The Information Infrastructure - Evolving Global Information Infrastructure and Information Transfer - page 73

Summary
In its most fundamental terms, information transfer is the communication of
recorded information from a sender to receivers through the intermediary of in-
formation subsystems, the elements of which we define as the “information infra-
structure.” A dissection of information transfer reveals nine processes: creation,
recording, mass production, dissemination, organization of information, diffusion,
utilization, preservation, and discarding. Technology has changed these processes
over time, and the digitization of information along with the introduction of a new
paradigm have changed each of these processes, making them much more inter-
active and much less linear. The vascular system can be used as a metaphor for
the complex interactions within the information transfer processes, and we used
the transportation system as a way of conceptualizing the very complex informa-
tion infrastructure.
Culture, geography, political structure, legislation, economics, technology, and
information policy are environmental factors that influence the transfer of inform-
ation and the information infrastructure. In Chapter 5 we examine the information
infrastructure today and the changes that have occurred with digitization and influ-
ences of the emergent paradigm.
References
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Greer, Roger C., Robert J. Grover, and Susan G. Fowler. 2013. Introduction to the Library and In-
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Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary 2004. 11th ed. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.