Social Issues Related to Availability of Information - Essay Example

Information Studies Documents A document in the electronic world has come to mean structured information displayed and processed by electronic means. Documents include text, spreadsheets and graphics, and can be generated by software, or received through electronic means, such as email, or downloaded from websites. Thus, in the electronic age, documents have expanded their functionality manifold from the age of paper documents. John Seely Brown saw documents as more than mere pieces of information, and as instruments that form and link communities together. This is precisely what documents are increasingly doing today. The propensity for documents to be written and commented upon, another aspect that Brown discusses, has been greatly facilitated by the new generation of electronic documents. An electronic document is amenable to being processed and transmitted by electronic means. One of the major difficulties in moving away from physical to electronic documents stems from security concerns. In the case of physical documents, there is usually only one copy of sensitive information. This copy can be physically protected. In the case of electronic documents, theft of sensitive information is on the rise due to many reasons. The security of the documents and information are challenged by the proliferation of hackers and other forms of attack. Moreover, even where tight security measures are applied, these are, in many cases, restricted to storage and transmission of the documents only. Recipients of the information may unwittingly form breaches in the security system. At the same time, legislation such as the HIPAA makes it mandatory for organizations to take effective measures to protect the privacy of those dealing with them. Easy availability of information has also raised questions about governmental accountability against privacy of individuals. Government can access information about individuals more easily in the electronic age, and under certain circumstances officials of the government are authorized to do so. This creates a dilemma because it is very difficult to judge what constitutes essential intrusions into privacy. 2. Social Changes and issues There are several social and ethical issues that arise as a result of increasing use of Information systems. The ethical issues broadly cover areas such as Information rights and obligations, property rights and obligations, and accountability. Cultural issues such as assimilation of technologies and development of trust, security issues that concern misuse or theft of information, and fraud, are some of the other pressing issues. All of these issues are important. Two of the most important among these issues are related to privacy and fraud. One of the issues that have been widely debated is the electronic monitoring of employees by organizations, and the monitoring of individual information by governments for security reasons. This is an issue that is likely to engage the attention of individuals as well as legislators. To ensure the security of an organization or of the country, it becomes necessary to monitor individual actions. However, this can be grossly misused. The problem is likely to be aggravated as corporate espionage at organizational levels assume greater importance in a competitive world, and state security comes under pressure from extremist groups and terrorists. This is an issue that should be clearly looked at from the perspective of a citizen, because the overriding concern here is likely to be a balance between freedom of the individual in a democratic society against the safety and security of society as a whole. Although there is a lot of resistance to such measures right now, past experience suggests that as incidents of extremism increase, citizens would voluntarily opt for such measures. The other issue is that of fraud. This is likely to affect large numbers of consumers in various dealings, and will affect transactions such as credit card and bank accounts. The perspective here is clearly that of a consumer. 3. Salient characteristics of information that make it different from physical commodities A commodity is any thing of value that is exchanged for a price. Since information has value, and is often exchanged for a price in a variety of forms (books, databases, journals and so on), information is also a commodity, particularly in the information age. However, it differs from a physical commodity in several respects both on the demand side and the supply side. Three of these differences are listed below. Non-rival demand satisfaction: In the case of a physical commodity, its use by one party generally precludes or restricts use by others at the same time. In the case of information there is generally no such limitation as information can be shared. Thus a book or a downloaded article can be read by many persons, whereas a chocolate can be eaten by only one person. Lock-in: Information in today’s high technology context is often related to the infrastructure that is necessary to support it. This often makes shifting from one type or source of information to another a costly affair. Because of this consumers are “locked in” to the system that they opt for, and changes can be had only at a cost. Commodities are usually not subject to such a limitation as brand changes can be affected without any cost. For example, an organization that is using SAP as its ERP package cannot easily switch over to another ERP such as Oracle without going through a lot of trouble and incurring additional costs. The same organization will have no difficulty in changing its automobiles from one brand to another. Low marginal cost: Marginal cost is a term that is used to refer to the additional cost involved in producing additional units. Unlike physical commodities, the cost of information lies in producing it rather than in reproducing it. Thus a treatise on a particular subject may cost the publisher substantially in terms of payment to the author. Compared to this, the cost of reproducing it is negligible. Thus information is characterized by low marginal cost of production as compared to physical commodities. 4. IT induced changes in white collar work Work in the information age has changed, and is continuing to change, from what it has always been. As with any change or new concept, this has both positive and negative effects. Information technology has made work more flexible, challenging and enjoyable. More and more people work from their own homes, doing away with the routine of attending a factory or office at fixed times. This should make the quality of their lives more superior to that of those in regular paid jobs. Secondly, information work is more diverse and challenging, and takes the drudgery out of work. While the above picture is undoubtedly true, at least to some extent, it is also true that the invasion by information and automation has imposed a number of difficulties to many people. First of all, not all information related jobs are challenging or involve variety. There are a number of jobs that have come up in areas related to information technology that are quite routine, as for example data entry work. Some of these may disappear after some time, but many are likely to continue. Secondly, the shift in the focus of work calls for people with high levels of skills, and