Infotopia

Download or read book Infotopia written by Cass R. Sunstein and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006-08-24 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rise of the "information society" offers not only considerable peril but also great promise. Beset from all sides by a never-ending barrage of media, how can we ensure that the most accurate information emerges and is heeded? In this book, Cass R. Sunstein develops a deeply optimistic understanding of the human potential to pool information, and to use that knowledge to improve our lives. In an age of information overload, it is easy to fall back on our own prejudices and insulate ourselves with comforting opinions that reaffirm our core beliefs. Crowds quickly become mobs. The justification for the Iraq war, the collapse of Enron, the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia--all of these resulted from decisions made by leaders and groups trapped in "information cocoons," shielded from information at odds with their preconceptions. How can leaders and ordinary people challenge insular decision making and gain access to the sum of human knowledge? Stunning new ways to share and aggregate information, many Internet-based, are helping companies, schools, governments, and individuals not only to acquire, but also to create, ever-growing bodies of accurate knowledge. Through a ceaseless flurry of self-correcting exchanges, wikis, covering everything from politics and business plans to sports and science fiction subcultures, amass--and refine--information. Open-source software enables large numbers of people to participate in technological development. Prediction markets aggregate information in a way that allows companies, ranging from computer manufacturers to Hollywood studios, to make better decisions about product launches and office openings. Sunstein shows how people can assimilate aggregated information without succumbing to the dangers of the herd mentality--and when and why the new aggregation techniques are so astoundingly accurate. In a world where opinion and anecdote increasingly compete on equal footing with hard evidence, the on-line effort of many minds coming together might well provide the best path to infotopia.

Download or read book Complex Arbitrations written by Bernard Hanotiau and published by Kluwer Law International B.V.. This book was released on 2020-07-10 with total page 662 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Complex Arbitrations: Multi-party, Multi-contract and Multi-issue A Comparative Study Second Edition Bernard Hanotiau Arbitrations involving more than two parties and complex multi-contractual issues are becoming more and more prevalent every year in every major jurisdiction worldwide. This fully updated, extensively revised edition of a far-seeing 2006 book that has been greatly valued and widely used remains the only comprehensive analysis of all the issues arising from multi-party–multi-contract arbitrations, including those involving States and groups of companies. The numerous factors and problems analysed in depth include the following: theories on the basis of which various courts and tribunals determine who are parties to the arbitration clause and whether a non-signatory may be part of the proceedings; to what extent one can bring to a single arbitration proceeding the various parties who have participated in a single economic transaction through several contracts; reasoning to follow when it comes to deciding whether another company of the group can be joined to the arbitration; whether a party to a complex contractual structure can intervene voluntarily in the proceedings; under what conditions arbitrations may be consolidated; to what extent res judicata applies when a second arbitration is initiated between the same parties on different legal grounds; how and to what extent one can overcome the inconveniences that arise from having several parallel proceedings; and enforcement of multi-party–multi-contract awards. Features of particular value to the practitioner include in-depth analysis of ad hoc and institutional awards rendered under the auspices of numerous arbitral institutions; analysis of relevant national case law based on hundreds of court decisions from all over the world; and appendices specifying multi-party–multi-contract arbitration clauses, provisions of international conventions and relevant national legislative and institutional rules. The first edition has been used all over the world, frequently referred to by courts and tribunals when one of its topics is addressed. The second edition, with its increased volume of arbitral awards and cases from many more jurisdictions, its new scenarios, its updates on new legislation and rules, and its newly researched jurisprudence will help lawyers and corporate counsel solve the increasingly complex procedural issues confronting them in dealing with multi-party–multi-contract disputes. Law professors and students of dispute resolution have here a powerfully authoritative consideration of one of the most salient aspects of current international practice.

Download or read book Going to Extremes written by Cass R. Sunstein and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In Going to Extremes, renowned legal scholar and best-selling author Cass R. Sunstein offers startling insights into why and when people gravitate toward extremism."--Inside jacket.

Download or read book SEC Docket written by United States. Securities and Exchange Commission and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 1116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Everything Is Miscellaneous written by David Weinberger and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2008-04-29 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Attempts to explain how new ways of classifying digital data will impact society.

Download or read book On Rumors written by Cass R. Sunstein and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-03-10 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many of us are being misled. Claiming to know dark secrets about public officials, hidden causes of the current economic situation, and nefarious plans and plots, those who spread rumors know precisely what they are doing. And in the era of social media and the Internet, they know a lot about how to manipulate the mechanics of false rumors—social cascades, group polarization, and biased assimilation. They also know that the presumed correctives—publishing balanced information, issuing corrections, and trusting the marketplace of ideas—do not always work. All of us are vulnerable. In On Rumors, Cass Sunstein uses examples from the real world and from behavioral studies to explain why certain rumors spread like wildfire, what their consequences are, and what we can do to avoid being misled. In a new afterword, he revisits his arguments in light of his time working in the Obama administration.

Download or read book Why Information Grows written by Cesar Hidalgo and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2015-06-02 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Hidalgo has made a bold attempt to synthesize a large body of cutting-edge work into a readable, slender volume. This is the future of growth theory." -- Financial Times What is economic growth? And why, historically, has it occurred in only a few places? Previous efforts to answer these questions have focused on institutions, geography, finances, and psychology. But according to MIT's antidisciplinarian Cér Hidalgo, understanding the nature of economic growth demands transcending the social sciences and including the natural sciences of information, networks, and complexity. To understand the growth of economies, Hidalgo argues, we first need to understand the growth of order. At first glance, the universe seems hostile to order. Thermodynamics dictates that over time, order-or information-disappears. Whispers vanish in the wind just like the beauty of swirling cigarette smoke collapses into disorderly clouds. But thermodynamics also has loopholes that promote the growth of information in pockets. Although cities are all pockets where information grows, they are not all the same. For every Silicon Valley, Tokyo, and Paris, there are dozens of places with economies that accomplish little more than pulling rocks out of the ground. So, why does the US economy outstrip Brazil's, and Brazil's that of Chad? Why did the technology corridor along Boston's Route 128 languish while Silicon Valley blossomed? In each case, the key is how people, firms, and the networks they form make use of information. Seen from Hidalgo's vantage, economies become distributed computers, made of networks of people, and the problem of economic development becomes the problem of making these computers more powerful. By uncovering the mechanisms that enable the growth of information in nature and society, Why Information Grows lays bear the origins of physical order and economic growth. Situated at the nexus of information theory, physics, sociology, and economics, this book propounds a new theory of how economies can do not just more things, but more interesting things.