Technological Turf Wars: A Case Study of the Computer Antivirus Industry

摘要

The title of this remarkable new book by Jessica Johnston is at once accurate and misleading: although the book is indeed a case study of the computer antivirus industry, the narrow focus implied by the title belies the significant contributions it makes to a much broader literature. What Johnston provides is not only a detailed analysis of the challenge of computer security as a social, organizational, and technological dilemma, but also an exemplary examination of the social construction of software technology. Historians of computing have been calling for years for more research on the history of software, and Technological Turf Wars represents a major contribution to this as-yet underdeveloped literature.