Information Age
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[[Image:Computer lab showing desktop PCs warwick.jpg|thumb|right|250px|A university computer lab containing many desktop PCs]]
'''Information Age''' (also known as the '''Digital Age''' and '''Wireless Age''') is a term that has been used to refer to the present era. <!--Beginning with what year??--> The name alludes to the global economy's shift in focus away from the production of physical goods (as exemplified by the [[industrial age]]) and towards the manipulation of information.
==Information technology==
[[Image:ENIACsign.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Plaque about the birth of the Information Age.]]
The relatively recent field of [[information technology]] concerns the use of computer-based information systems to convert, store, protect, process, transmit and retrieve information. Technological advances in this field have changed lifestyles around the world and spawned new industries around the personal computer.
Early electronic computers were big, costly, and available only to universities and big corporations. Before the 1990s, most discoveries in information technology were driven by full time researchers having access to the high priced equipment.
In the 1980s, however, small computers started to become available. A [[personal computer]], or PC, is generally a [[microcomputer]] intended to be used by one person at a time, and suitable for general purpose tasks such as word processing, [[Computer Programming|programming]], editing or playing a personal [[computer game]], and is usually used to run software not generally written by its user. Unlike minicomputers, a personal computer is usually owned by the person using it, indicating a low cost of purchase and simplicity of operation. The user of a modern personal computer may have significant knowledge of the operating environment and application programs, but is not necessarily interested in programming nor even able to write programs for the computer.
The term PC was popularized by [[Apple Computer]] and soon after many other companies began offering personal computers. International Business Machines Corporation ([[IBM]]) developed the first open standard personal computer (IBM PC launched in US markets in 1981; the first deliveries to European markets were in 1982 and 1983), which standardized the software development. For the first time in history, the general public had personal computers. These computers used similar operating systems that allowed their users to communicate by using the same platform.
Soon after, the general public saw the start of what is now known as the current information technology era: personal computers in the public's homes, using communication devices known as [[modem]]s, to access information on remote [[Server (computing)|servers]]. The first incarnation of those were [[Bulletin board system|BBS]] servers, setup by education facilities or even individual people, to store both information and allow discussion with chat and messages.
==The Internet==
The [[Internet]] was originally conceived as a distributed, fail-proof network that could connect computers together and be resistant to any one point of failure; the Internet can't be totally destroyed in one event, and if large areas are disabled, the information is easily re-routed. It was created mainly by [[DARPA]]; its initial software applications were [[email]] and computer file transfer.
It was with the invention of the [[World Wide Web]] in 1989 that the Internet really took off as a global network. Today the Internet has become the ultimate place to accelerate the flow of relevant information and the fastest growing form of media.<ref>Lallana, Emmanuel C., and Margaret N. Uy, "[[wikibooks:The Information Age|The Information Age]]".</ref>
==Education==
'''The Information Age''' means something different to everyone. In 1956 in the [[United States]], [[researchers]] noticed that the number of people holding "[[white collar]]" jobs had just exceeded the number of people holding "blue collar" jobs. These researchers realized that this was an important change, as it was clear that we were leaving the [[Industrial Age]]. As the [[Industrial Age]] ended, the newer times adopted the title of "the Information Age".
Of course, at that time relatively few jobs had much to do with computers and computer-related technology. What was occurring was a steady trend away from people holding Industrial Age manufacturing jobs. An increasing number of people held jobs as clerks in stores, office workers, teachers, nurses, and etc. We were shifting into a service economy.
Eventually, Information and Communication Technology—computers, computerized machinery, fiber optics, telecommunication satellites, Internet, and other ICT tools—became a significant part of our economy. Microcomputers were developed, and many business and industries were greatly changed by ICT.
[[Nicholas Negroponte]] captured the essence of these changes in his 1995 book, ''Being Digital.'' At the time, he was the head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab. His book discusses similarities and differences between products made of atoms and products made of bits. In essence, one can very cheaply and quickly make a copy of a product made of bits, and ship it across the country or around the world both quickly and at very low cost. Parts of the Being Digital book as well as many of [http://archives.obs-us.com/obs/english/books/nn/bdcont.htm Negroponte's articles] are available free on the Web.
Nowadays, most people tend to think of the Information Age in terms of cell phones, digital music, high definition television, digital cameras, email on the Internet, the Web, computer games, and other relatively new products and services that have come into widespread use. '''The pace of change brought on by such technology has been very rapid.'''
