Description: In the digital age, technology has shrunk the physical world into a "global village," where we all seem to be connected as an online community as information travels to the farthest reaches of the planet with the click of a mouse. Yet while we think of platforms such as Twitter and Facebook as open and accessible to all, in reality, these are commercial entities developed primarily by and for the Western world. Considering how new technologies increasingly shape labor, economics, and politics, these tools often reinforce the inequalities of globalization, rarely reflecting the perspectives of those at the bottom of the digital divide.
This book asks us to reconsider "whose global village" we are shaping with the digital technology revolution today. Sharing stories of collaboration with Native Americans in California and New Mexico, revolutionaries in Egypt, communities in rural India, and others across the world, Ramesh Srinivasan urges us to reimagine what the Internet, mobile phones, or social media platforms may look like when considered from the perspective of diverse cultures.Brief description: Ramesh Srinivasan is the director of the Digital Cultures Lab and an associate professor in the information studies and design/media arts departments at UCLA. He is a regular speaker for TEDx Talks, and makes frequent media appearances on MSNBC, NPR, Al Jazeera, The Young Turks, and Public Radio International. His writing has been widely published by Al Jazeera English, CNN, the Washington Post, Forbes, and the Huffington Post.