Information Technology Society - Essay Example

Human society even in the pre-historic times has been involved in information processing activities. As our history books says, these activities has evolved over a thousand years from "rock carvings and smoke signals to the abacus, electrical equipments, and electronic gadgets" (Miles 2005 p.1). The most recent is the appearance of new information technology or IT that have reduced the cost and size of information processing equipment and brought enormous increase in processing power. The processing power and the performance of information processing have continued to advance spectacularly which resulted in the "increase of great numbers of consumer and industrial goods" (Miles 2005 p.2) with built-in information processing capabilities. Humans nowadays are living their daily lives side by side with these technologies that spread through their economic and social affairs. Many social interaction and economic process have been innovated by these technologies such as "design, production, transactions, and as potential opportunities emerge, the basis of economic decision making is also changing" (Miles 2005 p.2). The term "information society" signifies the noticeable qualitative and quantitative change in social and economic affairs in connection with the development and distribution of information technology (Miles 2005 p.2). Information society is not limited to the IT sectors alone or an economy dominated by this group. It applies to all IT-using sectors whose tasks and operations may be alter through the product of IT or related improvements and therefore extends to the whole society and economy. There maybe more implications in the IT sector but information technology related developments are far being confined to this sector because it involves "transactional activities of potentially all sectors" (Miles 2005, p.2). How different is the Information Technology from earlier technologies that it is now being use as the basis for a new social order like the "Information Society" In addition, how different is the "Information Society" from the earlier societies THE NEW INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AS A NEW SOCIAL ORDER Long before the emergence of the Information Society, human development is dependent on the development of the technologies and institutions of social communications and the relationship between communication and social structures were always being considered. The reason is communication becomes increasingly dependent upon the mobilization and access to inadequate resources, which lead to require an understanding on how to control these resources. Social communications rely upon and are "shaped by technology" (Skouby n.d. p.175) and therefore studies were done on how these technologies can also be shaped within a wider "social and historical context" (Skouby n.d. p.175). Harold Adams Innis (1951), an influential media determinist, and Bell (1973) as narrated by Skouby n.d. provides the example of the first aspect. They presented an argument that "changing forms of communication leads to changes in the nature of society" (Skouby n.d. p. 175). Although they recognize the separations between communication and general socio-economic developments, they inspired the belief that "communication is the primary explanatory variable". This is symbolic as the McLuhan's (1964) statement "The medium is the message" as explained by Skouby (n.d. p.175-176). It means that the technology of communication is eventually governing socio-economic in a very basic way. The next aspect introduced by Christopher Freeman and others in 1998 according to Skouby n.d. (n.d. p.176), is the interaction of between "environment such as natural, built, and institutional and innovation as the basic nature of the techno-economic relationship" (Skouby n.d. p. 176). This characterized innovations for their capabilities to change the techno-economic concept that have overwhelming transformational results throughout the economy. The third aspect as stated by Skouby (n.d. p. 176) is the claim of Manuel Castells (1996-1997) that the industrial society is being altered by a newer mode of production; this was termed as "informational capitalism" (Skouby n.d p. 176). He believes that the consequences of this transformation are explored for the social dimensions from "mass communication to global power restructuring" (Skouby n.d p. 176). The analysis in transformation is done through the presumption of labour's value framework with its merits and drawbacks. According to Skouby (n.d. p. 176) quoting from Gamham (1998), asserts that Information Technology have an unswerving influence on the socio-economic entirety by building a "culture of real virtuality" (Skouby n.d. p. 176). The above theories of information society are merely assuming the restructuring effects of IT on social, economic, and technical systems and do not explain the real changes in progress. There was no sufficient explanation addressing the nature of transformation or departure of a former society to a new one. According to Skouby n.d. p. 176, William Melody (1975-1999) made a prominent effort to address this scarcity. He made a rather pensive understanding that changes in the telecommunication industry initiate the possibility for an extreme socio-economic changes and that there is an intimate interdependence amid these two sets of changes. He explicate that while information technology are primarily fashioned and developed within corporate requirements, they can be also be in service for wider public goals such as greater contribution in the processing of information, production of knowledge, and sharing of meaning. He added that determining the improvements necessary in telecommunication is vital to the potential of this process. Information Society is recognized as an avenue where beneficial impacts of Information Technology are intensified and the hazards of loss and injury are diminishing. It also follows that the development of the information society can be significantly explored as a distinctive construction in each country (Skouby n.d. p.177). It is seen as being "constructed by two interdependent" (Skouby n.d. p.177) major components such as "telecommunication facility system and information content and services" (Skouby n.d. p.177). The telecom system being an important component has a far more complicated task of accommodating new and increase requirements