Lesson 1  the primary factors driving this new age

forward are convenience and user-friendliness

Society nowadays? which, in turn, will create user dependence.
-Highly Modernized  What inventions started the information age or
-Automated revolution?
-Data Driven 1. Language
-Technologically Advanced 2. writing and printing
 HISTORY & EMERGENCE of the Information
 There are so many modern technologies Age
today. These technologies influence human
lives and the society as a whole. One aspect
that technologies has greatly affected is
INFORMATION.

 FACTORS LIMITS THE EXCHANGING OF

INFORMATION

• Distance
• Time * refer to handout for remaining*
• Location
 INFORMATION ANXIETY
The attempt of humans to address the three - Human cost of information overload. In the words
limitations of communication or exchange of of Richard Saul Wurman (author of the book
information led to new technologies. 'Information Anxiety'), it is
These technologies affected the social and - "produced by the ever-widening gap between
economic role of information leading to the so- what we understand and what we think we should
called Information Revolution. understand. black hole between data and
knowledge, and what happens when information
 WHAT IS INFORMATION AGE? doesn't tell us what we want or need to know."
 INFORMATION - Knowledge communicated or
obtained concerning a specific fact or  TRUTHS OF THE INFORMATION AGE
circumstance. (Webster's Encyclopedic By Robert Harris detailed some facts on the
Unabridged Dictionary) Information Age
- Facts provided or learned about something or
someone. 1. Information must compete. There is a need for
information to stand out and be recognized in the
 INFORMATION AGE - A period starting in the increasing clutter.
last quarter of the 20th century information
became effortlessly accessible through 2. Newer is equated with truer. We forgot the
publications and through the management of truth that any fact or value can endure
information by computers and computer
networks. 3. Selection is a viewpoint. Choose multiple
sources for your information if you want to receive
 DIGITAL AGE and the NEW MEDIA AGE a more balanced view of reality.
(associated with the development of
computers) 4 The media sells what the culture buys. In other
words, information is driven by cultural priorities.
 The Information Age is a true new age based
upon the interconnection of computers via 5. The early word gets the perm. The first media
telecommunications with these information channel to expose an issue often defines the
systems operating on both a real-time and as- context, terms, and attitudes. surrounding it.
needed basis
6. You are what you eat and so is your brain. Do 3. Desktop Computer - PC that is not designed for
not draw conclusions unless all ideas and portability, The assumption with a desktop is that
information are presented to you. it will be set up in a permanent spot.

7. Anything in great demand will be A workstation is simply a desktop computer that

counterfeited. The demand for incredible has a more powerful processor, additional
knowledge, scandals, and secrets is ever-present; memory, and enhanced capabilities for
hence, many events are fabricated by tabloids, performing special group of tasks, such as 3D
publicists, or other agents of information fraud. graphics or game development.
- Most desktops offer more storage, power, and
8. Ideas are seen as controversial. It is almost versatility than their portable versions.
certainly impossible to make any assertion that will
not find some supporters and some detractors 3. Laptops - portable computers that integrate the
9. Undead information walks ever on. Rumors, essentials of a desktop computer in a battery-
lies, disinformation, and gossips never truly die powered package, which are somewhat larger than
down. They persist and continue to circulate. a typical hardcover book. They are commonly
called notebooks.
10. Media presence creates the story - People
hehave much differently from the way they would if
being filmed when the medas are present, 4. Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) - tightly
especially film news of televisin media integrated computers that usually have no
keyboards but rely on a touch screen for user
11. The medium selects the mewage. Television input. PDAs are typically smaller than a paperback,
is mainly pictorial, partially aural, and slightly lightweight, and battery- powered.
textual, so visual stories are emphasized fires,
chases, and disasters 5. Server - refers to a computer that has been
improved to provide network services to other
12. The whole truth is a pursuit. The information computers. Servers usually boast powerful
that reaches us is usually selected, verbally processors, tons of memory, and large hard drives
charged, fihered, slanted, and sometimes,
fabricated. What is neglected is often even muure 6. Mainframes - huge computer systems that can
important than what is included. fill an entire room. They are used especially by
large firms to describe the large, expensive
 Computers - are among the most important machines that process millions of transactions
contributions of advances in the Information every day. The term "mainframe" has been
Age to society. A computer is an electronic replaced by enterprise server. Although some
device that stores and processes data supercomputers are single computer systems,
information) most comprise multiple, high-performance, parallel
computers working as a single system.
 Types of Computer
- the term "computer" can apply to virtually any 7. Wearable Computers - usually integrated into
device that has a microprocessor in it, most people cell phones, watches, and other small objects of
think of a computer as a device that receives input places. They perform common computer
from the user through a mouse (hand-guided applications such as databases, email, multimedia,
directions tool) or keyboard, processes it in some and schedulers.
fashion, and presents the result on a screen.
 The World Wide Web (Internet)
1. Personal Computer (PC) - It is a single-user
instrument. PCs were first known as  Father of Information Theory- origin of the
microcomputers since they were a complete Internet to Claude E Shannon, an American
computer but built on a smaller scale than the Mathematician
enormous systems operated by most businesses
- published a paper proposing that information can  SWISS-PROT protein sequence database
be quantitatively encoded as a sequence of ones - The development of a consolidated formal
and zeroes. database to maintain the initial databases of
protein sequences at individual laboratories.
 Internet – world wide system of interconnected
networks that facilitate data transmission  Rational drug discovery - reduces the number
among innumerable computers. of trials in the screening of drug compounds
and in identifying potential drug targets for a
• It was developed during 1970s by the Department particular disease using high-power computing
of Defense workstations and software like Insight.
– In case of an attack, military advisers suggested
the advantage of being able to operate on one  Plant biotechnology - Bioinformatics is found to
computer from another terminal. be useful in the areas of identifying diseases
resistance genes and designing plants with
• In early days, the Internet was used mainly by high nutrition value.
scientist to communicate with other scientists.
How to Check the Reliability of Web Sources
- One early problem faced by Internet users was 1. Who is the author of the article/site?
speed – Phone lines could only transmit 2. Who published the site?
information at a limited rate. 3. What is the main purpose of the site? Why did
the author write it and why did the publisher post it?
• The development of fiber-optic cables allowed for 4. Who is the intended audience?
billion bits of information to be received every 5. What is the quality of information provided on the
minute. website?

• Companies like Intel developed faster

microprocessor so personal computers could
process the incoming signals at a more rapid rate.

 Sergey Brin and Larry Page - created google,

directors of a Stanford research project, built a
search engine that listed results to reflect page
popularity

 Electronic mail (E-mail) – was a suitable way to

send a message to a fellow workers, business
partners, or friends.

 Applications of Computers in Science and

Technology
 Bioinformatics - Application of information
technology to store, organize, and analyze vast
amount of biological data.
- This was established because of a need to create
databases of biological sequencesrs in Science
and Technology
- The human brain cannot store all the generic
sequences of organisms and this huge amount of
data can be only store, analyzed, and be used
efficiently with the use of computers.