Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
upon the existing store of accumulated knowledge or wisdom. Wisdom, then, is the
accumulation of a lifetime's experience and testing of knowledge. An understand-
ing of data, information, and knowledge are basic to an understanding of the in-
formation transfer process, which provides the framework for studying the inform-
ation infrastructure.
Information Transfer
“Information transfer” is a type of communication, as described above. It can be
defined as the communication of a recorded message from one human to anoth-
er. While communication assumes that the sender and receiver(s) of a message
are contemporaries, information transfer requires a recorded message transmitted
through a medium that enables senders to transmit ideas to people who are not
their contemporaries. In other words, information transfer is asynchronous. We use
the information transfer processes as a framework for studying the information in-
frastructure. See Chapter 4 for a more detailed description of information transfer.
Summary
The driving force for the fast and all-encompassing change in our society is
technology. This topic examines current society and how technology has changed
dramatically the way we create, disseminate, diffuse, and utilize new information
and knowledge. These changes have resulted in a participatory culture that has
changed our lives. By studying the grand theories of Thomas Kuhn and others,
we learn that cultural changes are accompanied by paradigmatic change as well,
changing the way we view the world.
In this topic, we offer the framework for understanding our complex, confusing,
and emergent digital world. We provide the reader with a lens for examining, in
a comprehensive manner, our information infrastructure. We also empower the
reader to understand how technology, through the Internet and social media, has
changed communication patterns and our 21st-century culture. In the next chapter,
we examine more closely this culture as a foundation for our examination of the
information infrastructure.
References
Capra, Fritjof. 1996. The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems . New York:
Anchor Books.
Cleveland, Harlan. 1985. The Knowledge Executive: Leadership in an Information Society . New
York: Truman Talley Books/E. P. Dutton.
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