The Global Information Society

Today, information and the technologies that store and disseminate it are producing deep-rooted and widespread changes in society - changes of the same magnitude as those that occurred during the Industrial Revolution. The purpose of this book is to give a complete picture of the information society by examining in detail the social, economic, political, and cultural roles of information and information technology. This book is effectively a second edition of the author's classic The Information Society. In it, the author illustrates the major trends in and inter-relationships between information, information and communication technologies, and the global economy and society. In tracing the direction of information-based change he reveals the implications for ordinary citizens, for the quality of everyday life, for economic and social activity, and examines the prospects of nations and trading blocs. This book provides a new way of looking at society, one that is essential for understanding social and economic structures and processes in the information age.

Contents: Information society revisited; The information society; Information and communication; Developments in computing; Developments in telecommunications; The economics of information; The social impact of information and communications technologies; The information-based industries; Information management; Global information flows: Content and context; Bibliography; Index.

Professor Martin is Head of the Department of Information Management at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Victoria, Australia. He was formerly Head of the Division of Information Management at the Queen’s University of Belfast and is the author of numerous papers on information services and the place of information in society, as well as the author of The Information Society (Aslib, 1987).