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Sweden is often categorized as one of the most secularized and postmodern countries in the world. The Internet has been described as the “epitome” of transformations of traditional religion in late modern society. This chapter analyzes how youth negotiate religious conventions in discussions of religion on the Internet. If there is a “test case” for the breakdown of religious conventions based on the traditionalized beliefs and practices of institutionalized religion and traditional modes of religious socialization, this would be it. It is argued that despite these anticipations, the construction of religious identities, even in the transient sites of late modern society, is not only a question of individual choice in a “spiritual marketplace”, but also structured by religious authorities and conventions.

Cybercrime is one of the many unforeseen consequences enabled by the unprecedented extent of freedom the internet offers, shaped by the stress of both the internet developers and the ‘techno-utopian’ group of early users on autonomy and freedom. This chapter addresses the question of whether such mischief could not have been foreseen in the early stages of internet development by exploring the dominant orientations of two groups who significantly contributed to the understanding of the internet. The first section explores the technological history of the internet, focusing on the engineering community that developed the internet in the 1970s and 1980s and the ‘revolutionary’ design philosophy that inspired its architecture. The second section describes the ways in which the early users of the internet in the 1990s used the characteristics of the technological network to inspire a utopian vision of the internet, their belief in the internet as an ungovernable and anarchic space, and their response to pending government regulation. The subsequent growth of the internet and the diversification of users and usages were clearly beyond the imagination of both the developers and the early academic users. Both groups argued in a context of conflicting visions. They defended their concept of autonomy against more traditional understandings of organizing and regulating data communication. The third section of the chapter describes cybercrime as an unforeseen, yet increasingly dangerous way of making use of the internet.

The chapter relates a story of how a single mother, raising a young son, with a full-time job in a New York publishing firm, obtained a successful business using a Direct Marketing strategy. Proving that the strategy is profitable, the book cites big companies spending close to two trillion dollars advertising their products or services by direct mail, TV, radio, newspapers, the Internet and other forms of media.

This chapter shows how the firm should choose marketing policies when its products are sold by distributors. It distinguishes between exclusive and nonexclusive distributors, show how the firm can coordinate its bricks-and-mortar and Internet pricing strategies to maximize performance, show how the firm should coordinate its price and advertising strategies when it sells through distributors, and discuss when the firm should use vertical integration strategies. In particular, it shows how the multiproduct firm should coordinate its channel strategy when the distributor also sells multiple products.

This chapter begins by evaluating methods for determining how productive the firm's aggregate advertising spending is in both the short and long runs. Following this, it analyzes methods for determining the productivities of different media when the firm uses multiple media (including digital advertising); in particular, it focuses on the effects of measurement error. It shows how marketing-finance fusion allows privately and publicly held firms to allocate their advertising budgets between upfront and scatter advertising, based on their respective risk attitudes. Finally, it analyzes how recent changes in Internet marketing (e.g., the growth of electronic exchanges and the emergence of conquest advertising) are likely to affect the structure of the advertising industry.

This chapter shows how the firm should design sales force compensation plans to maximize its performance. It distinguishes whether or not the firm can observe the salesperson's effort. It shows how marketing-finance fusion allows the firm to design compensation plans based on such factors as the firm's cost structure, cost and demand uncertainty, consumer satisfaction, the firm's cost of capital, and whether or not the firm delegates price-setting or sales call policy to the salesperson. It shows how the sales force compensation plan should allow for multiperiod effects and the impact of Internet advertising. In particular, it distinguishes different scenarios (e.g., whether Internet advertising and conventional advertising are substitutes or complements).

This chapter examines how the Internet affects the firm's marketing policies. It shows how the firm should choose its marketing strategies including pricing (distinguishing between the B to B and B to C markets) and advertising messages. In addition, it shows how the firm should coordinate its Internet advertising and sales force policies, including redesigning its sales force compensation plans. It discusss the effects of ownership structure (whether the advertising firm is privately or publicly held) on the firm's Internet advertising strategy. In addition, it analyzes a number of structural changes brought about by Internet advertising, including the purchase of advertising space via auctions, behavioral targeting, and conquest advertising.

