Seeing from Space: Cold War Origins to Google Earth
President Eisenhower had been secretly coordinating the space program as part of the Cold War since the early 1950s. He had become accustomed to the valuable photographic information obtained from spy planes and considered satellites a crucial new Cold War technology. The D-Day invasion of Europe, which he had managed as the head of the […]
From Sputnik Moment to the Reagan Revolution
President Obama has mentioned the Sputnik satellite several times in speeches over the last few years to refer to the contemporary challenges facing the US such as climate change, oil depletion and the decline of the American economy. Most recently in the 2011 State of the Union address, he spoke of the Soviet Union’s space […]
How “STAR WARS” and the Japanese Artificial Intelligence (AI) Threat Led to the Internet, Part III: NSFNET and the Atari Democrats
In the early 1980s, the Japanese announcement of their intention to build computers capable of artificial intelligence (AI) raised concerns among the US Congress about its impact on rising trade deficits and international competitiveness.
Best IT/Media Policy Books
Sometimes I wonder if social media, as important as it is, is shielding us from the other important influences IT is having in our lives from the financial crisis we are recovering from, the way we conduct war and espionage, and the structural problems inherent in our economy.
How “STAR WARS” and the Japanese Artificial Intelligence (AI) Threat Led to the Internet, Part II
With the establishment of the Institute for New Generation Technology (ICOT) in April 1982, the Japanese announced their interest in developing a new generation of computers that would be intelligent and take the global lead in AI.
How “STAR WARS” and the Japanese Artificial Intelligence (AI) Threat Led to the Internet
The announcement of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) or “Star Wars” as it became popularly known, mobilized important resources that funded a major step in the emergence of the Internet and its World Wide Web.
How IT Came to Rule the World-The Information Standard and Other Sovereignties
President Nixon’s decision to close the gold window in 1971 signaled a dramatic shift in the US international financial policy and the future of the world political economy. The move largely meant the end of the containment of international finance set up at the end of World War II. No longer was the US constrained […]
How IT Came to Rule the World: Transformation of the Internet
What was initially a system connecting a few university and research institute mainframes soon began to also connect small workstations, personal computers, laptops and mobile wireless devices. People were able to access the Internet not just from campuses but from homes, offices, cars and even while on foot.
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About Me
Professor at State University of New York (SUNY) Korea since 2016. Moved to Austin, Texas in August 2012 to join the Digital Media Management program at St. Edwards University. Spent the previous decade on the faculty at New York University teaching and researching information systems, digital economics, and strategic communications.
You can reach me at:
apennings70@gmail.com
anthony.pennings@sunykorea.ac.kr
About me
Writings by Category
- artificial intelligence
- automatrix
- books and films
- characteristics of digital media
- creative cities
- creative industries
- crisis communications
- cultural Industries
- data analytics and meaning
- democratic political economies
- digital coordination
- digital destruction
- digital geography
- digital media economics
- digital media management
- digital monetarism
- digital spreadsheets
- disruption
- dystopian economies
- educational innovations
- electric money
- enabling frameworks
- enterprise systems
- financial news
- financial technology
- food policy and security
- futurists
- geopolitical risk
- global communications
- global e-commerce
- health IT
- how IT came to rule the world
- intellectual property
- journalism
- meaning makers
- meaningful play
- media strategies
- mobile technologies
- multimedia
- political economies in sf
- political economy of media
- science and technology studies
- sensing technologies
- smart new deal
- social media
- space systems
- strategic communications
- sustainable development
- technologies of meaning
- technology management
- telecom policy and net neutrality
- telegraphic political economy
- telelearn/telework
- the cold war
- the smith effect
- uncategorized
- visual literacy and rhetoric