Online Around the World aims to provide a snapshot of internet, social media and technology usage in 86 countries. The encyclopedia is organized into three major parts: Introduction, Overview of Social Media Sites and Country sections. The introduction explains the encyclopedia’s goal and introduces terms and concepts used to describe the state of a country’s digital status and perceptions. Some of the concepts are highly specific and the introduction does a good job of explaining terms’ use and limits. Demographic and usage data varies between countries and the section warns of the difficulty in comparing countries due to economic, political and sociocultural factors. Unlike many introductions, this proves useful to read or at least skim to fully appreciate further entries.
The Overview of Social Media Sites chapter delivers a brief history and development of social media applications along with popular world regions for each app. The editors break down the nebulous concept of social media into five categories: instant messaging (IM)/voice over internet protocol (VOIP), social networking, media sharing, commentary and bookmarking forums, blogging and microblogging. With some overlap, each social media category fills a particular need. Category designation allows for flexibility and is followed by global examples and brands.
Entries on specific countries make up the bulk of the resource, which includes brief description, geographical location and technological infrastructure limitations and capabilities. Most popular devices and preferred social media sites and applications are delved into and user statistics are often broken down by gender and language. Major events or challenges in the nation’s history in relation to internet access, development and social media promotion or innovation are also touched upon. Entries end with the item’s author, a short list of related countries and a Further Reading list which essentially functions as an entry’s works cited list. List contents are not restricted to a set number, with most lists being between 10 and 24 citations. Further reading lists also tend to be news or web publication articles and not peer-reviewed works. Lists with fewer listed sources could be attributed to some countries experiencing less internet saturation than others, but reasons for variance in source counts are not covered. The length of each entry varies between four to six pages. Each entry is written by one of the editors, with input from qualified contributors.
As a whole, North American, Western European and Asian countries appear to have more dense articles than their South American and African counterparts. In the introduction, the editors explain digressions between different regions and how it impacts gathered information.
Shorter sections like digital chronology, a master reference list and index are also included. The Chronology of Significant Events in Cyber History highlights major events in digital history and serves as a helpful contextual reference when studying a particular country’s milestones. However, it is unillustrated and reduced to short blurbs so that it can be skipped if needed.
The encyclopedia is easily navigable and straightforward to use in its e-book version as here reviewed. A drop-down table of contents enables users to skim and select section headings. To access a country’s encyclopedic entry, click on the nation’s name or its page number from the table of contents. Once in an entry, several features are located in the left-hand pane. Users can zoom in or out, view encyclopedia headings, print and share pages via social media or e-mail. Extract was a neat feature that imported text into a temporary browser pane for easy transferring or text copying. Access resources offered only a downloadable image of the book cover and sharing links through social media may only work if the receiving user has access privileges to the e-book. Compared to a print edition, printing from an e-book was also limited to ten print sessions in a 24 h period with only 30 pages printable at a time.
A bottom browser pane allows users to browse through pages and a page number box is located in the upper-right hand corner. Pages can be turned by clicking on the left or right arrows on either side of the viewed page. The Search Book permits users to search for terms in the book and is set to a Boolean OR default. A search for Arab Spring or North Korea brings up over a 100 results with either or both of those terms. Quotes signal the book to treat words within an exact phrase as a match.
Published in May 2017, the content is up-to-date and relevant to the topic at hand. ABC-CLIO is a trusted publisher of reference and educational materials and the encyclopedia’s editors’ credentials and entry citations reflect that thoroughness. The Further Reading section with entry citations designates clear sources as well as starting points for novice researchers. Most encyclopedia contributors demonstrate clear expertise on their particular research region and/or the fields of globalization, technology or media studies. A few contributors’ credentials seemed unclear or irrelevant, but those were minimal and do not undermine the cited material or other entries.
The hardcover encyclopedia is priced at $94, with e-pricing varying by vendor. Images in the electronic version were easy to view. Surprisingly, there are few reference materials related to social media and mobile apps. Works like The Social Media Revolution: An Economic Encyclopedia of Friending, Following, Texting and Connecting (Hanson, 2016) cover social media, but few attempt to include Online Around the World’s concept, a wide range of countries with significant usage information for each.
Overall, Online Around the World: A Geographic Encyclopedia of the Internet, Social Media and Mobile Apps delivers useful data snapshots from a wealth of different countries and global regions all in one place. This unique resource depicts each country’s use and relationship to the internet and social media with well-researched, current and cited entries. Though by no means quintessential, the encyclopedia serves as an excellent research starter (or springboard?) for curious minds and more dedicated research questions. Given its wide scope and mid-range price point, Online Around the World would be a great resource, in print or online, for high school or college and university libraries, particularly those with media, technology or globalization offerings.
