Tag Archives: Reviews
Review: Islands of Privacy
Ultimately, Nippert-Eng has provided a real contribution to the literature by making available years of empirical research and reaffirming conclusions that the literature has come to by way of theorization. In this way, Islands of Privacy offers strong empirical support for existing theoretical work, better grounding scholarly work and offering novel ways of articulating issues and problems that scholars have grappled with for decades. If you are invested in the sociological analysis of privacy and surveillance, or are looking for strong empirical grounding for some abstract theorizations of either, then this is a good book to add to your library. Continue reading
Review of The Googlization of Everything
Ultimately, while Vaidhyanathan offers insight into Google itself – its processes, products, and implications of using the companies systems – he is less successful in digging deeply into the nature of technology and Google at a theoretical level. This leaves the reader with an empirical understanding of the topic matter without significant analytic resources to unpack the theoretical significance of their newfound empirical understandings. Continue reading
Review: Network Nation – Inventing American Telecommunications
So, who would I recommend this book to? Obviously, scholars in the field will find this book incredibly profitable. Given today’s tumultuous politics of telecommunications in North America the book offers advocates, members of the public, and policy makers a concise history of what went on in the preceding two centuries of telecommunications regulation. Continue reading
Review: Canadian Copyright – A Citizen’s Guide
After providing a quick overview of broad elements of copyright (e.g. you copyright expressions, not ideas or facts; copyright is distinguished from trademarks, etc.), they get into what content owners can do with their IP, discussing public performance, first publication, translation, conversion, public communication, exhibition, rental, authorization, and moral rights (as a note, moral rights lack a clear parallel in the US). … For academics, what is probably most interesting is the discussion of Access licenses (most university libraries notify visitors that works are protected under Access licenses using large posters beside photocopiers and scanners) – it quickly becomes apparent that the authors have little love for these licenses and throughout this section, and the following one on policy, they note problems with the licensing scheme. … Without a mention of Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, or other popular Web 2.0 digital environments, I worry that this text is a good primer for copyright generally (and thus achieves its aim in educating the public about some nuances of Canadian copyright) while simultaneously missing out on the spaces where Canadians most need their citizen’s guide. Continue reading
