The Laws of Cool or The Economics of Information Technology

The Laws of Cool: Knowledge Work and the Culture of Information

Author: Alan Liu

Knowledge work is now the reigning business paradigm and affects even the world of higher education. But what perspective can the knowledge of the humanities and arts contribute to a world of knowledge work whose primary mission is business? And what is the role of information technology as both the servant of the knowledge economy and the medium of a new technological cool? In The Laws of Cool, Alan Liu reflects on these questions as he considers the emergence of new information technologies and their profound influence on the forms and practices of knowledge.

Table of Contents:

	Introduction : literature and creative destruction	1
Pt. I	The new enlightenment
	Preface : "unnice work" : knowledge work and the academy	14
1	The idea of knowledge work	23
Pt. II	Ice ages
	Preface : "we work here, but we're cool"	76
2	Automating	81
3	Informating	105
4	Networking	141
Pt. III	The laws of cool
	Preface : "what's cool?"	176
5	The ethos of information	181
6	Information is style	195
7	The feeling of information	231
8	Cyber-politics and bad attitude	239
Pt. IV	Humanities and arts in the age of knowledge work
	Preface : "more"	286
9	The tribe of cool	289
10	Historicizing cool : humanities in the information age	301
11	Destructive creativity : the arts in the information age	317
12	Speaking of history : toward an alliance of new humanities and new arts (with a prolegomenon on the future literary)	373
App. A	Taxonomy of knowledge work	391
App. B	Chronology of downsizing (through the 1990s)	394
App. C	"Ethical hacking" and art	396

Look this: Anlagengebäude & Gemeinschaftsentwicklung

The Economics of Information Technology: An Introduction (The Raffaele Mattioli Lectures Series)

Author: Hal R Varian

The Economics of Information Technology is a concise and accessible review of important economic factors affecting information technology industries. These industries are characterized by high fixed costs and low marginal costs of production, large switching costs for users, and strong network effects. Hal Varian outlines the basic economics of these industries while Joseph Farrell and Carl Shapiro describe the impact of these factors on competition policy. The volume is an ideal introduction for undergraduate and graduate students in economics, business strategy, law and related areas.