for future services that would initiate the possibility of more major benefits. The increase in telecommunication infrastructures is crucial for the effective application of services and these applications will lead to multifaceted restructuring and changes in organizations and institutions. In the development of adequate outline to experimentally analyze these changes and will be compared to both side, the supply side will be made up of "technical equipments, infrastructure, skills and content" (Skouby n.d. p.177). The other, on the demand side is "professional services, skills, organizational and sectors reforms, household reforms that include demands or needs, income, changes in habits, and restructuring of resources" (Skouby n.d p.177). Using internet services development as one the indicators, the framework were applied and tested in different countries and revealed the facts that the development of the information society is not only a matter of global and structural trends but also of priorities and investments specific to each country (Skouby n.d. p.177). The realization of the vision of networking through the web and the sudden increase of mobile telephony in the 21st century shows evidence of firm-level changes. Several studies shows improvements in the performance and productivity in large IT-using firms particularly when IT is use to enhance customer services (Miles 2000 p.20). This is an indication that something good is happening in the productivity trends of an economy. The increase use of networking and higher levels of organizational learning is finally showing substantial change in performance on a more noticeable manner. The application of the new Information Technology with "transactional elements of economic activities" (Miles 2000 p.20) specifically in the Internet has resulted into electronic commerce or e-commerce. EC became the focus of an immense activity in the internet at the run of the millennium. It represents the significant extension of networking across "islands of automation of factory floor production, warehouses, office," (Miles 2000 p. 21) and many more. Not like the earlier generations of electronic commerce or EDI (Electronic Data Interchange), EC is very different in terms of cost, contents, and automation. EC works to common standards and easier to set up, customized to company's outlines in marketing their products. You can now buy and sell products over the internet, search products, suppliers, and participate in online auctions. EC offers scope for new method of doing business. It allows amalgamation of internal and external processes, and streamlining of supply chains (Miles 2000 p.21). Aside from cost saving, rapid response, innovation, and collaboration across organizations are the other important benefits of EC. Organizational changes involving a restructuring of the value chain are "disintermediation via direct sales from manufacturers, service providers, and wholesalers to purchasers" (Miles 2000 p.22). It can also involve "reintermediation with institutionalized systems of e-money " (Miles 2000 p.22-23) or commonly known as "trust services" who verify credentials of businesses on the Internet. This may come in the form of web hosting supports or conducting the "delivery of the physical goods" (Miles 2000 p. 23). All of these should require considerable "organization learning and re-engineering" (Miles 2000 p.23) to achieve. Further in the 21st century we witness the establishment of the mobile internet through WAP enabled mobile phones. Telecommunication industry continues to invest in large online services, producing more powerful devices and network equipments. Significant developments of Peer-to-Peer networking as an organizational standard signified by the "Napster" services phenomenon that gained tens of millions of users in a matter of months. Napster is providing access to music files spread over thousands of computer online 24/7. P2P's charm to the mass market and the extent of which corporations and communities is using it suggests it is a powerful tool for information management (Miles 2000 p.22). A little over a decade when Web Browsers were introduce, the volume of information available in the World Wide Web has grown tremendously and become one of the primary delivery mechanisms. Tools designed to enable access to existing information in the Web have similarly experienced towering increase and with such large developments taking place in a short interval of time, it appears practical to reflect on the very nature of information as a new social order and for the future course of the information society. THE DIFFERENCE OF INFORMATION SOCIETY FROM EARLIER SOCIETIES Through the growing importance of information and knowledge, quite a lot of theories have dealt with the transformation of society. Although there is no general definition of it, we are aware that this society exists. The apparent interdependence of technology, economy, politics, culture and society in a contemporary transformation processes have been seen and noted. It started in 1960's when measurement of then emerging knowledge industry were taken to determine the impact of technologies on the economy and employment. There was a 29% of the GNP in the U.S. attributed to the industry and therefore stressing the transformative role of the knowledge-based technology to the economy. Another more advanced survey on the U.S. information economy 15 years after with 46% of the GNP generated by the information sector (Pekari 2005 p.2). This indicates that the U.S. that time was an information-based economy. In Japan, Japanese scholars began to develop the concept of information society, which was implemented by the Japanese government in 1971. Both the United States and Japan knew that the answer to the economic crisis of the 1970's is to increase productivity and foster competitiveness, which information technology plays a very important role. Without any presumption and dealing with social outcome, both countries concentrated on the impact of mass communication and information (Pekari 2005, p.2). The theories on technological change are more or less independent as a new economic and social wave of civilization subsequent to the agricultural and industrial transformation. The post-industrial society by Bell as narrated by Pekari (2005 p.3) is not an information society but a "knowledge" society because it draws from Machlupian concept of changes in workforce