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| Jane Wales |
The Information Age
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| Jane Wales, |
Definition of Information Age:
(1) a period beginning in the last quarter of the 20th century when information became easily accessible through publications and through the manipulation of information by computers and computer networks.
http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=information age.
(2) The period beginning around 1970 and noted for the abundant publication, consumption, and manipulation of information, especially by computers and computer networks. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/information+age.
(3) a period beginning about 1975 and characterized by the gathering and almost instantaneous transmission of vast amounts of information and by the rise of information-based industries. It is also referred to as a time when large amounts of information are widely available to many people, largely through computer technology.
| http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/information-age |
During the information age, the phenomenon is that the digital industry creates a knowledge-based society surrounded by a high-tech global economy that spans over its influence on how the manufacturing throughput and the service sector operate in an efficient and convenient way. In a commercialized society, the information industry is able to allow individuals to explore their personalized needs, therefore simplifies the procedure of making decisions for transactions and significantly lowers costs for both the producers and buyers. This is accepted overwhelmingly by participants throughout the entire economic activities for efficacy purposes, and new economic incentives would then be indigenously encouraged, such as the knowledge economy.
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The
Information Age formed by capitalizing on the computer microminiaturization advances, with a transition
spanning from the advent of the personal computer in the late 1970s, to the
Internet's reaching a critical mass in the early 1990s, and the
adoption of such technology by the public in the two decades after 1990.
Bringing about a fast evolution of technology in daily life, as well as of
educational life style, the Information Age has allowed rapid global
communications and networking to shape modern society.
Published on May 11, 2012
During the 2012 World Bank & International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings, leaders from government,
private sector, and civil society answered questions put forth by the public in live webcast interviews.
private sector, and civil society answered questions put forth by the public in live webcast interviews.
Jane Wales
President and Chief Executive Officer,
World Affairs Council and Global Philanthropy Forum
President and Chief Executive Officer,
World Affairs Council and Global Philanthropy Forum
The Internet
The
Internet was conceived as a fail-proof network that could connect computers
together and be resistant to any single point of failure. It is said that the Internet cannot be totally destroyed in one
event, and if large areas are disabled, the information is easily rerouted. It
was created mainly by DARPA; its initial software applications were e-mail and computer file transfer.
Though
the Internet itself has existed since 1969, it was with the invention of the World Wide Web in 1989-1990 by British scientist Tim Berners-Lee and its
introduction in 1991 that the Internet became an easily accessible network.
Today the Internet is a global platform for accelerating the flow of
information and is pushing many, if not most, older forms of media into obsolescence.
What's more is that the very notion of our actions, our endeavors and especially our mistakes, being perfectly archived is somewhat terrifying to say the least, no matter what level of accepted virtue or morality we may possess. There is a stronger sense of urgency to obtain success and well-being in these modern times. People are more intellectually engaged than ever before, because of the Internet. Lallana, Emmanuel C. and Margaret N. Uy, The Information Age
Product Links (Samsung Galaxy)
Progression
Library expansion
Library
expansion was calculated in 1945 by Fremont Rider to double in capacity every 16 years, if sufficient space were
made available. He advocated replacing bulky, decaying printed works with
miniaturized microform analog photographs, which could be duplicated on-demand for
library patrons or other institutions. He did not foresee the digital
technology that would follow decades later to replace analog microform with
digital imaging, storage, and transmission mediums. Automated, potentially
lossless digital technologies allowed vast increases in the rapidity of information
growth. Moore's law was formulated around 1970.
The
proliferation of the smaller and less expensive personal computers and
improvements in computing power by the early 1980s resulted in a sudden access
to and ability to share and store information for more and more workers.
Connectivity between computers within companies led to the ability of workers
at different levels to access greater amounts of information.
Information storage
The
world's technological capacity to store information grew from 2.6 (optimally
compressed) exabytes in
1986 to 15.8 in 1993, over 54.5 in 2000, and to 295 (optimally compressed) exabytes in
2007. This is the informational equivalent to less than one 730-MB CD-ROM per person in 1986 (539 MB per person), roughly 4 CD-ROM per person of 1993, 12 CD-ROM per person in the year 2000, and almost 61 CD-ROM per person in 2007.
