Introduction to the Topic - Evolving Global Information Infrastructure and Information Transfer - page 2

We do things differently today than we did before, and at the heart is the
lifeblood of our culture: information and knowledge. Information is to our society
what blood is to our bodies, and the vascular system that carries our blood is like
the information infrastructure that supports the creation and other functions of in-
formation that result in its effective utilization.
In an earlier work, we defined the “information infrastructure” in broad terms:
The information infrastructure is a global network of people, organiza-
tions, agencies, policies, legislation, processes, and technologies or-
ganized in a loosely coordinated system to enhance the creation, produc-
tion, dissemination, organization, diffusion, storage, retrieval, and preser-
vation of information and knowledge for people. The primary objective of
this network is the diffusion of knowledge for a society. (Greer, Grover, and
Fowler 2013, 100)
Although technology is an important component of the information infrastruc-
ture, we wish to underscore the importance of the human element: the information
users and the personnel who design and implement the various components of this
vast infrastructure. In our discussion of the infrastructure, we also want to under-
score the influence of information and knowledge on a society's culture; hence, the
information infrastructure's impact on culture is significant. We also recognize that
culture, along with other external forces, impacts the information infrastructure. As
we examine the organizations and systems that are components of the information
infrastructure, we will evaluate the systems and services according to their effect-
iveness in addressing the information needs of users.
This infrastructure is like the vascular system in the human body; it provides the
system that supports the transfer of information and knowledge to a society, sup-
porting its culture. This system is vital to the life of the culture, just as the vascular
system is critical to the body. If there is a failure in the system (like a blood clot in
the body), the infrastructure and information transfer system is compromised, with
potential harm to the entire system and the body or society that it supports.
A key concept in our study of information infrastructure is “information transfer.”
In our previous work, we have defined information transfer as “the communication
of a recorded message from one human or human mind to another” (Greer, Grover,
and Fowler 2013, 59). Although the sender and receiver of a message in typical
communication may be contemporaries, information transfer requires a recorded
message, and the sender and receiver may not be contemporaries. Stated another
way, information transfer is asynchronous.