and the shifting of goods to services production that lies beyond the new characters of knowledge. According to Pekari (2005 p.3), the Network society introduced by Castells formed from the idea of information capitalism, which is categorize by global financial markets and international production networks handled by network enterprises. Even though the theory concerning information society is not clear, the superiority of information and knowledge as resources of production and efficiency appears to be undisputed. It instigates change in the working environment and transformation in the organizational structure of companies and corporations. The advancement of technologies and the creation of pristine means of communication spread out to the political and cultural realm. It directs to the redistribution of power to different concerns, the "states, the civil society and the economic players" (Pekari 2005 p.4). The information society is seen as marking a threshold in the development of civilization compared to the agricultural and industrial society. It is a distinctive reformation, a valuable period in our history like the agricultural and industrial revolution. IT's revolutionary nature is always remembered as the foundation of this unique social transformation, a clear break from the industrial capitalism. "All human labour requires information-processing and all commodities are produced using informational inputs and themselves are carriers of information" (Miles 2000 p.4) As post-industrial theory treated services as a shapeless object, information society is binding these diverse activities together. Combining various information occupations such as "scientific and technical workers, information machine workers, communication workers, processing and supervisory workers, and more" (Miles 2000 p.4). The mechanisms responsible for the enlargement of these diverse activities are too innumerable to be reduced to an increasing demand for top-quality "information products and communication services" (Miles 2000 p.4). For instance, some informational components of many occupations have been "transferred to specialise staff" (Miles 2000 p4), making this information work more evident attaching it to a more specific set of workers. In a more technological or socio-technical focus, this method decisively locates the development and application of "technological knowledge as a matter of social practice" (Miles 2000 p.5). It is unmistakable that the advancement and accumulation of knowledge that deals with how humans can restructure their environments is becoming the key factor in economic and social development. Although some important changes in our environment do not have direct link to such knowledge, they are more often closely link to "changing technological capabilities" (Miles 2000 p.5). There are also equally significant developments in which we call as technological revolutions that require the enhancement of specific class of technological knowledge and its application to social and economic goals. The term "Information Society" signifies the modification in social and economic affairs related with the improvement and dissemination of new IT. It is the new knowledge that strengthens and reinforced this technology, and informs its applications, that comprises of more than a measurable amplification of already established social movements. IT entails a radical new technology, the creation and application of knowledge regarding how to achieve transformations of humanity in spectacularly new ways. A technological revolution that contains new basic knowledge about fundamental chemical, physical, biological or other processes having been established. More often than not, this will be based on scientific breakthroughs, perhaps carried out by pure scientists in a non-industrial setting such as simple research in schools and other dedicated laboratories. On the other hand, a great deal of revolutionary work is also performed in an industrial setting but the new knowledge and the techniques associated with it permit modifications to be made in an exceptionally extensive range of products and processes. This is not a limited incremental or radical innovations or just improvements limited to a particular class of product specifically made for a particular sector. The new knowledge is engaged to acquire essentially new and extensive inventions allowing for the introduction of a new term "heartland technologies" (Miles 2000, p.5) that can be applied to operations common to a wide range of economic implementation. A technological revolution in these circumstances involves the application of the new heartland technologies that have certain attractive features for users, unconstrained by any limiting factors, from all sides of the economy. The information society surpasses the qualities of earlier societies with its limitless application and massive impact to the economy. The new social order well suited for the information age where human development is dependent on the technologies and institutions of social communications around them. Where social communications is increasingly being dependent on mobilization and access to information and are continually shaped by these new information technologies. References: Golding P., 2000, "Information and Communication Technology and the Sociology of the Future", Department of Social Sciences, Loughbourough University, , 04/26/06, http://www.bolender.com/Dr.%20Ron/SOC1023G%20Social%20Problems/New%20Social%20Problems%20Course%20Folder/Information%20and%20Communications%20Technologies.pdf McGregor G., 2005, "The Nature of Information in the 21st Century: Conundrums for the Informatics Community", , 04/26/06, http: // eprints.rclis.org / archive / 00003886 / 01 / Macgregor_NatureofInformation_preprint_OA.pdf Miles I, 2000, "Rethinking Organization in the Information Society", Paper presented at SOWING Conference at Karlsruhe, , 04/27/06, http: / / www . eforesee. Info / malta / ianmiles2.pdf Miles I., 2005, "The Knowledge Society and Euphoria", European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, , 04/27/06, http:// www. eurofound. eu. Int / publications/files/EF0414EN.pdf Pekari C., 2005, "Human Rights in the Information Society", , 04/26/06, http://www.esil-sedi.org/english/pdf/Pekari.PDF Skouby K., n. d., "Information Societies: Towards a more useful concept", IV.3, , http://www.lirne.net/resources/netknowledge/skouby.pdf Read More