Life, Death, and the iPad: Cultural Symbols and Steve Jobs

摘要

In 1997, steve jobs rejoined the Apple he had left years earlier. For the next 14 years, he led that company to create technology that found a global audience. Indeed, the period of his leadership coincided with astonishing changes in the profile of technology users. In 1998, more than 75% of the world's Internet users were in the U.S., today it is less than 15%. The complexion of the Web-its users, their desires, their languages, points of entry and experiences-has subtly and not so subtly changed over that period. All these new online participants bring with them potentially different conceptual models of information, knowledge, and knowledge systems with profound consequences for the ideological basis of the Net. These new participants also operate within different regulatory and legislative regimes, which will bring markedly different ideas about how to shape what happens online.