 Inform ation is referred t o a s the “knowledge

communicated o r ob tained concerning a

sp ecific fact o r circumstance .”

 Inform ation Age i s define d a s a “p eriod when

information b ecame e f fortlessly accessib le
through p ub licat ions and through the
management o f information b y comp uter
and comp uter networks .”
 James R. Messenger p rop osed the Theo ry o f
I nformation Age (1 9 8 2) claiming that ;

 The I nfo rma tio n Age is a true new age b ased

up on the interconnection o f comp uters v ia
telecommunications .

 The p r ima ry factors driv ing these new age

forward are conv enience and user -
friendliness .
 Because o f the ab undance o f information, it
w a s difficult to collect and manage them
starting i n the 1960s and 1970 s .

 During the 1980 s, real angst set in . Richard

Wurman called it “I n f o r m a t i o n Anxiety.”

 In the 1990s, info rmation became the

currency i n the b usiness world .
 Robert Harris detailed some facts o n the
I nformation Age i n his article, “Truths o f the
I nformation Age.”
 I nformation must comp ete .
 Newer is eq uated with truer .
 S election is a v iew p oint .
 The media sells w ha t t he culture buys .
 The early word gets the p erm .
 Yo u a re w ha t yo u ea t a nd so is yo ur b ra in.
 Anything in grea t dema nd w ill b e c o unterfeited.
 I deas are seen a s c o nt ro v ersial.
 U ndea d info rma tio n w a lks ev er o n.
 Media p resenc e c rea t es the story.
 The medium selec ts the messa ge.
 The w ho le truth is a p ursuit.
 Computer is a n ele ctronic dev ice that stores
and p ro c esses da ta o r information .

 Comp uters are among the most imp o rtant

contrib utions o f adv ances in the I nformation
Age t o society .
 Personal Computer (PC)
— I t is a single -user
instrument and first known a s
microcomp uters since they
were a comp let e comp uter
that built o n a smaller scale
than the enormous system
op erated b y b usinesses .
 Desktop Computer
— It is describ ed a s a PC
that is not designed for
p ortability . M ost desktop o ffer
mo re storage, p ower, and
versatility t han t heir p ortable
v ersions .
 Laptops
— These are p ortable
comp uters that integrate the
essentials of a desktop
computer in a b attery -
p owered p ackage, which are
somewhat larger than a
typ ical ha rdc o v er b ook and
are co mmo nly called
noteb ooks .
 Person al Digital A ssi stants
(PDAs)
— These are tightly
integrated comp uters that
usually ha v e no keyb oards
b ut rely o n a touch screen for
user inp ut and typ ically
smaller t ha n a pap erb ack,
lightweight and battery -
p owered .
 Server
— It refers t o a computer
that has b een im p rov ed t o
p rov ide network serv ic es to
other comp ut ers . I t is usually
b oast p owerful p ro c esso rs,
tons of memory, a nd large
hard driv es .
 Mainframes
— These are huge
comp uters systems that can
feel a n entire room . The y are
used especially b y l a rge firms
to describ e the la rge,
exp ens iv e machines that
p rocesses millions of
transactions ev eryday .
 Wearable Computers
— They inv olv e mat erials
that are usually int egra t ed
into cellp hones, watches, and
other small ob j ect s o r p laces .
They perfo rm common
comp uter ap p lications such
as data b asis, e-mail,
multimedia, and schedulers .