overview
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primers
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primers
This page is under construction. It points to some
introductions to the network infrastructure and some
policy questions.
There's more detail in other guides on this site, in
particular those about governance,
metrics and being digital.
telecommunications
Global Connections: International
Telecommunications Infrastructure & Policy (New
York, Wiley 97) by Heather Hudson is a lucid introduction
to the global pipelines - the cables, microwave, satellite
and other links. Zenon Carlos' article
A Simplified Overview of Undersea Development: The
Eruption of Bandwidth Across the Pacific offers a
succinct description of Australia-US infrastructure
developments.
The Last Mile: Broadband & The Next Internet
Revolution (New York, McGraw-Hill 00) by Jason Wolf
& Natalie Zee is a less authoritative but useful
introduction for non-technologists.
Cary Lu's The Race
For Bandwidth: Understanding Data Transmission
(Redmond, Microsoft Press 98) is a short guide; more
accessible than most of the publications from the Gates
empire.
Robert Heldman's The Telecommunications Information
Millennium (New York, McGraw-Hill 95) offers a one
volume description of communication technologies, useful
as an introduction to the Harvard Information
Infrastructure Project volumes noted below.
Douglas Comer's Computer Networks & Internets
(Upper Saddle River, Prentice Hall 97) is a more detailed
primer about hardware and software. Valuable, but not in
the reading-for-pleasure category. Globalisation,
Technology & Competition: The Fusion of Computers and
Telecommunications in the 1990s (Boston, Harvard
Business School Press 93) by Stephen Bradley, Jerry
Hausman & Richard Nolan is one of the better HBS
studies.
For the wireless web there's a succinct overview
in the Scientific American, with more detail in The
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) (New York, Wiley
00) by Steve Mann & Scott Sbihli. There's a more
technical introduction in Marcel van der Heijden's Understanding
WAP: Wireless Applications, Devices & Services
(Norwood, Artech 00).
hardware and software
Elsewhere in this site we've commended Irv Englander's The Architecture of Computer
Hardware & Systems Software (New York, Wiley 00)
as a lucid introduction to computer architecture and
software, embracing mainframes, pcs, peripherals and
networks. If you don't know the difference between a WAN,
a LAN and the Net, this may be the book for you.
law and policy
There's an extensive literature on network law and
policy issues. We've highlighted particular works, eg on
pricing and the activity of major carriers such as Telstra,
later in this guide.
The following works are valuable points of entry for
non-specialists.
There's
an intelligent introduction to the ITU and other standards
bodies in Constructing World
Culture: International NonGovernmental Organizations Since
1875 (Stanford, Stanford Uni Press 99), a collection
of essays edited by John Boli, and International Telecommunication
Standards Organizations (Norwood, Artech 90) by Andrew
Macpherson. Gerd Wallenstein's Setting Global
Telecommunication Standards (Norwood, Artech 90) is
drier.
Ann Branscomb edited the valuable collection Toward A
Law of Global Communication Networks (New York, 86),
complemented by Governing Global Networks:
International Regimes for Transport & Communications
(Cambridge, Cambridge Uni Press 96) by Mark Zacher &
Brent Sutton. Mark Armstrong's
Media Law (Melbourne,
Oxford Uni Press 99) is a masterly introduction to the
Australian regime.
The
First 100 Feet: Options for Internet and Broadband Access
(Cambridge, MIT Press 99), edited by Deborah Hurley & James
Keller, is a Harvard Information Infrastructure Project
collection that explores opportunities for business, government
and communities rather than the 'last 100 feet' problem discussed
in the preceding page of this guide.
There's a similar perspective in National
Information Infrastructure Initiatives (Cambridge,
MIT Press 97)
edited by Brian Kahin & Ernest Wilson.
Kahin co-edited Borders
In Cyberspace (Cambridge, MIT
Press 97), which explores global rule-making,
jurisdictions and other issues discussed in our governance
guide. It's a way of getting to grips with the debate
about whether we live in what John Perry Barlow and
Kenichii Ohmae describe as 'the borderless world'. (Our
assessment: reports of death of the border - and of the
state - are premature).
Public
Access to the Internet (Cambridge,
MIT Press 95),
edited by Kahin & James Keller, introduces pricing, national
infrastructure initiatives and other issues explored in
the 'digital divide' page of our metrics
guide.
Communications specialist Liz Williams
is currently exploring network regulatory issues.
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