ABSTRACT
From learned specialists to ordinary citizens, the conviction is firm that the apparently never-ending growth in computing is bound to reshape both our most basic social and economic arrangements and our most fundamental thoughtways. Everyone attentive to the mass media has heard at least a few stories like these—stories that attest to the extraordinary powers ascribed to computers in the reordering of human affairs. Many of these expectations have to do with the role of computing in organizations—companies, government bureaucracies, not-for-profit agencies and the like. Perhaps needless to say, the aims and ambitions of those who work in such organizations are shaped in turn by their expectations of what computing can do for them. The chapter presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. The book aims to help make sense of such expectations—by juxtaposing them with a systematic look at the realities of computing use in more than one hundred typical private-sector organizations.
