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.

"This book provides a preview of emerging wireless technologies and their architectural impact on the future mobile Internet. The reader will find an overview of architectural considerations for the mobile Internet, along with more detailed technical discussion of new protocol concepts currently being considered at the research stage. The first chapter starts with a discussion of anticipated mobile/wireless usage scenarios, leading to an identification of new protocol features for the future Internet. This is followed by several chapters that provide in-depth coverage of next-generation wireless standards, ad hoc and mesh network protocols, opportunistic delivery and delay tolerant networks, sensor network architectures and protocols, cognitive radio networks, vehicular networks, security and privacy, and experimental systems for future Internet research. Each of these contributed chapters includes a discussion of new networking requirements for the wireless scenario under consideration, architectural concepts and specific protocol designs, many still at research stage"--

A comprehensive understanding of food and agriculture security is best wrought through multidisciplinary analysis. Indeed, multiple academic disciplines provide lenses through which the multiple dimensions of food and agriculture security may be comprehensively examined. Food and agriculture security-- a stated priority research area of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security-- concerns the safety, security, and ongoing operation of the agricultural and food system in a global society that values both trade and security. Any attempt to understand the food system must involve multidisciplinary, multidimensional study. This book offers a bona fide multidisciplinary as well as historical approach to help students appreciate such a complex and multifaceted subject. Authored by scholars within the Frontier program for the historical studies of border security, food security, and trade policy, the book reviews some of the most salient and trade-related food and agriculture security concerns of the 19th century, describes the modern-day policy and industry contexts in which food and agriculture security issues arise, provides historical and contemporary illustrations of the vulnerability in the food and agriculture sector, identifies modern-day domestic (United States) as well as international (e.g., China) challenges, and highlights the role that public-private partnerships and cross-border cooperation must play in ensuring food and agriculture security in a globalized world.

Provides one thousand practice questions and answers and four practice tests for the 220-701 and 220-702 exams.

As the economy moves toward a services orientation, companies are struggling with how to improve their offerings. Process management is a key component of the services that companies provide. This book has three main parts: mapping, improvement, and error-proofing and metrics. In the first part--mapping--the reader will learn how to map a process so that the map is immediately understandable for identifying the roles, work steps, and automation support used in process delivery. The second part--improvement--provides a series of techniques for defining, prioritizing, and analyzing problems from several perspectives. The first perspective is called "leaning," and its purpose is to remove waste from an existing process. The second perspective is "cleaning," during which the remaining steps following leaning are analyzed for possible improvement. The third perspective is "greening," which explores opportunities and trade-offs for outsourcing, coproduction, and environmental improvements related to the process. The final third of the book--error-proofing and metrics--presents several techniques for ensuring risk mitigation for the new process and for measuring changes that define their impacts, and illustrates a method for proposing changes to executives in a "case for change." Overall, the book provides a blueprint of how to develop a discipline for process management that applies to any type of work.

Children's literature takes many forms - works adapted for children in antiquity, picture books and pop-ups - and now includes the latest online games and eBooks. This vast and amorphous subject is both intimately related to other areas of literary and cultural investigation but also has its own set of concerns, issues and challenges. From familiar authors including Beatrix Potter and Roald Dahl, classic books such as Pooh, Alice in Wonderland, and The Secret Garden, to modern works including Harry Potter and the Twilight series, thisVery Short Introduction provides an overview of the history.

This book provides an introduction to Islamic law for western readers. It explains the origin and development of the Shariah (Islamic law). It contains updated chapters on the Islamic laws of War and Peace, including juristic opinions on the legality of suicide bombing and the use of modern weapons of mass destruction. It explains the commonalities and the differences in family laws, and the differences in Muslim opinion concerning the status of women. It contains a completely rewritten chapter on Islamic finance and rounds off with a look at Muslim communities in Australia and the way they live their lives.--

Provides information on maintaining security for websites built on open source Content Management Systems.

Provides one thousand practice questions and answers and four practice tests for the 220-701 and 220-702 exams.

"Experts from NYU Stern School of Business analyze new financial regulations and what they mean for the economy The NYU Stern School of Business is one of the top business schools in the world thanks to the leading academics, researchers, and provocative thinkers who call it home. In Regulating Wall Street: The New Architecture of Global Finance, an impressive group of the Stern school's top authorities on finance combine their expertise in capital markets, risk management, banking, and derivatives to assess the strengths and weaknesses of new regulations in response to the recent global financial crisis. Summarizes key issues that regulatory reform should address Evaluates the key components of regulatory reform Provides analysis of how the reforms will affect financial firms and markets, as well as the real economy The U.S. Congress is on track to complete the most significant changes in financial regulation since the 1930s. Regulating Wall Street: The New Architecture of Global Finance discusses the impact these news laws will have on the U.S. and global financial architecture"--

"The father of Open Innovation is back, this time with his most expansive, most significant book yet. Open Innovation described a new paradigm for the management of industrial innovation in the 21st century: How useful industrial knowledge today is widely distributed around the world and firms must open up to work with external partners to commercialize internal innovations, and allow unused internal ideas to be taken to market by others externally. Chesbrough's forthcoming Open Services Innovation demonstrates how the open innovation approach applies to companies both in the service businesses and those that want to be there. The book explains how companies must make two crucial shifts: one from products to services; and the other from closed to open innovation. Readers will discover: A competitive strategy and approach to business for today's services-based economy; A framework with guiding principles that will enable any business unit, company or industry to experience renewed growth and profits. Four new concepts are introduced and described in detail: Think of Your Business as a Services Business Co-Create with Customers and Partners Extend Services Innovation Outside Your Organization Transform Your Business Model with Services and Open Innovation Also learn about Services Innovation in Large and Smaller Companies, Open Services Innovation for Services Businesses, and Services Innovation in Emerging Economies Chesbrough enlightens his readers by explaining the need to develop a new perspective about business, one that rethinks the business models in a services-based economy. Chesbrough establishes that the future prosperity of companies comes from progressive shift to a largely services-based economy, driven by continued innovation. Chesbrough provides more than anecdotal material on how we must view industries, he leads us to examine how we do business. It is one thing to think of the automobile as a means for transportation, it's another to thing to provide transportation services over a life time"--Provided by publisher.