information society

Information Society

A society where communication and information technologies influence the everyday lives of most of its members. Helped by the advance of the Internet and a 'wired' culture, technology is used for a wide range of personal, social, educational and business activities, and to transmit receive and exchange digital data rapidly between places despite great distances. In an information society, information is as powerful a resource as the manufacturing and agricultural industries were in previous eras. Also known as the knowledge economy, digital era or information superhighway
source:goldfish.co.uk


The concept “information society”, born under the precepts of neo-liberal globalization, infers that henceforth it will be the “technological revolutions” that will determine the course of development; social conflicts would be things of the past. For the same reason, this concept is no longer the most appropriate to qualify the new trends in societies, nor much less to describe a counter-hegemonic project of society.
Source: http://vecam.org/articles517.html


One of the most explicit definitions of information society is the one offered by the Finland's Council of State. Information society is seen as a:
society which makes extensive use of information networks (meaning systems of IT hardware and services which provide users with delivery and retrieval services in a given area, e.g. electronic mail, directories and video services) and IT (information technology meaning the hardware, software and methods used for the automatic processing and transfer of data, and skills needed to use them), produces large quantities of information and communication products and services, and has a diversified content industry (Nassimbeni, 1998: 154).
source: http://cbdd.wsu.edu/kewlcontent/cdoutput/TR501/page8.htm