Commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC), this volume begins with a historical survey of a quarter-century of TPRC meetings as one measure of change in and research about the telecommunications industry. Additional papers reflecting the ongoing pace of change in technological, economic, and policy issues are organized around four topics: * economic analysis of local and international telephone policy; * media industry studies including video competition, guidelines for children's educational television, and the setting of AM stereo standards; * applications and policy regarding the Internet; and * comparative studies in telephone and satellite policy. Collectively, the contents of this volume assess key issues for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners. Research reported in this volume illustrates the continually expanding scope of scholarly concerns about the telecommunications and information industry and contributes to further policy research and analysis.

An introduction to the new digital techniques of telephone communication networks, with emphasis on voice applications: voice digitization, digital transmission, digital switching, network synchronization, network control, and network analysis. Presents basic theory and stresses the application and operational aspects of communication systems design. Relates system level design considerations to telephone networks around the world, particularly in North America.

Challenging the popular myth of a present-day 'information revolution', Media Technology and Society is essential reading for anyone interested in the social impact of technological change. Winston argues that the development of new media forms, from the telegraph and the telephone to computers, satellite and virtual reality, is the product of a constant play-off between social necessity and suppression: the unwritten law by which new technologies are introduced into society only insofar as their disruptive potential is limited.

This book explores issues posed by convergent voice and data networks, and considers future scenarios as Internet telephony continues to alter the communications landscape.

Mobile Technologies charts the social, cultural, creative, and design aspects of mobiles as they are being incorporated into and changing the nature of media. It provides rigorous and timely analysis of the new area of mobile media and will be of interest to scholars, policy makers, industry, and general readers.

We live in a world where social interaction is increasingly mediated by technological devices. In this book, Ian Hutchby explores the impact these technologies have on our attempts to communicate. Focusing on four examples - telephones, computerized expert systems at work, speech-based systems dealing with enquiries from the public, and multi-user spaces on the Internet - Hutchby asks: are we increasingly technologized conversationalists, or is technology increasingly conversationalized? Conversation and Technology draws on recent theory and empirical research in conversation analysis, ethnomethodology and the social construction of technology. In novel contributions to each of these areas, Hutchby argues that the ways in which we interact can be profoundly shaped by technological media, while at the same time we ourselves are shapers of both the cultural and interactional properties of these technologies. The book begins by examining a variety of theoretical perspectives on this issue. Hutchby offers a critical appraisal of recent sociological thinking, which has tended to over-estimate society's influence on technological development. Instead he calls for a new appreciation of the relationship between human communication and technology. Using a range of case studies to illustrate his argument, Hutchby explores the multiplicity of ways in which technology affects our ordinary conversational practices. Readers in areas as diverse as sociology, communication studies, psychology, computer science and management studies will find much of interest in this account of the human and communicative properties of various forms of modern communication technology.

Provides a cultural history of the social impact of the Internet, online services, cell phone use, and the related technologies and devices that, in the span of a single generation, have radically changed the way we live.