[Commlist] new book: The Next Billion Users: Digital Life beyond the West?

New publication from Harvard University Press

*The Next Billion Users: Digital Life beyond the West?*

*Payal Arora*

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674983786

“The Next Billion Users is a feat – insightful, poignant, riveting. 
Through detailed case studies and interviews, Payal Arora rewrites the 
story of our relationship to digital technology from a truly global 
perspective. Her conclusions are as surprising as they are revealing 
about the future of social media, gaming, mobile phones, and online 
commerce and education.”- Marwan Kraidy, Author of The Naked Blogger of 
Cairo

"The Next Billion Users is mandatory reading for anyone interested in 
understanding the future of technology or designing applications that 
are truly valuable for the majority of the people on the planet." - 
Ronaldo Lemos, Director of the Institute for Technology & Society of Rio 
de Janeiro

“A must-read for any individual seeking to promote economic growth and 
development in the digital age. Arora's deeply rooted research exposes 
digital stereotypes as well as the perils and opportunities which exist 
at the interplay of culture, technology, regulation, commerce, and the 
next generation of digital users.”- Justin van Fleet, Director of the 
International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity

“Whether you are a government agency seeking to bring public goods and 
services to underprivileged citizens, a multinational corporation 
entering emerging markets, or an NGO implementing aid, The Next Billion 
Users is mandatory, data-driven reading that will guide your digital and 
real-world strategies.”- Shaun Wiggins, President and CEO of Soteryx

Description

New-media pundits obsess over online privacy and security, 
cyberbullying, and revenge porn, but do these things really matter in 
most of the world? The Next Billion Users reveals that many assumptions 
about Internet use in developing countries are wrong. After immersing 
herself in factory towns, slums, townships, and favelas, Payal Arora 
assesses real patterns of Internet usage in India, China, South Africa, 
Brazil, and the Middle East. She finds Himalayan teens growing closer by 
sharing a single computer with common passwords and profiles. In China’s 
gaming factories, the line between work and leisure disappears. In 
Riyadh, a group of young women organizes a YouTube fashion show. Why do 
citizens of states with strict surveillance policies appear to care so 
little about their digital privacy? Why do Brazilians eschew geo-tagging 
on social media? What drives young Indians to friend “foreign” strangers 
on Facebook and give “missed calls” to people? The Next Billion Users 
answers these questions and many more. Through extensive fieldwork, 
Arora demonstrates that the global poor are far from virtuous 
utilitarians who mainly go online to study, find jobs, and obtain health 
information. She reveals habits of use bound to intrigue everyone from 
casual Internet users to developers of global digital platforms to 
organizations seeking to reach the next billion Internet users.

About the Author: Payal Arora is the author of several books including 
‘The Next Billion Users: Digital Life beyond the West’ with Harvard 
University Press.  She is an Associate Professor at Erasmus University 
Rotterdam, the Founder of Catalyst Lab, a digital activism organization, 
and the Section Editor for a University of California Press journal - 
Global Perspectives.

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