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Thanks to inexpensive computers and data
communications, the speed and volume of human communication
are exponentially greater than they were even a quarter
century ago. Not since the advent of the telephone and telegraph
in the nineteenth century has information technology changed
daily life so radically. We are in the midst of what Gerald
Brock calls a second information revolution.
Brock traces the complex history of this
revolution, from its roots in World War II through the bursting
bubble of the Internet economy. As he explains, the revolution
sprang from a concatenation of technological advances, entrepreneurial
innovations, and changes to public policy. Innovations in
radar, computers, and electronic components for defense
projects translated into rapid expansion in the private
sector, but some opportunities were blocked by regulatory
policies. The contentious political effort to accommodate
new technology while protecting beneficiaries of the earlier
regulated monopoly eventually resulted in a regulatory structure
that facilitated the explosive growth in data communications.
Brock synthesizes these complex factors into a readable
economic history of the wholesale transformation of the
way we exchange and process information.
Gerald W. Brock is Professor of Telecommunication,
Public Policy and Public Administration, George Washington
University.
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