those who are unable to acquire these skills are at a disadvantage. Moreover, people need not only to acquire these skills but also need to update themselves continuously in a constantly changing world. For example, a Database administrator, trained in Oracle database administration can quickly become obsolete after the introduction of new versions if she is not exposed to the new versions. There are still a large number of programmers all over the world, who prefer to work with Microsoft’s earlier version of Visual Basic although the dot net technology was introduced six years ago. People with low skill levels doing inherently jobs that do not require much knowledge are also in trouble because new versions of software are introduced, and they need to learn the operation of such software. Another issue is that Information Technology is putting more power into the hands of the employer. Even in the case of the self employed person, it is the employer with his superior money power that calls the shots. The self employed person is often left with a string of low paying jobs that need to be attended to in order to earn the minimum required. Often these earnings are devoid of any of the normal benefits that are available to regular employees. Work place surveillance has become more rigorous. At the same time this has also been necessitated by more opportunities for, and instances of, sabotage. The net result of all the above is that, although the individual has the opportunity to do more satisfying work, be independent, and enjoy a better quality of life, in practice many of these advantages are counterbalanced by the loss of employment, security and freedom, and a need to keep constantly running to stay in the same place. The effect of these changes on personalized service jobs are likely to be minimal, while those on regular office and factory jobs related to manufacturing and commercial activity more radical. On balance, though, it appears that the changes in the demands of work in the new set of circumstances, and the consequent changes in work culture, are likely to benefit the majority of the people over a period of time, as it would allow people to perform work at a different level. The situation can be compared to the automation that machines brought in, when many manual jobs were replaced. Today, that hardly matters, and a return to an age without machines is unthinkable. Similarly, in the long run, the changes in white collar work imposed by information technology will usher in new ways of working and living that would be far better than what existed before them. 5. Social tools, networks, and social capital dynamics A variety of social networking tools are available today through the internet and outside it. The internet offers the greatest number of social networking tools, and these have huge memberships. Some of the most popular networks such as MySpace, Twitter, Linkedln and Orkut have changed the lives of many individuals by exposing them to a large network of individuals around the world. Tools like Skype have facilitated free telephone calls, video calls and instant messaging over the internet, allowing the user to reach almost any part of the world. Instant text messaging services have made it possible to share brief exchanges instantaneously with anyone having a cell phone or other necessary device. Have the internet communities, instant messaging and communications over the internet increased or narrowed social interaction? At first sight the answer to this question seems to be obviously in the affirmative since new avenues for communication and new social networks are available to an individual. However, the impact that these have had on face-to-face interactions, and on the exposure to the neighborhood social forums, suggest that social interactions may actually be narrowing down. On the one hand, the new social networks and remote communication allow the individual to share ideas more freely. On the other hand, they may present choices to the individual that preclude exposure to a wider variety of views and interactions, because it allows them to choose the groups with which they interact. In this sense, social networks are getting narrowed down and limited by one’s preferences and choice. The term social capital has been defined variously depending on the context and perspective. For this discussion, social capital is taken to mean a structure that facilitates interaction between members. Viewed in this light, the new social networks both build and undercut social capital dynamics. They build such dynamics because they provide new structures that promote a very high level of interaction. However, they also undercut social capital dynamics because they deprive individuals of alternate traditional avenues for socializing. These latter avenues are not amenable to selection, but are pre-existing with random constitutions. Because of this, they provide a greater and wider variety of exposure to the individual. Like all other developments new social tools that are available through modern technology have their pros and cons. It is, however, clear that these have come to stay, and that future users will evolve a way to overcome the disadvantages and make the most out of them. What the new tools are offering are additional facilities, the proper use of which is in the hands of the individuals using them. To this extent the final conclusion can only be that the new social tools have a great potential to promote and widen social interaction, provided they are appropriately used. 6. Information value and search Although the internet has become a good starting place for searching for information on any subject, and most people regard the internet as containing information on everything under the sun, internet searches have their limitations. To start with, internet searches can generally lead to free information only of a very general and limited nature. If specific information, such as the results of research in a particular subject, or a scholarly article, are required, the seeker may need to look at other sources that would provide the information in a better manner. In order to search for such information, one may have to pay a certain amount. Thus online databases, libraries and forums may provide a better search facility and also more specific and better quality of information. These are, however, not available free of cost and have to be paid for. Persons interested in a specific field of study such as Information Technology or Materials Management may find it worthwhile to be a member of a forum such as ACM or Elsevier. Market research data may be available from specific forums or data bases that allow the user to search for, and access, information on a payable basis. The dark web refers to the part of the web that is not indexed. There is a lot of information on the web that is not made available to the general public, and fails to turn up in search engine searches. Specialized sites for each area of interest, such as those of the USA Library of Congress, can be used depending on the requirement. There are a few sites that specialize in specific areas, as for example, the “Nelson Search” for journal articles. As can be seen from the above, specific information and well honed search capabilities come with a price tag attached, but go far beyond search engines and provide the required information. Read More