*Amazon.co.uk Review*
It's hard enough keeping up with today's advances in technology without
worrying about tomorrow's--but that is always where the action is. Xerox
PARC scientist Mark Stefik gets paid to think about and act on future
technology, and his fascinating, enjoyable report, /The Internet Edge/,
shows us what we're becoming as our information technology becomes more
ubiquitous and transparent.

Suits and nerds alike will love his pragmatic brainstorming style that
reaches back into our technological history to make sense of the road
ahead. Chapters cover portability, digital commerce, publishing, privacy
and more, examining changes in the breadth of our social experience as
well as our work lives. What will libraries look like in 10 years? What
will "trust" mean in a world of instant information access? Will we ever
stop watching television?

Stefik addresses these questions and goes beyond them to ask about the
meaning of rapid change in our lives: how will we cope? He presents a
convincing picture of a culture struggling with inevitable
transformation, with thousands of small changes absorbed but not fully
understood. Change is always stressful, even the many new net-derived
benefits he describes. Our best hope to survive the transition is deeper
analysis of what is happening to us and why, as found in /The Internet
Edge/. --/Rob Lightner, Amazon.com/ /--This text refers to the Hardcover

edition./

*Synopsis*
The "Internet edge" is our collective struggle to change as the world
becomes more connected. Turmoil at the Internet edge occurs around
interacting social, legal and technological realms. Examples include
issues of on-line privacy, censorship, digital copyright and untaxed
business competition over the Net. Such issues reflect conflicts between
values - local and global, individual and corporate, democratic and
non-democratic. The book is an eagle's eye view of the Internet edge. It
is about the experiences of those who encountered similar issues as they
built precursors to the Net such as videotext, teletext and the Source.
It is about the trends in technology that will make the Net of the next
few years a very differenct experience from the desk-top surfing of
today. It is also about how old myths of magic, power and control can
help us to understand our fascination with and fear of new technologies.

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