The New Economic Attitude in the Information Era

Marcelo Sampaio de Alencar

President of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Communications (Iecom)

Abstract

This presentation introduces some economic concepts in a non-orthodox way, relating them to physical phenomena, to explain some peculiarities of the Internet economic environment. The talk discusses how the Internet economy violates classic principles, well established by Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and other important economists. The evolution of the World Wide Web is discussed, along with some interesting anecdotes that contradict the usual history of the Internet. The origins of Amazon, Google, Facebook, and other engines are discussed, and it is shown that most of them derived from simple features of the UNIX system.

Short bio

Marcelo Sampaio de Alencar received his Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering, from Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE), Brazil, 1980, his Master Degree in Electrical Engineering, from Universidade Federal da Paraiba (UFPB), Brazil, 1988 and his Ph.D. from the University of Waterloo, Canada, 1994. He worked for the Department of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Paraiba (UFPB), for the Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG), for the State University of Santa Catarina (UDESC), and for the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA). He was visiting professor at the University of Toronto, and is now visiting professor at the Senai Cimatec, Salvador, Brasil. He is founder and President of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Communications (Iecom). He has been awarded several scholarships and grants, from the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Research (CNPq), from the IEEE Foundation, from the University of Waterloo, and from the Federal University of Paraiba. He received an achievement award from the Brazilian Telecommunications Society (SBrT), an award from the Medicine College of the Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG), and an achievement award from the College of Engineering of the Federal University of Pernambuco. He published over 500 engineering and scientific papers and 26 books. He also wrote chapters for 12 books. He served on the Board of Directors of SBrT and on the SBMO Council. He is a Registered Professional Engineer, and he was a columnist for the traditional Brazilian newspaper Jornal do Commercio. Marcelo S. Alencar is a laureate of the prestigious 2014 Attilio Giarola Medal, of the Brazilian Microwave and Optoelectronics Society (SBMO).