INFORMATION AGE

• Information Age


  • Highly modernized
  • Automated
  • Data-driven
  • Influences communication, economics, industry, health, and environment
  • Presents advantages and disadvantages
• Information


  Knowledge communicated or obtained concerning a specific fact or circumstance
• Information Age


  • Also known as Digital Age and New Media Age
  • Began in late 20th century
  • Information became easily accessible through publications and computer networks
  • Transformed human communication methods
• Theory of Information Age

  • Proposed by James R. Messenger in 1982
  • A true new age based upon the interconnection of computers via telecommunications
  • Information systems operate on real-time and as-needed basis
  • Driven by convenience and user friendliness
  • Leads to increased dependence on information systems
• Our society is highly modernized, automated, and data-driven, influencing various areas like communication, economics, industry, health, and the environment, but also presenting both advantages and disadvantages
• Life is accompanied by endless transmission of information that takes place within and outside the human body
• The Information Age, also known as the Digital Age and New Media Age, began in the late 20th century, when information became easily accessible through publications and computer networks, transforming human communication methods
• According to James R. Messenger who proposed the Theory of Information Age in 1982, "the Information Age is a true new age based upon the interconnection of computers via telecommunications, with these information systems operating on both a real-time and as-needed basis. It is also driven by convenience and user friendliness, leading to increased dependence on information systems
• ENIAC COMPUTER


  1946
• ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer)


  The world's first general-purpose computer, designed and built for the United States Army to calculate artillery firing tables
• Birth of Field-of-Information Theory

  1948
• Information theory


  The scientific study of digital information estimation, storage, and transmission
• Planar Transistor was developed by Jean Hoerni


  1957
• Planar process


  The method used to create practically all silicon transistors and microchips in use today, developed by physicist Jean Hoerni
• Library Congress developed LC MARC (Machine Readable Code)


  1960s
• MARC


  A computer-readable format created by the Library of Congress to be used for bibliographic records, allowing libraries to download cataloging, share information, and search all parts of a cataloging record
• UNIX Operating System


  1969
• Unix (UNiplexed Information Computing System)


  A multiuser, multitasking operating system created by Bell Laboratories, allowing multiple users to access it at the same time
• First Microprocessor Chip


  1971
• Intel 4004


  The first microprocessor to be produced commercially, a 4-bit central processing unit
• Optical Laserdisc was developed by Philips and MCA


  1972
• LaserDisc (LD)


  The first optical disc storage medium to be sold commercially, a home video format
• The first Personal Computer for the Public

  1975
• MITS Altair 8800


  The first personal computer to achieve commercial success, created by Ed Roberts in 1974
• The First Complete Computer

  1977
• TRS 80


  The first small computer system available on the market, released in August 1977 by Radio Shack, a retail electronics chain
• Apple Macintosh Computer


  1984
• Original Macintosh


  Introduced in 1984 and marketed with Apple's now-famous 1984 advertisement
• Hypercard


  1987
• HyperCard


  A software application development tool created by Bill Atkinson and donated to Apple with the understanding that Apple would make it available for free on all Macintoshes
• 450 Complete works of literature in one CDROM

  1991
• CD-ROM


  An upgrade on the CD, made to hold computer data in the form of high-definition stereo audio, graphics, and text
• RSA (Encryption and network security software)


  January 1997
• 48-bit integers


  Can represent 281,474,976,710,656 discrete values in computer architecture, permitting a signed two's complement range of -140,737,488,355,328 through 140,737,488,355,327, or an unsigned binary integer range of 0 through 281,474,976,710,655
• As man evolved, information and its dissemination has also evolved in many ways
• In the 1960s and 1970s, the abundance of information made it difficult to collect and manage due to its rapid growth and unpreparedness to handle, leading to a shift from keeping information to sharing and managing it differently
• During the 1980s, real angst set in. Richard Wurman called it "Information Anxiety"
• In the 1990s, information became the currency in the business world, with information managers serving as information officers
• Today, information is a commodity, mass-produced, and unspecialized, leading to overloading
• Despite differing ideas on the evolution of the information age, information remains an essential tool for improving our way of life