The following preview is a summary of the upcoming book which will be available in 2000 by Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. as a Quorum Books Imprint. Greenwood is a leading publisher of academic, reference, trade, general interest, and professional books and electronic media. Informed by over seven years as a digerati, in Silicon Valley, as well as a political theorist, Dr. West offers an unique perspective on the direction in which information technologies are leading North American and global societies and cultures. Not only are information technologies bringing positive changes, technologies are embedded in what Michel Foucault calls power networks.
Information technologies inherit influences from prior historical, cultural and social events.
West's research displays how information technologies are on a path of creating efficiency, productivity, profitability, surveillance and control. West calls for an ethics dialogue not only among digerati within the industry but also a dialogue which allows for public participation. This chapter provides a snapshot of the digital elite. The digerati are the individuals researching, developing, marketing and utilizing information technologies. The digerati are a powerful economic class.