The information society: the information society and policy

Information society and policy

Objectives

There are very few other times in history when our society has been so impacted by a series of technologicalinnovations. And as evidenced by emerging technologies, we have only seen the beginning of this information revolution. To dealwith the challenge of our growing information society and globalization, information policies must be developed, whichaddress such hot issues as privacy, intellectual property rights, and censorship. After Reading this section, you should be ableto:

• Define the concepts of information technology and information systems according to its purpose, scope, and architecture.
• Explain and give examples of information technologies.
• Identify various types of information systems.
• Identify the characteristics of our information society and globalization.
• Define and describe aspects of information policy.

Information technology and information systems

We are surrounded by information technology! But what is Information Technology? Information technology isdefined as any technology, including the computer hardware, software, and telecommunications networks that enable thetransmission, processing, storage, organization, and retrieval of information for the purpose of understanding, decision making, andaction taking. Other types of technology include:

Communications technologies that enable humans to communicate and transmit information, e.g., telephones andtelevisions

Transportation technologies such as trains, planes, cars, or space craft.

These technologies may include information technologies. Information systems is defined as the combination ofinformation technology, people, data resources, and other tools and techniques that collect, transform, and disseminate informationwithin an organization. Early information systems did not utilize computers. An example is the library card catalog, still used insome school and community libraries. The hardware includes cabinets and index cards, the software and procedures involve catalogingschema (Dewey-Decimal System), the data is the bibliographic information on library holdings, the people are the librarians andthe library patrons.

The most central part of the definition of an information system is that it should "work together to producemeaningful information for individuals and organizations." This statement contains 3 important ideas:

Information systems work together - Early information systems could exist in isolated social contexts. Therewas no need for exchange of information between systems. Therefore, their design was entirely independent. Today there is an increasingneed for connectivity and information exchange between information systems to improve their effectiveness and efficiency.

Information systems produce meaningful information- An information system must add value to the data itcontains by supporting individual or organizational decision making.

Information systems exist for people - Information systems were not developed because engineers thoughtthey would be cool. They were developed to support human decision making. Therefore, the success of any information system is definedby its users.

Information systems may be categorized according to their purpose, their scope, or their architecture. They are often distinguished by their users and the information they produce.