The information revolution: The information explosion.

The information explosion

As a result of this revolution, a major difference between life today and life in the 1950s is the sheer volume of information that is now available:

• Huge quantities of numerical and statistical information produced by computer data processing systems. This enables businesses and governments improve decision­ making and keep a better grip on their activities.

• Vast amounts of textual information, from newspapers and newsletters to reports and books. This is produced using computerized word processing and publishing systems.

• Enormous volumes of information in the form of sound, including music and the spoken word. Much of this is communicated electronically over the airwaves, cable, compact disc, and magnetic tape.

• A deluge of information in the form of images, m particular information communicated via TV.

On the face of it, these four forms of information are quite different. Statistical data, for example, seems far removed from pop music. In fact, these apparent differences spring from our perception of the information and the use we make of it rather than from the information itself. Today, microchips are being used to handle information in all these different forms, and multipurpose systems based on micro­ chips capable of dealing with not only numerical data and text but also sound and images are commonplace.

The information factory

We don't often think of offices (and other places such as music and film studios where information is produced) as factories, but that is what they are. The same production principles apply to them as to factories, and microchip- based automation is having just as great an effect on them. We are all aware of the enormous strides that have been made in both the quantity and quality of manufactured goods over the last few decades. Similar strides are now being made in the production of information in offices and other information-handling areas. Information today is not only much more plentiful, it is, for the most part, of a higher quality.

We all know what 'quality' means when applied to goods produced in a factory: accurate tolerances, speedy delivery, reliability, and so on. Similar concepts apply to the produc­tion of information. By quality of information we mean:

• Accuracy. Microchips and computers not only process information very quickly, they don't make mistakes. So calculations of statistical and other numerical data are accurate. In the case of information in the form of sound or image 'accuracy' can mean more faithful reproduction of the original; in the case of books and other textual information, 'accuracy' includes correct spelling (helped by the use of automatic spell checkers in computer systems).

• Timeliness. With computers, calculations of statistical and other data are carried out very rapidly, so reports on a business's activities will be very timely. This con­trasts with reports produced by manual methods, which could take months. Even the production of something like this book is much faster using computers, so that it is less out-of-date by the time it goes to press.

• Relevance. The message conveyed by the information may be trivial or irrelevant to the reader/listener/viewer; it may contain too much detail, or it may not have enough detail. Information technology can help here by its ability to store vast amounts of information and to allow rapid access to selected parts of it. Modern infor­mation-retrieval systems - including management infor­mation systems, hypertext systems, and computer-based training systems - all make use of IT techniques to tailor the message to the recipient's needs. These are described later in this book.

• Presentation. This is the most obvious aspect of 'qual­ity'. In order to increase its impact, information should be well presented. Modern information technology allows us to instantly convert tedious tables of figures to attractive charts and graphs, to print them via high­ quality printers, or display them as slides or on a computer monitor. It also enables us to mix and control a variety of media such as video, audio, and computer output.

In today's information factory the microchip has not only revolutionized the volume of output, it has transformed the quality as well. This is true whether the information pro­duced is in the form of numerical data, or text, or sound, or image.

The information processing operations

In a factory, the following sequence of operations is carried out:

• Raw materials are brought in and made available.

• They are processed by the equipment to produce the finished goods.

• The finished goods are stored in a convenient location, then withdrawn when required.

• They are transported to the customer.

The same series of operations are carried out in an 'infor­mation factory', whether an office or something like a sound studio. To illustrate this, let's take the example of infor­mation in the form of sound- music, in fact. For you to be able to listen to a piece of recorded music, the following operations must have been carried out:

1 First, the live music - the 'raw materials' - will have been captured using suitable input devices (i.e. microphones).

2 Next it will have been processed using mixing equipment to get the right balance, to incorporate effects, and so on.

3 Then it will have been stored on a master tape. Once stored, it can be retrieved at any time, i.e. played back and/or copied.

4 Finally, it will have been communicated to you by copying it to cassette tapes or compact discs which you either bought and played on your own equipment or listened to on the radio.

These four operations - capture, processing, storage and retrieval, and communication- apply to the handling of any kind of information. If I took as an example the production of numerical information about a business's activities (e.g. its costs and its sales), or the production of something like this book, I would arrive at this same list of operations.

Take my phone, for example. This contains a microchip which will autodial many of the telephone numbers I use. (This not only saves me the bother of looking up numbers and dialling, it cuts out misdialling.) These are the oper­ations that have to be carried out to use the autodial facility:

• To begin with, the phone has to capture the number I wish to store, so I have to key it in on the telephone keypad.

• Next it has to store this information, so I press the 'store' key. Later, when I wish to retrieve the number, I press the key marked 'memory'.

• The phone then processes the stored information by converting it to a code of electrical pulses understood by the telephone exchange.

• Finally it communicates the information by sending the pulses down the phone line.