separate directions, but end up flowing together toward the sea.

Society is the landscape --the infrastructure --that enables and shapes our lives. But unlike a mountain, our social infrastructure is not an act of nature. It is collectively created --sometimes deliberately, sometimes haphazardly --but always by human beings who choose and act. The social infrastructure we create together can take different shapes, with different effects on the lives that occur within it. It can be constructed in ways that provide a broad and solid foundation for individual and group efforts or it can require individual heroics in order to climb to higher ground. It can encourage collaboration and mutual aid or it can leave people on their own, making a war of "all against all" the only strategy for survival. It can establish a high plateau of living standards for all, or it can channel people into an extensive hierarchy of life experiences, primarily on the basis of the accidents of their birth.I became interested in telecommunications and information technology because I believe it profoundly influences our economy, culture, politics, and relationships --our social infrastructure. The National Information Infrastructure (NII) that is now being built will have enormous impacts, both obvious and subtle. If properly designed and implemented, it can promote widespread prosperity, decentralize power, revitalize democracy, strengthen or even create communities, and make this a better world in which to live. If poorly designed and implemented, it can do just the opposite.

The public policies our government adopts will be one of the most important determinants of the design and impact of the NII. But too few of us understand either the issues to be decided or the context within which these decisions will be made.THIS BOOK IS ABOUT . . .

I wrote this book for information technology professionals (many of whom are not involved in networking) as well as for nontechnical people whose interest has been piqued by all the talk about the Information Superhighway but who don't know very much about what the term actually means.

This is not a book about bits and bytes, neither is it a "how to" explanation about using the Internet. Rather, this book is about the alternative futures among which we need to choose, about the ways in which the NII can move us toward or away from our desired goals, and about the issues we must deal with if we want to be part of the decision-making process.

I hope this book helps people see through all the technobabble that makes so much of the NII debate unintelligible, as well as through the sound-bite slogans about the way our market economy works that so often are substituted for useful analysis. We need to understand what aspects of NII development are most likely to benefit from competitive market forces --and what the limits of that strategy are if we want to create an NII that serves a broad range of human needs. We need to know the strategic choices facing our nation so we can understand the real story behind the headlines. I don't expect everyone to agree with every point I make, but I do hope that people find the way I have structured and explained the issues to be useful. Although readers will benefit from the successive layers of information gained by reading each chapter in order, I've also designed the book to allow random access. Readers can jump around among topics that sound interesting. Some people may want to treat this as a reference book, using the table of contents and index to find desired references.WHAT IS IT FOR?

The development and initial implementation of expensive new technologies are usually paid for by groups that have adequate investment resources and can see the opportunity for sufficient gain to justify their taking of risks. The military, which always feels the need to prepare for a one-chance, win or lose crisis, constantly seeks a competitive edge and funded much of the research and development that led today's computer industry.

But just because a particular technology has its roots in one type of activity doesn't mean that we have to let its further development be shaped by the influence of its origin. We can civilize cyberspace. We can create public policies that shape it to serve our needs. But we must know what we want. By the time a reader has finished, I hope she or he will have thought about the following questions: What is the meaning of universal service in the NII context and how best can it be achieved? Can the NII be used to promote "electronic democracy" or is it just a tool for media manipulation? How do we protect the privacy and civil liberties of individuals and groups in an increasingly transparent electronic environment?How do we maximize equity in a market context and prevent the emergence of electronic "haves and have nots" or even of some type of "information apartheid"?Will the NII help bring us together in new communities or further splinter us into fragmented niche markets?How can we use the NII to promote a tide of economic development that actually "lifts all ships" rather than simply makes fortunes for a few?As more of our relationships are mediated by the electronic media, what can we do to maximize our opportunity to make them meaningful and satisfying?

