Softcover

ISBN 10: 0131968769 ISBN 13: 9780131968769

Publisher: Pearson, 2005

For introductory courses in computer concepts often including instruction in Microsoft Office.

 

Integrates three information sources–an illustrated textbook, a multimedia CD, and a Companion Website–with a lively writing style to explore the promises and challenges of information technology, its effect on businesses, people, society, and the future.

From the Back Cover:

When powerful forces come together, change is inevitable. Today we’re standing at the confluence of three powerful and rapidly evolving technological forces: computers, communication networks, and electronic entertainment. The computer’s digital technology is showing up in everything from telephones to televisions, and the lines that separate these machines are eroding. This digital convergence is rapidly ― and radically- altering the world’s economic landscape. Start-up companies and industries are emerging to ride the waves of change. Some thrive; others dive into oblivion. Meanwhile, older organizations reorganize, regroup, and redefine themselves to keep from being washed away.

 

What must we understand about information technology to successfully navigate the water of change that carry us into the future? Computer Confluence: Tomorrow’s Technology and You is designed to aid travelers on their journey into that future.

 

Computer Confluence presents computers and information technology on three levels:

• Explanations: Computer Confluence clearly explains what a computer is and what it can (and can’t) do; it clearly explains the basics of information technology, from multimedia PCs to the Internet and beyond.
•  Applications: Computer Confluence illustrates how computers and networks are- and will be ― used as practical tools to solve a wide variety of problems.
• Implication: Computer Confluence puts computers in a human context, illustrating how information technology affects our lives, our world, and our future.

 Computer Confluence: Tomorrow’s Technology and You goes beyond simply describing the latest gadgets and explains many of the benefits we derive (and risks) we tolerate when we incorporate information technology into our lives.

About the Author:

George Beekman is the author of more than 20 books and 100 articles and reviews on computers, information technology, and multimedia. He has taught courses in multimedia, computer literacy and computer ethics at Oregon State University for more than two decades.

 

Michael J. Quinn is a Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Oregon State University. He is the author of more than 70 publications, including five books on subjects ranging from computer ethics to parallel computing.