Books in Brief (November-December 2010)

A Field Guide to Outer Space

The Farthest Shore: A 21st Century Guide to Space edited by Joseph N. Pelton and Angelia P. Bukley. Apogee Books. 2010. 416 pages. Paperback. $27.95.

The Farthest Shore optimistically considers the opportunities and advantages that outer space may hold for us in the future.

Taking their cue from the International Space University’s “3-I” approach (interdisciplinary, intercultural, and international), the editors have compiled essays by a number of experts in different fields from around the world, covering everything from space tourism to astrobiology to existing and emerging satellite technologies, and much in between. The volume also includes an overview of representations of space travel in art, literature, and cinema and an examination of the ways that outer space can potentially help fight climate change.

Written with a general audience in mind, The Farthest Shore is straightforward, informative, in-depth, and accessible.

How Open Collaboration Is Creating a “World Brain”

Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia by Joseph Michael Reagle Jr. The MIT Press. 2010. 256 pages. $27.95.

In Good Faith Collaboration, media scholar Joseph Reagle takes an ethnographic approach to understanding the collaborative “open content” community behind Wikipedia.

Wikipedia’s pseudonymous and anonymous contributions are fundamentally assumed to be made in good faith, and the site is governed largely via pro-social norms, consensus building, and—most significantly—three core content policies: neutral point of view, no original research, and verifiability. The author examines these elements in depth while looking at the ways that leadership functions in this community and how anything other than consensus decision making could potentially compromise Wikipedia’s openness.

Reagle also considers the online encyclopedia’s origins (which date back to H. G. Wells’s concept of a “world brain” and, more recently, to the free and open-source software movements) and its future potential in this compelling look at Wikipedia and wiki culture.

Why the Recession Is a Great Opportunity

The Great Reset: How New Ways of Living and Working Drive Post-Crash Prosperity by Richard Florida. HarperCollins. 2010. 225 pages. Paperback. $26.99.

The economic recession is really an economic “reset,” argues economist Richard Florida. We are seeing the demise of obsolete means of production and consumption and their replacement with new alternatives.

Florida notes that several economic crashes took place in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and each one was followed by a period of sweeping innovation. In the same vein, the current global crisis could be resolved as individuals and societies transition away from outmoded and obsolete methods of commerce and consumption.

Florida analyzes the trends under way and projects a new way of life that is emerging from them. He expects the industrial economy to transition to an economy driven by ideas, creativity, and knowledge, and the financial sector to lose prominence as more investment goes toward education, health care, technology, and human capital.

The Great Reset retraces history while also projecting a hopeful course for the world’s future. Economists, historians, and futurists may all find it interesting reading.

Local TV in a Globalized World

New Flows in Global TV by Albert Moran. The University of Chicago Press. 2009. 192 pages. Paperback. $40.

This critical examination of the global television industry focuses on the ways that television programs are distributed internationally—and the ways that business and culture intersect in the international marketplace of TV programs.

Viewers’ tastes and preferences tend to be specific to their localities. Traditionally, syndicated “canned” programs have been translated and re-dubbed for broadcast in other languages and cultures, but an alternative approach—program formats—allows for more successful linguistic and cultural integration into other markets. Program formats are licensed as a set of instructions and services that enable a customized version of the program to be produced elsewhere. An example is Britain’s Pop Idol franchise, which has been replicated around the world.

Author Albert Moran, a senior lecturer in media at Australia’s Griffith University, examines how and why everything from children’s programs such as Romper Room to reality and game shows are being reformatted for diverse global audiences.