Imagining the Internet

Janna Anderson offers a great perspective on the history and future of the Internet based on Elon University/Pew Internet & American Life Project's extensive prediction collection. Good books come from thorough research. Starting with the earliest communications systems, such as the telegraph, is a useful bonus. Being a part of and having the last word in this fine past-and-future Internet chronicle is a real honor... -- Gordon Bell, vice president of research and development, DEC; leader of the National Science Foundation's Information Superhighway Initiative Janna Anderson illuminates with great clarity the history, dreams, and challenges of the Internet, which allow the reader to see glimpses of the future. A wonderful and important contribution. -- Tiffany Shlain, founder and chair, the Webby Awards There are many books on the Internet and cyberculture-part hype, part gloss, sometimes solid technology criticism. Anderson's book is valuable because it helps sort out differing viewpoints and puts them in a historical context, recreating many of the ups and downs of the 1990s, before things got really crazy. She has an amazing database of predictions, collected over time, and selects from it well. This book is never dense reading, but it is packed with interesting facts and milestones to jar my memory, to help me recreate what that time was like, because the subtle changes are what have worked us over so thoroughly. My favorite part in these excursions into the words of technology prophets and critics is picking out the threads that had an influence-that helped shape the larger visions of what this massive commons has become. -- Christine Boese, cyberculture columnist, CNN.com; writer, CNN Headline News Anderson provides a variety of perspectives on contested issues such as privacy on the Internet, personal identity online, and 'information overload.' Anderson's knowledge is encyclopedic, and her accessible, jargon-free style will engage professors and researchers without alienating undergraduates. Highly recommended. CHOICE [Imagining the Internet] looks at the future through an analysis of the past. It is somewhat difficult after becoming immersed in these insights to remember that Internet communication began with the utmost diffidence. Indeed the first events involved a computer crash and unmemorable twaddle... We hope that this material will be useful to scholars who wish to assess the distance we have come; journalists who are trying to figure out where we are now; government, industry, and nonprofit officials who want to build the Internet of the future; and people of all walks of life who must learn to recognize the coming complexities of their networked world. -- Lee Rainie, director, the Pew Internet & American Life Project, from the Foreword Janna Anderson offers a great perspective on the history and future of the Internet based on Elon University/Pew Internet & American Life Project's extensive prediction collection. Good books come from thorough research. Starting with the earliest communications systems, such as the telegraph, is a useful bonus. Being a part of and having the last word in this fine past-and-future Internet chronicle is a real honor. -- Gordon Bell, vice president of research and development, DEC; leader of the National Science Foundation's Information Superhighway Initiative