This chapter describes the main organizations that are concerned directly with Internet governance. It outlines the relevant responsibilities and agendas of the respective organizations, together with their sources of funding and their relationships with each other. Attention is directed mainly at transnational bodies. These include the Internet Society, Internet Architecture Board, Internet Engineering Task Force, World Wide Web Consortium, and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. The remainder of the chapter describes the various roles played by national governments, alone and in concert, in Internet governance. Using the self-governance ideals of ‘digital libertarianism’ as foil, it delineates the growing influence of governments in the field.

This chapter discusses the use and deployment of information technology by the federal government from 1950 to 2007. By looking at the government as a whole, several patterns of use, deployment, and effects become evident. The federal government have demonstrated a continuous appetite for information technologies for over a half century. The motivations for relying on the digital hand came largely out of desires to lower operating costs and the amount of labor required to perform work. Agencies and departments, however, also proved quite reluctant to alter fundamental aspects of operating as a consequence of using IT, such as their missions, work processes, and measures of accountability for results. Over time, their increased use of IT ultimately did cause incremental changes in how work was done. These changes encouraged Congress to change missions and work, because of the availability of digital tools that made it possible either to do things more cheaply, faster, or better, or to do simply something new.

This chapter discusses the deployment and use of computing in higher education. Topics covered include administrative uses, teaching and computers, role of computing in academic research, IT in the library, personal use of computers, and special role of the Internet. It is shown that in addition to being a supplier of computer science and technology, the higher education industry trained (or educated) tens of millions of people, equipping many of them with the values, work practices, and skills that have defined the economy and society of modern America and, indeed, of many individuals and firms around the world. Its use of all manner of technology also reflects patterns of application evident in many parts of the nation's economy, including its use of the digital hand. Because it educates so many workers, and influences the values and activities of so many individuals, its use of computing is influential and important.

Privacy may affect any aspect of an individual's life and even their death. This chapter analyzes real-life examples of invasions into personal privacy, including cases involving the public disclosure of autopsy photos and the decision to terminate life support. These intrusions involve the government, the press, private corporations, and private individuals who have written salacious material about acquaintances on the internet. These cases are referenced throughout the rest of the book to provide the context for the following discussion of privacy.

This chapter considers NRMs and the Internet from two broad perspectives: (a) new religions on the Web, and (b) the Internet as both a pedagogical tool for teaching about NRMS and a sociological or anthropological research site for the study of NRMs. In terms of the Internet as a research site, the chapter offers some suggestions for the exploration online discussion forums as evidence (or not) of emergent electronic communities. It concludes with a discussion of the Internet as one component in a responsible research and teaching agenda, and suggestions for teaching students how to employ the World Wide Web usefully and responsibly.

Highlights the numerous resources and possibilities offered by web technology for teaching about the EU. It discusses the informational and pedagogic resources offered to teachers by web technology, highlighting various software options as well as resources placed on the Internet by the EU specifically for web‐teachers. Includes first‐hand information on the practicalities of developing and teaching a web‐based course on the EU. Baun is Director of an innovative new EU Web Course programme taught jointly by professors in the University System of Georgia and their counterparts at the University of Munich in Germany, and discusses both design and curricula as well as lessons learnt from actually teaching the courses in this web‐based transatlantic programme.

This chapter applies infrastructure theory to the particularly contentious “network neutrality” debate. At the heart of this debate is whether the Internet infrastructure will continue to be managed as a commons. Ultimately, the outcome of this debate may very well determine whether the Internet continues to operate as a mixed infrastructure that supports widespread user production of commercial, public, and social goods, or whether it evolves into a commercial infrastructure optimized for the production and delivery of commercial outputs. The chapter criticizes the current framing of the debate as well as the recent rule enacted by the Federal Communications Commission. It then proposes and defends a nondiscrimination rule that reflects the core commons management principle discussed throughout this book.