Manuel Castells Oliván is a Spanish sociologist. He is well known for his authorship of a trilogy of works,entitled The Information Age:Economy,Society and Culture. He is a scholar of the information society,communication and globalization.
New media is described as communication technologies that enable or enhance interaction between users as well as interaction between users and content. In the middle of the 1990s,the phrase "new media" became widely used as part of a sales pitch for the influx of interactive CD-ROMs for entertainment and education. The new media technologies,sometimes known as Web 2.0,include a wide range of web-related communication tools such as blogs,wikis,online social networking,virtual worlds,and other social media platforms.
The ethics of technology is a sub-field of ethics addressing the ethical questions specific to the Technology Age,the transitional shift in society wherein personal computers and subsequent devices provide for the quick and easy transfer of information. Technology ethics is the application of ethical thinking to the growing concerns of technology as new technologies continue to rise in prominence.
Barry Wellman is a Canadian-American sociologist and is the co-director of the Toronto-based international NetLab Network. His areas of research are community sociology,the Internet,human-computer interaction and social structure,as manifested in social networks in communities and organizations. His overarching interest is in the paradigm shift from group-centered relations to networked individualism. He has written or co-authored more than 300 articles,chapters,reports and books. Wellman was a professor at the Department of Sociology,University of Toronto for 46 years,from 1967 to 2013,including a five-year stint as S.D. Clark Professor.
The Oxford Internet Institute (OII) is a multi-disciplinary department of social and computer science dedicated to the study of information,communication,and technology,and is part of the Social Sciences Division of the University of Oxford,England.
Domestication theory is an approach in Science and Technology Studies (STS) and media studies that describe the processes by which technology is 'tamed' or appropriated by its users. The theory was originally created by Roger Silverstone,who described four steps that technology goes through when being adapted into peoples' lives:
- First,technologies are integrated into everyday life and adapted to daily practices.
- Secondly,the user and its environment change and adapt accordingly.
- Thirdly,these adaptations feedback into innovation processes in industry,shaping the next generation of technologies and services.
- Fourthly,conversion,signalling what extent and how the technology has the status of reflecting the cultures of a household.
David Charles Stark is Arthur Lehman Professor of Sociology at Columbia University,where he served as chair of the sociology department and currently directs the Center on Organizational Innovation. He is also Professor of Social Science at the University of Warwick. He was formerly an External Faculty Member of the Santa Fe Institute. He is well-cited in the fields of economic sociology,social networks,science and technology studies,and social change and development.
Shoshana Zuboff is an American author,Harvard professor,social psychologist,philosopher,and scholar.
danah boyd is a technology and social media scholar. She is a partner researcher at Microsoft Research,the founder and president of Data &Society Research Institute,and a visiting professor at New York University.
Mahabir Pun is a Nepali researcher,teacher,social entrepreneur and an activist known for his extensive work in applying wireless technologies to develop remote areas of the Himalayas,also known as the Nepal Wireless Networking Project. He is a widely known figure in Nepal,and his work has been recognized by the Ashoka Foundation,the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation,University of Nebraska,and Global Ideas Bank. He is a humanitarian whose work is inspiring many youths to return their own country and serve it for its development.
Louis André(Loet) Leydesdorff (born 21 August 1948 in Djakarta is a Dutch sociologist,cyberneticist and Professor in the Dynamics of Scientific Communication and Technological Innovation at the University of Amsterdam. He is known for his work in the sociology of communication and innovation,especially for his Triple helix model of innovation developed with Henry Etzkowitz in the 1990s.
The sociology of the Internet involves the application of sociological theory and method to the Internet as a source of information and communication. The overlapping field of digital sociology focuses on understanding the use of digital media as part of everyday life,and how these various technologies contribute to patterns of human behavior,social relationships,and concepts of the self. Sociologists are concerned with the social implications of the technology;new social networks,virtual communities and ways of interaction that have arisen,as well as issues related to cyber crime.
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition,entrepreneurship is viewed as change,generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business,which may include other values than simply economic ones.
Beverley Skeggs is a British sociologist,noted as one of the foremost feminist sociologists in the world. Currently,she works as a "Distinguished Professor" in the Sociology Department at Lancaster University,developing a Center for Social Inequalities in the North West of England. She continues to run the "Economics of Care" theme at the International Inequalities centre at the London School of Economics (LSE) and is a visiting professor at Goldsmiths University. She has been the head of two of the UK’s leading Sociology Departments,at the University of Manchester and Goldsmiths,as well as co-director of Lancaster's Women's Studies. In addition,she played a part in transforming Britain's oldest sociology journal,The Sociological Review,into an independent foundation devoted to opening up critical social science and supporting social scientists.
Daniel Harple is an American entrepreneur,investor,inventor and engineer best known for his role in the creation of several Internet standards,among them,Real Time Streaming Protocol used in entertainment and communications systems such as YouTube,RealPlayer,QuickTime,Skype,and others. Harple has been called a visionary,an Internet pioneer,and a "serial entrepreneur",founding multiple technology start-ups and playing a key role in the development of technologies like collaborative groupware,Voice over IP,and interactive screen sharing whiteboards. Harple also holds a number of core technology patents for inventions in VoIP,media streaming,real time web communications,collaborative computing,and location-based social media.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution,4IR,or Industry 4.0,conceptualises rapid change to technology,industries,and societal patterns and processes in the 21st century due to increasing interconnectivity and smart automation. The term was popularised in 2015 by Klaus Schwab,the World Economic Forum founder and executive chairman,and has since been used in numerous economic,political,and scientific articles in reference to the current era of emerging high technology. Schwab asserts that the changes seen are more than just improvements to efficiency,but express a significant shift in industrial capitalism.
Anabel Quan-Haase is a Canadian academic and published author. She is currently a full professor at the University of Western Ontario located in London,Ontario,where she is jointly appointed to the Faculty of Information and Media Studies and the Department of Sociology. Quan-Haase is past-president and past social media director of the Canadian Association for Information Science (CAIS). She is the 2019-2020 chair of CITAMS section of the American Sociological Association.
Safiya Umoja Noble is a professor at UCLA,and is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry. She is the author of Algorithms of Oppression,and co-editor of two edited volumes:The Intersectional Internet:Race,Sex,Class and Culture and Emotions,Technology &Design. She is a research associate at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford. She was appointed a Commissioner to the University of Oxford Commission on AI and Good Governance in 2020. In 2020 she was nominated to the Global Future Council on Artificial Intelligence for Humanity at the World Economic Foundation.
Vili Lehdonvirta is Professor of Economic Sociology and Digital Social Research at the Oxford Internet Institute,University of Oxford. He is also a senior research fellow of Jesus College,Oxford,an associate member of the Department of Sociology,Oxford and a former Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute,London. Lehdonvirta is an economic sociologist,whose research draws on theories and approaches from economic sociology,new institutional economics,labour sociology,and science and technology studies. His research focuses on digital technologies—such as apps,platforms,and marketplaces—are governed,how they shape the organisation of economic activities,and the resulting implications for workers,consumers,businesses,and policy.
Sandra Wachter is a professor and senior researcher in data ethics,artificial intelligence,robotics,algorithms and regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute. She is a former Fellow of The Alan Turing Institute.
