LIS 694
Discussion Questions for Chapter One of Castells

  1. What are the salient points the author is trying to communicate here?
  2. The author describes several revolutions, starting with the end of the 18th century. Mentally go through a typical day in your life. How do the different revolutions affect the way you do what you do during the day?
  3. What do you think the author meant when he described the burgeoning global digital commuications network as "horizontal?" (He uses the word again on page 50 when he talks about "horizontal networks.")
  4. From your perspective what are the implications for information dissemination of a "horizontal, global" communications network?
  5. On page 49 Castells briefly relates the story of the invention of the modem for PCs by two students in Chicago. The author appears to be using this passage to illustrate a paradigm for the early development of the Internet. How would you describe that paradigm? If that paradigm were to be extended to information communication worldwide, what would that look like? In general, what barriers do you see to implementing such a reality?