The Digital Research Initiative
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The Importance of Information


Throughout the course of human history, power has taken many forms. For a time, the ability to produce and control fire set some people apart. Later the basis of power shifted to agriculture and control over land and water used to grow crops. Later still, knowledge of science and technology allowed people to begin to impose their will on the natural environment around them. By the late 19th century, the Industrial Revolution and the growth of manufacturing allowed some nations to become world leaders. More recently, control of nuclear weapons has served as a means of wielding power.

While all of these factors remain important to some degree, the use and control of information has become equally important, if not more so. In many cases the ability to communicate quickly and effectively has reduced limitations of time and space in dramatic fashion, or elimated them all together. Information has truly become a source of power, and as such can be used in both a constructive or destructive manner.

In a time when the Internet and World Wide Web are revolutionizing the way people can obtain and use a variety of information, an old question has taken on new importance. How is information defined? We often think of it as facts and figures, pieces of knowledge that enable us to learn something. But is this really the case? More importantly, does the definition, whatever it may be, change when it is applied to the Internet and the Web?

Others students have looked at this, and thought about it, before. Below are some links previous students have gathered that offer a variety of definitions, thoughts and other useful things to keep in mind when examining what the word "information" might really mean.


What is Information Anyway?

  1. Information is defined as merely data, but, applied information is intelligence.
    see Information Advantage Homepage
  2. Information is defined as knowledge derived from study, experience or instruction.
    see Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary. (7th ed. Springfield: Merriam, 1990.)
  3. In.for.ma.tion \.in-f*r-'ma--sh*n\ \-shn*l, -sh*n-*l\ n
    1: the communication or reception of knowledge or intelligence
    2a: knowledge obtained from investigation, study, or instruction
    2b: INTELLIGENCE, NEWS
    2c: FACTS, DATA
    2d: a signal (as one of the digits in dialing a telephone number) purposely impressed upon the input of a communication system or a calculating machine
    3: the act of informing against a person
    4: a formal accusation of a crime made by a prosecuting officer as distinguished from an indictment presented by a grand jury
    5: a numerical quantity that measures the uncertainty in the outcome of an experiment to be performed - in.for.ma.tion.al aj

    Source: Hypertext Webster Interface

What is Information?
Four Quotations:
  1. "In ways not yet imagined, technology will change the way humanity orders life on this planet. It will move us toward a different kind of economy and much modified ways of living. The change from an energy-based economy to an information-based economy will change the rules of international economic competition and will thrust universities in roles they have not traditionally played."
    - UNC Chancellor Michael Hooker
    see The Daily Tar Heel
  2. "Society is being held hostage by a battery of information which threatens to exceed our ability to manage it. Information overload costs businesses and individuals valuable time, effort and additional resources...and the cost is rising."

    -Mark R. Nelson, doctoral student in Information Science and Policy at the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at the State University of New York at Albany.
    see Nelson's paper

  3. "In the industrial age, when the strategic resource was capital, the goal of the corporation could only have been profits. In the information era, however, the strategic resource is information, knowledge, creativity."--John Naisbitt and Patricia Aberdene
    (Source: Thornsett, Michael, (1990), A Treasury of Business Quotations, McFarland + Co. Inc. Publishers, p.85)
  4. Universities are full of knowledge; the freshmen bring a little in and the seniors take none away, and knowledge accumulates. -- Abbott L. Lowell
    (Source: Prochrow, Herbert, (1969), A Treasury of Humorous Quotations, Harper Row Publishers, p.184)


New Terms for Information

By now, most Americans are familiar with the term "information superhighway". But other important new terms and concepts have developed as well, including the three featured below:

Information society:
a term that describes the way information shapes nearly all aspects of life. Recognizes that the transmission of information has a trickle-down affect on nearly all people. This term has been adopted by the European Union as a way of describing their future hopes for Europe.

Information age:
a term used to describe the current timeperiod; considers the use and transmission of information to be the defining characteristic of modern society.

Information worker:
a term used to describe professionals who create, transmit, or rely on information in order to perform their jobs. Obvious examples are broadcasters or other media members, but in an information age, and as part of an information society, it could be argued that almost all professionals are in-part information workers.


How You Can Make Information Work For You?
Suppose you have just graduated from college. New diploma in hand, but no job yet. Suddenly, the news you've been waiting for arrives, someone wants to interview you for a job, and it sounds perfect. Except, it's in Alaska, and you've heard the company might be in financial trouble. So, before you decide to fly out there to interview, it might be a good idea to find out as much as you can about the company, and about Alaska too for that matter.

But where to start? You can't very well call up the company, can you? You can, however, turn to the World Wide Web.

For example, you could try any of these sites for information about publicly-traded companies, or check out what the Wall Street Journal has to say, or use a list compiled by a guy at the Wharton School of Business. And of course, you might want to learn about the weather in Alaska too.

LIVEDGAR

Stock exchange indexes

Wall Street Journal

Ed Zane's business sites

an MCI financial report

Weather reports

More weather updates

Virtual tour of Alaska

By equipping yourself with as much information as possible, you not only make yourself a better candidate for the job, but you also better able to critically evaluate the job you are being offered and see if it is really what you want.


Information Technology

As we have seen, people use electronic information in many ways. In recent years, information technology has grown rapidly to encompass a wide variety of applications and uses, and is studied at colleges and universities around the world, including right here at UNC .

These two sites do a nice job of summarizing the recent developments and trends in information technology.

  • Overview of information technology
    Summary from Rochester Institute of Technology, highlights some educational uses for information technologies.
  • Another summary of information technology
    This one takes a more business-oriented approach, includes a tips on how to get a job in the field and what types of salaries to expect. A page from the UK, so all salaries are listed in the British pound.



  • This site made by
    deb
    This site was created especially for students of the UNC School of Journalism's
    JOMC 050 Class, and anyone else who may be interested.
    For more information, please contactdaikat@email.unc.edu