The Information Infrastructure - Evolving Global Information Infrastructure and Information Transfer - page 72

ing. Cell phones enable individuals anywhere in the world to have conversations
with anyone else regardless of location, and these cell phones provide a vehicle
for transferring text and visual information to a wide audience through such social
media as Facebook and Twitter. Furthermore, recorded information can be stored
in computer files and made openly available to anyone in the world with access to
computer technology. How technology has changed information transfer processes
is examined in detail in Chapter 5.

Other Environmental Influences

Technology is only one of the environmental variables that influence information
transfer and the information infrastructure. Others are culture, geography, political
structure, legislation, economic system, and information policy, as explained in
Chapter 2. These variables are external to the practice of the library and informa-
tion professions, and we call them “the environmental and social context” (Greer,
Grover, and Fowler 2013, 53-57).
All of the above variables influence each other and, in turn, influence each of
the information transfer processes. The influences on the information infrastructure
are displayed graphically in Table 4.1. The reader will note that we have combined
the information transfer processes of “bibliographic control” and “organization by
disciplines” and use the term “organization of information.”

Table 4.1 Environmental Context and the Information Infrastructure

Information Transfer Processes Environmental Context

Creation
Recording
Mass-Production
Dissemination
Organization of Information
Diffusion
Utilization
Preservation
Discarding

Culture
Geography
Political Structure
Legislation
Economic System
Technology
Information Policy

The environment, described as a composite of the elements in the environment-
al context as portrayed in Table 4.1, influences the information transfer processes
and the way we think. Our environment influences the way we look at the world,
and we describe that perspective as a paradigm.
In Chapter 5 we examine in depth the information infrastructure as it has
evolved in the digital age.