This book provides readers with a working knowledge of how technologies are currently being utilized in business, education and society in general.
– P. Candace Deans, University of Richmond, USA
Deans and 10 contributors have written an introduction to the rapidly expanding world of social software and Web 2.0 technologies- and presents both business and higher education applications for those technologies.
– Book News Inc. (February 2009)
In a series of papers written by academics and practitioners based in the U.S., this monograph provides a broad overview of social software trends. [...] Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections.
– CHOICE, Vol. 46, No. 11
This informative volume succeeds in clarifying the business value of social software and Web 2.0 tools. It furthermore makes an important contribution to explain the possibilities, applications and the positive and negative impacts that need to be considered before deciding on suitable Web 2.0 tools and technologies. Therefore, readers from academic, business and educational backgrounds should find this a useful and illuminating read.
– Online Information Review, Vol. 33, No. 6
Competently assesses recent research in the field of virtual worlds--three-dimensional (3D) computer simulations inhabited by virtual representations of its users, called avatars--focusing on Second Life (SL), a presumably addictive and compelling online virtual world used mainly for social networking that has millions of registered users around the world. Three chapters are devoted to the social, ethical, legal, commercial, and educational aspects of virtual worlds, including future trends of this Web technology. For instance, the authors of these chapters predict that more innovative SL applications will emerge, such as the ability to easily make “real” phone calls from the SL virtual world, due in part to recently released SL open-source code.
– Miguel A. Garcia-Ruiz, Computing Reviews