Tool that Shapes Basic Structure of Emerging Society

Abstract

Alvin Toffler in his popular book titled Future Shock notes that if you were to take the time that human beings have been in existence (about 50,000 years) and divide this time into 62-year average lifetimes, you would get 800 lifetimes. Of those 800 lifetimes 650 of them have been in caves. It is only in the last 70 lifetimes that humans have been able to communicate across generations.  It is only in the last 6 that there has been the printed word. It is only in the last 4 that we have been able to measure time with any accuracy. It is only in the last 2 that there has been the electric motor. Most of the technologies that we are so familiar with have been brought into existence in our lifetime. There has been widespread disruption in the status quo due to digital technology and globalization of knowledge. The world has become an electronic village with small groups equipped with the power to influence large changes; technological expertise is widespread globally and accessible easily using web tools while response times tend towards zero.

However, this move towards an information society demands innovation in generation, collection, storage, processing, and dissemination of information and knowledge. Evolution of information economy comprising information work force, information industry and information infrastructure would throw up new challenges and opportunities. Economics of information, which concerns cost-effective management of information, centres, systems and services at local, national, regional and international levels, would call for innovative technological solutions and germination of new scientific investigations. All this puts forward numerous challenges to Informatics and Information profession. The challenges are economic, political and cultural and include dramatic technological developments, resultant information explosion and resultant Knowledge management problems. Informatics Studies (IS) intends to publish results of research and development on the above aspects especially management and use of Information in the networked society.