Encyclopedia of Emerging Industries

This reference details the emergence and current status of 141 flourishing US industries and industry segments. This edition covers 26 more industries than the last edition, including alternative energy, bounty hunting, data mining, life planning, stem cell research, and waste management. It contains essays on specific businesses and broad business sectors that have shown significant growth in the recent past or potential for growth in the near future. In some cases, the businesses fall within well-established industries, such as charter schools, e-commerce, and extreme sports. More often, the essays focus on offshoots of relatively new industries, such as blogging and digital mapping. The essays provide information on organization and structure, background and development of the industry, pioneers and industry leaders, and current conditions, in addition to data on the work force, the global marketplace, and research and technology developments that relate to the business and their potential impact. Each essay concludes with a list of further reading, which includes periodicals, books, annual reports, government documents, and material from industry associations, as well as web sites. This is the first edition of the encyclopedia produced by Grey House Publishing under exclusive license from The Gale Group. Previous editions of the encyclopedia were published by Gale, and this edition also has been prepared by the Gale editorial staff. Annotation c2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)