With the vast majority of Facebook users caught in a frenzy of 'friending', 'liking' and 'commenting', at what point do we pause to grasp the consequences of our info-saturated lives? What compels us to engage so diligently with social networking systems? Networks Without a Cause examines our collective obsession with identity and self-management coupled with the fragmentation and information overload endemic to contemporary online culture. With a dearth of theory on the social and cultural ramifications of hugely popular online services, Lovink provides a path-breaking critical analysis of our over-hyped, networked world with case studies on search engines, online video, blogging, digital radio, media activism and the Wikileaks saga. This book offers a powerful message to media practitioners and theorists: let us collectively unleash our critical capacities to influence technology design and workspaces, otherwise we will disappear into the cloud. Probing but never pessimistic, Lovink draws from his long history in media research to offer a critique of the political structures and conceptual powers embedded in the technologies that shape our daily lives.

"Raymond Noe's Employee Training and Development sets the standard in this course area. First introduced in 1998, ETD became the market-defining text within 6 months of publication. Its popularity is due to its lively writing style and relevant examples of the most up-to-date developments in training, research and practice, including the strategic role of training and the use of new technologies in training. Employee Training and Development strikes a balance between research and real company practices. It provides students with a solid background in the fundamentals of training and development such as needs assessment, transfer of training, learning environment design, methods, and evaluation. To help students better understand the relationship between the main elements of the book, the book is now organized into five different parts. Part I focuses on the context for training and development and includes a chapter devoted to strategic training. Part II includes coverage related to the fundamentals of designing training programs. Chapters in Part II focus on needs assessment, learning theories and program design, transfer of training, and training evaluation. Part III focuses on training and development methods and includes chapters devoted to traditional training methods, e-learning and the use of technology in training, employee development, and special issues in employee development, such as managing diversity, succession planning, and cross-cultural preparation. Chapters in Part IV cover career issues and how companies manage careers, as well as challenges in career management, such as dealing with work-life conflict, retirement, and socialization. Finally, Part V provides a look at the future of training and development. "--Publisher's website.