Information transmission
The
world's technological capacity to receive information through one-way broadcast
networks was 432 exabytes of
(optimally compressed) information in 1986, 715 (optimally compressed) exabytes in
1993, 1.2 (optimally compressed) zettabytes in
2000, and 1.9 zettabytes in
2007 (this is the information equivalent of 174 newspapers per person per
day).The world's effective capacity to exchange information through two-way
telecommunication networks was 281 petabytes of
(optimally compressed) information in 1986, 471petabytes in 1993, 2.2 (optimally compressed) exabytes in
2000, and 65 (optimally compressed) exabytes in
2007 (this is the information equivalent of 6 newspapers per person per day).
In the 1990s, the spread of the Internet caused a sudden leap in access
to and ability to share information in businesses, at home and around the
globe. Technology was developing so quickly that a computer costing $3,000.00
in 1997 would cost $2,000.00 two years later and only $1000.00 the following
year.
Computation
The
world's technological capacity to compute information with humanly guided
general-purpose computers grew from 3.0 × 108 MIPS in 1986, to 4.4 × 109 MIPS in 1993, 2.9 × 1011 MIPS in 2000 to 6.4 × 1012 MIPS in 2007.
Relation to economics
Eventually, Information and Communication Technology—computers, computerized
machinery, fiber optics, communication satellites, Internet, and other ICT
tools—became a significant part of the economy. Microcomputers were developed
and many business and industries were greatly changed by ICT.
Nicholas Negroponte captured the essence of these
changes in his 1995 book, Being Digital. His book discusses similarities and
differences between products made of atoms and products made of bits. In
essence, one can very cheaply and quickly make a copy of a product made of
bits, and ship it across the country or around the world both quickly and at
very low cost.
Impact on jobs and income distribution
The
Information Age has impacted the workforce in several ways. First, it has
created a situation in which workers who perform tasks which are easily
automated are being forced to find work which involves tasks that are not
easily automated. Second, workers are being forced to compete in a global job
market. Lastly workers are being replaced by computers that can do the job more
effectively and faster. This poses problems for workers in industrial societies,
which are still to be solved. However, solutions that involve lowering the working time usually find high resistance.
Jobs
traditionally associated with the middle class (assembly line workers, data
processors, foremen, and supervisors) are beginning to disappear, either
through outsourcing or automation. Individuals who lose their
jobs must either move up, joining a group of "mind workers"
(engineers, doctors, attorneys, teachers, scientists, professors, executives,
journalists, consultants), or settle for low-skill, low-wage service jobs.
The
"mind workers" are able to compete successfully in the world market
and command high wages. Conversely, production workers and service workers in
industrialized nations are unable to compete with workers in developing
countries and either lose their jobs through outsourcing or are forced to
accept wage cuts. In addition, the internet makes it possible for workers in
developing countries to provide in-person services and compete directly with
their counterparts in other nations.
This
has had several major consequences, including increased opportunity in
developing countries and the globalization of the workforce.
Workers
in developing countries have a competitive advantage which translates into
increased opportunities and higher wages. The
full impact on the workforce in developing countries is complex and has
downsides. (see discussion in section on globalization).
In
the past, the economic fate of workers was tied to the fate of national
economies. For example, workers in the United States were once well paid in
comparison to the workers in other countries. With the advent of the
Information Age and improvements in communication, this is no longer the case.
Because workers are forced to compete in a global job market, wages are less
dependent on the success or failure of individual economies.
Automation, productivity, and job
loss
There
is another way in which the Information Age has impacted the workforce:
automation and computerization have resulted in higher productivity coupled
with net job loss. In the United States for example, from January 1972 to
August 2010, the number of people employed in manufacturing jobs fell from
17,500,001 to 11,500,000 while manufacturing value rose 270%.
It
initially appeared that job loss in the industrial sector might be partially
offset by the rapid growth of jobs in the IT sector. However after the
recession of March 2001, the number of jobs in the IT sector dropped sharply
and continued to drop until 2003. Even the IT sector is not immune
to this problem. As such, modern society still has to solve this social
problem.
Rise of information-intensive
industry
Industry
is becoming more information-intensive and less labor and capital-intensive
(see Information industry). This trend has important implications for the workforce;
workers are becoming increasingly productive as the value of their labor
decreases. However, there are also important implications for capitalism
itself; not only is the value of labor decreased, the value of capital is also
diminished. In the classical model, investments in human capital and financial capital are important predictors of the performance of a new venture.
However, as demonstrated by Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, it now seems possible for a group of
relatively inexperienced people with limited capital to succeed on a large
scale.
References:
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