We once revered our elders because the wisdom they accumulated over the generations was our most valuable resource in a time when most lives were short, change came slowly, and preserving knowledge was difficult. But it has been suggested that of the estimated 800 lifetimes that comprise human history, more change has occurred in the past two than in the previous 798. Now we worship youth because nothing seems to remain steady anymore, and we celebrate the capacity to quickly and innovatively handle unpredictable events. However, speed and flexibility are not enough. We still need to know where we want to go. We still need to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. We still need to take the time to reflect, converse, and come to a collective conclusion in a democratic manner.CHAPTER OVERVIEW

There has been so much hype about the NII that it is sometimes difficult to understand exactly what is at stake. The policy debate on this issue must start with a discussion about the society we wish to create and the values we want it to incorporate. Chapter one starts the process by exploring alternative visions of the kinds of future that telecommunications can help us create, from utopian to dystopian, with an emphasis on the less dramatic but more likely incremental differences that will evolve.

Chapter two begins to describe the current policy debate, noting the implications of the currently dominant arguments favoring deregulation and free markets. Chapter three describes some of the reasons why U.S. leaders are for the creation of a National Information Infrastructure and gives a quick history of the Internet.

Newcomers to the NII debate often feel as if they are watching a mystery movie, as if every statement refers to a larger plot that has not yet been revealed. Chapter four tries to provide a context for some of the national debates by describing the major "political camps," from libertarian to socialist in the telecommunications context. Of course, people rarely fit into neatly delineated categories, but understanding these general philosophical approaches facilitates an understanding of the real motivations behind public statements.

These general policy frameworks have specific meaning for the government, which is the most important focus for the creation of policy. Chapter five presents a menu of public sector policy options for the development of infrastructure and descri

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (November 27, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201847604
• ISBN-13: 978-0201847604
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,525,407 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jillaine Smith of the Benton Foundation recommends this!, December 19, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Civilizing Cyberspace: Policy, Power, and the Information Superhighway (Hardcover)

As we all know, there are more books out there about the Internet than we'll ever have time to read. This is an entertaining and educational narrative of why understanding the "information superhighway" and the policies guiding it is so imperative to our current and future implementation of its tools. I also enjoyed the historical context in which he placed current policymaking. An excellent book for those wanting to better understand communications policy.

4.0 out of 5 stars Choose your own Adventure, March 15, 2001

By 

T Power-Drutis, Gonzaga University - Leadersh... (Cheney, WA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Civilizing Cyberspace: Policy, Power, and the Information Superhighway (Hardcover)

Steven Miller writes a sort of "choose your own adventure" book about information technology complete with alternative endings based on how well society deals with the issues and decisions encountered along the information superhighway. If you choose to use the National Information Infrastructure (NII) to benefit the market economy, turn to page19, if you choose to use the NII to promote a true democracy, turn to page 377, etc. Miller is, of course, not neutral in his opinion of what the focus of NII development ought to be.

"With information technologies, we can either move forward by "repaving the cowpaths," and simply develop quicker, more intensive ways of continuing current social realities; or we can use it to branch off in radically different directions that allow us to realize some of our most cherished values." Steven Miller (397)

These "cherished values" include a revitalized democracy and an active citizenship fueled by an informed, involved, connected, and strong community. Lest you mistake this upbeat optimism for the Pollyanna (the market will balance all in its infinite wisdom) approach touted by many cyber-enthusiasts, Miller acknowledges the need for some government regulation and makes a pretty good case for the notion that "deregulation" is not possible. The choice is either explicit regulation with citizen input, or complex, covert regulation based on grants, subsidies, and tax breaks brokered through corporate -government alliances that actually discourage citizen participation (pp. 74-79).

Miller then illustrates the joys and pitfalls of government regulation of infrastructure through a brief history of past models, e.g. trains, telephones, highways, and cable. He describes a variety of government agencies, private industry, and non-profit organizations trying to shape the NII, and manages to provide enough detail to frame the debate without forcing you to reach for the No-Doze. We are offered interesting proposals for "universal service," "electronic democracy," and an "Internet community," and, at the same time, asked to examine less attractive subjects such as invasion of privacy, intellectual property issues, and the underbelly of the NII policy making process. Okay, so its not quite the cliff-hanger you might have expected from my opening line, but it is a well written, thought-provoking book that offers a straight forward account of NII issues. And Steven Miller pulls it off while keeping the jargon to a minimum (bless his heart).

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent comprehensive look at the information superhighway, April 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Civilizing Cyberspace: Policy, Power, and the Information Superhighway (Hardcover)

Lot's of food for thought.

Addresses the right issues