ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book highlights commonalties in the evolution of individual technologies, as well as presents the “big picture”. It provides an overview of a wide range of the theories that one can apply to both the technologies and any new technologies that follow. The book explores the structure of communication industries, examining organizational relationships and differentiating between the companies that make the technologies and those that sell the technologies. It introduces the most important force at the system level of the ecosystem, regulation. The book provides a structure and a set of analytic tools that define the study of communication technologies. It addresses the individual technologies and briefs bibliography that represents a broad overview of literally hundreds of books and articles that provide details about these technologies.
