IA

• Information Age


  Period starting in the last quarter of the 20th century when information became effortlessly accessible through publications and through the management of information by computers and computer networks
• As man evolved, information and its dissemination has also evolved in many ways
• Information got ahead of us. It started to grow at a rate we were unprepared to handle
• Because of the abundance of information, it was difficult to collect and manage them starting in the 1960s and 1970s
• During the 1980s, real angst set in. Richard Wurman called it "Information Anxiety"
• In the 1990s, information became the currency in the business world
• In the present generation, there is no doubt that information has turned out to be a commodity, an overdeveloped product, mass-produced, and unspecialized
• Soon, we become overloaded with it
• Information must compete


  There is a need for information to stand out and be recognized in the increasing clutter
• Newer is equated with truer


  We forgot the truth that any fact or value can endure
• Selection is a viewpoint

  Choose multiple sources for your information if you want to receive a more balanced view of reality
• The media sells what the culture buys


  Information is driven by cultural priorities
• The early word gets the perm

  The first media channel to expose an issue often defines the context, terms, and attitudes surrounding it
• You are what you eat and so is your brain


  Do not draw conclusions unless all ideas and information are presented to you
• Anything in great demand will be counterfeited


  The demand for incredible knowledge, scandals, and secrets is ever-present; hence, many events are fabricated by tabloids, publicists, or other agents of information fraud
• Ideas are seen as controversial


  It is almost certainly impossible to make any assertion that will not find some supporters and some detractors
• Undead information walks ever on

  Rumors, lies, disinformation, and gossips never truly die down. They persist and continue to circulate
• Media presence creates the story

  People behave much differently from the way they would if being filmed when the media are present, especially film news or television media
• The medium selects the message

  Television is mainly pictorial, partially aural, and slightly textual, so visual stories are emphasized: fires, chases, and disasters
• The whole truth is a pursuit

  The information that reaches us is usually selected, verbally charged, filtered, slanted, and sometimes, fabricated. What is neglected is often even more important than what is included
• Computer


  An electronic device that stores and processes data (information). It runs on a program that contains the exact, step-by-step directions to solve a problem
• Types of Computer


  • Personal Computer (PC)
  • Desktop Computer
  • Laptops
  • Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs)
  • Server
  • Mainframes
  • Wearable Computers
• Personal Computer (PC)


  A single-user instrument. PCs were first known as microcomputers since they were a complete computer but built on a smaller scale than the enormous systems operated by most businesses
• Desktop Computer


  A PC that is not designed for portability. The assumption with a desktop is that it will be set up in a permanent spot. A workstation is simply a desktop computer that has a more powerful processor, additional memory, and enhanced capabilities for performing special group of tasks, such as 3D graphics or game development
• Laptops


  Portable computers that integrate the essentials of a desktop computer in a battery-powered package, which are somewhat larger than a typical hardcover book. They are commonly called notebooks
• Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs)

  Tightly integrated computers that usually have no keyboards but rely on a touch screen for user input. PDAs are typically smaller than a paperback, lightweight, and battery powered
• Server


  A computer that has been improved to provide network services to other computers. Servers usually boast powerful processors, tons of memory, and large hard drives
• Mainframes


  Huge computer systems that can fill an entire room. They are used especially by large firms to describe the large, expensive machines that process millions of transactions every day. The term "mainframe" has been replaced by enterprise server
• Wearable Computers


  Involve materials that are usually integrated into cell phones, watches, and other small objects or places. They perform common computer applications such as databases, email, multimedia, and schedulers
• World Wide Web (Internet)

  A worldwide system of interconnected networks that facilitate data transmission among innumerable computers. It was developed during the 1970s by the Department of Defense
• Claude E. Shannon, an American Mathematician who was considered as the "Father of Information Theory", worked at Bell Laboratories and at age 32, he published a paper proposing that information can be quantitatively encoded as a sequence of ones and zeroes
• The Internet remained under government control until 1984
• One early problem faced by Internet users was speed. Phone lines could only transmit information at a limited rate. The development of fiber-optic cables allowed for billions of bits of information to be received every minute
• Sergey Brin and Larry Page, directors of a Stanford research project, built a search engine that listed results to reflect page popularity when they determined that the most popular result would frequently be the most usable. After talking with family, friends, and other investors into Google is now the world's most popular search engine, accepting more than 200 million queries daily
• Electronic mail, or email, was a suitable way to send a message to fellow workers, business partners, or friends. Messages could be sent and received at the convenience of the individual
• Internet service providers like America Online and CompuServe set up electronic chat rooms. These were open areas of cyberspace where interested parties could join in a conversation with perfect strangers
• Consequently, companies whose businesses are built on digitized information have become valuable and powerful in a relatively short period of time; the current Information Age has spawned its own breed of wealthy influential brokers, from Microsoft's Bill Gates to Apple's Steve Jobs to Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg
• Critics charged that the Internet created a technological divide that increased the gap between the members of the higher class and lower class of society. Those who could not afford a computer or a monthly access fee were denied these possibilities
• Many decried the impersonal nature of electronic communication compared to face-to-face interaction
• Surfing the net


  A pastime of joining in conversations with strangers in open areas of cyberspace