===Formal schooling===
The history of formal schooling has been tracked back to the time of the [[Sumer#Language and writing|Sumerian invention of reading and writing]] more than 5,000 years ago. It takes a lot of time and effort to become skillful at reading and writing. One-on-one tutoring works much better than a class of 20—40 or more students being taught by one teacher. However, when it comes to helping a large number of people become literate, the classroom settings of today are not a lot different than those used thousands of years ago.
The [[Industrial Revolution]] in England led to a great expansion in the number of students being taught reading, writing, and arithmetic in schools. Such schools kept children out of the factories and they became the "factory model" of education that is still widely used throughout the world.
==Innovations==
*[[Atanasoff–Berry Computer]] - electronic digital computer - 1939
*[[Z3 (computer)|Z3]] - first general-purpose digital computer - 1941
*[[ENIAC]] general purpose electronic digital computer - 1946
*Earliest form of the [[Internet]] - 1969
*[[Personal computer]] - late 1970s
*[[Email]] - 1971
*[[World Wide Web]] - 1989
*[[Laptop]] (also Notebook) - 1990's
*Online [[gaming communities]] - 1990's, mainstreamed early 2000s
*[[Cellular phones]] - 1984, mainstreamed late 1990s and early 2000s
*[[Webcam]]s 1990s mainstreamed 2000s
*[[Digital Television]] 1990s mainstreamed 2000s
*[[Broadband]] mainstreamed 2000s
*[[Wireless networking]] - early 2000s
*Wireless [[Headphones]] - early 2000s
*[[GPS]] mainstreamed mid-2000s
*[[Satellite radio]] - circa 2003
*[[Bluetooth]] - early-to-mid 2000s
*[[Digital Audio Broadcasting|DAB]] -Digital Radio 2004
*[[Digital Audio Player]] - mainstreamed early 2000s
*[[Digital Video Recorder]]s (c. 1999) mainstreamed early-to-mid-2000s
*[[HDTV]] mainstreamed mid-to-late 2000s
== See also ==
*[[Daniel Bell]]
*[[Digital exhaust]]
*[[Information Theory]]
*[[Informational Revolution]]
*[[Internet Governance]]
*[[Marshall McLuhan]]'s ''[[Understanding Media]]''
*[[Stewart Brand]]
==References==
<references />
Moursund, David (n.d.). Information Age Education. Retrieved 4/30/08: http://iae-pedia.org/.
==External links==
{{wikibooks|The Information Age}}
*[http://www.information-age.com Articles on the impact of the information age on business] at ''Information Age'' magazine.
*[http://www.vias.org/beyinfoage/ Beyond the Information Age] by Dave Ulmer
*[http://www.dodccrp.org/files/Alberts_Anthology_I.pdf Information Age Anthology Vol I] by Alberts and Papp (CCRP, 1997)
*[http://www.dodccrp.org/files/Alberts_Anthology_II.pdf Information Age Anthology Vol II] by Alberts and Papp (CCRP, 2000)
*[http://www.dodccrp.org/files/Alberts_Anthology_III.pdf Information Age Anthology Vol III] by Alberts and Papp (CCRP, 2001)
*[http://www.dodccrp.org/files/Alberts_UIAW.pdf Understanding Information Age Warfare] by Alberts et al. (CCRP, 2001)
*[http://www.dodccrp.org/files/Alberts_IAT.pdf Information Age Transformation] by Alberts (CCRP, 2002)
*[http://www.dodccrp.org/files/Alberts_Unintended.pdf The Unintended Consequences of Information Age Technologies] by Alberts (CCRP, 1996)
*Gelbstein, E. (2006) ''Crossing the Executive Digital Divide''. [http://www.diplomacy.edu/Books/publications.asp ''DiploFoundation''], ISBN 99932-53-17-0
[[Category:Modern history]]
[[Category:20th century]]
[[Category:21st century]]
[[Category:American generations]]
[[Category:Historical eras| ]]
[[Category:Digital Revolution|*Information age]]
[[ar:عصر المعلومات]]
[[de:Informationszeitalter]]
[[es:Era de la información]]
[[fr:Société de la connaissance]]
[[hr:Informacijsko doba]]
[[it:Era dell'informazione]]
[[ja:情報化時代]]
[[pt:Era da Informação]]