Information society

The term information society refers to an information and communication technology (ICT )-based society. The process of penetration of all areas of life with ICT forms through which a post-industrial or post-modern information society is referred to as computerization ( Nora / Minc 1979). The term information society is not defined rigid and is often used with the concept of the knowledge society. Whether the present society can be described as an information or knowledge society, or both, is not generally clear. The two terms are often used interchangeably.

Depending on the focus of the information society can be distinguished:

• Information economy, society - emphasis on the economic changes, such as development of a " quaternary " sector in the three-sector hypothesis
• Information Technology Society - ICT as an essential factor in economic ( and social ) development
• Information use company - emphasis on the use of aspect and the importance to the people in an information society; also " informed society " ( Steinbuch 1966), "information -conscious society" ( Wersig 1973)

Characteristic is next to the penetration of ICT changing the forms of production through creation of new industries and trades, which may eventually be subsumed under the term information economy.

Term

The American scientist Norbert Wiener predicted the emergence of an " information society". Also to be mentioned here are Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, in which he predicted his book Man in the Cosmos from the 1920s, a network of people and the transformation of the earth from a biosphere in a sociosphere. Can you turn the earth is accordingly of a biotope in a thinking being. De Chardin describes the goal of our evolution with the art as the coalescence of individual beings to a large community - beings he called the noosphere.

The closer precursor of the mission statement were developed in the 1960s, when a change was noticed in the structure of employment in the industrialized countries, which was initially referred to as a service company. These precursor concepts the Informed Society ( Steinbuch 1968, Haefner 1980, among others ) and is one of the post-industrial society ( Bell 1973). In Japan, social change has been detected towards the information society very early. So dive in 1963, the term "information society" there already in the stage theory of Tadao Umesao on.

The concept of information society has been differentiated in the 1980s from a portion of this tertiary service sector, which is not directly contributing to the gross national product and had more or less to do with the processing of information; these changes are also referred to as the second industrial revolution or communication revolution ( Wersig 1985).

The vision of the information society has been an issue, especially during the 1990s in the context of the discussion on the information highways. The term was further discredited in the public debate in the wake of the " bursting " of the so-called Internet bubble of the New Economy. At the political level, notably John Perry Barlow's adaptation of "frontier " metaphor has been controversial on the Internet. In Europe, the concept of the Freedom of information infrastructure was opposed as a techno - liberal vision of political communication of the frontier metaphor.

In connection with the digital divide hypothesis Rademacher calls for a Marshall Plan of the Information Society.

Among the features of the information society is one of among others the information explosion.

The scientific theorist Helmut F. Spinner called the Information Society as a precursor or degeneration form of the knowledge society, with spinners but a different concept of information used as usual

Growth of information in society

The growth of technologically transmitted information was quantified in three distinct groups: (i ) to transfer the growing capacity information through the space ( communications); (II) to transmit capacity information by the time ( storage); and (III) to calculate the capacity of information ( computer science ):

(I) is to receive the global technological capacity information on over ( one-way ) broadcast and radio networks of 432 ( optimally compressed ) exabytes in 1986, 715 ( optimally compressed ) exabytes in 1993 to 1.2 ( optimally compressed ) Zettabyte 2000 and 1.9 Zettabyte growth in 2007. This is an annual growth rate of 7 % and not significantly faster than the economic growth during the same period. The effective capacity of the world to share information by ( bi-directional ) telecommunications network has grown from 281 ( optimally compressed ) petabytes in 1986, over 471 petabytes in 1993 to 2,200 petabytes in 2000, to finally 65 ( optimally compressed ) exabytes in 2007. This is an annual growth rate of 30 % and five times as fast as global economic growth.

(II ) to save the global technological capacity information is from 2.6 ( optimally compressed ) exabytes 1986 to 15.8 in 1993, 54.5 in 2000, and to 295 ( optimally compressed ) exabytes in 2007 grown. This is the informational equivalent of 404 billion CD -ROMs for 2007. If you would stack these compact discs, a stack resulting ranging from the earth to the moon, and another quarter of that distance beyond.

(III ) The technological capacity of the world to calculate information with multi-purpose computers, of 3.0 × 10 ^ 8 MIPS in 1986, up to 6.4 X 10 ^ 12 MIPS 2007 is grown, which corresponds to an annual growth rate of 60 %, ie 10 times as fast as global economic growth.

Complexity

Many contemporary authors such as Ulrich Beck, Jürgen Habermas, Jean- François Lyotard and Anthony Giddens consider complexity as an essential feature of our information society; complexity leads to uncertainty, this results in a sense of being overwhelmed. As a solution to this dilemma, it is natural to try to reduce the complexity and hence the uncertainty. This is exactly what information: "Information is the reduction of uncertainty" ( Wersig 1971). To cope with the world so to reduce complexity society or information society is desirable.

Proven tools to reduce complexity include:

• Abstraction and modeling,
• Use of tools,
• Use of cognitive deputy in the form of characters,
• Development of means of knowledge storage among other things,

Tool for reducing the complexity of action are, for example:

• Further development of our senses,
• Development of the concept of management.

Tool for reducing the complexity of knowledge are, for example:

• Terms of images and pictorial presentations as synoptic presentations;
• Use of narrative forms;
• Use of non - linear and hyper- individualized Mediumship;
• Terms of agents.

Legal pillars of the information society

Kloepfer designate as pillars of the information society, the classical communication fundamental rights ( freedom of expression, freedom of information, etc.) that access to information freedom, privacy, the confidentiality and the Civil Information exclusivity rights (right to their own image, copyrights etc.).