8/28/06

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i- : A Prefix Whose Time hasCome

What puts the i- in iSchool?

Why "the history of information"?

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"Information" -- An Age forthe Ages

"You, the American people, have made our passageinto the global information age an era of greatAmerican renewal."

Bill Clinton, Farewell Address, Jan 19, 2001

"The information age is opening up new possibilitiesfor all of us, for our children and for the entirenation. . . ."

Bill Gates

220terrorism

512air

220terrorism

268Aquarius

1270*Cold War

1880digital

494electronic

722computer

1137internet

2274information

188oil

220democracy

69automobile/-motive

96television

327atomic

494nuclear

Google hits(000)

Age of X/Xage

What Makes "Information" Different?

* Also 1200 for era

220terrorism

512air

220terrorism

268Aquarius

1270Cold War

1880digital

494electronic

722computer

1137internet

2274information

188oil

220democracy

69automobile/-motive

96television

327atomic

494nuclear

Google hits(000)

Age of X/Xage

What Makes "Information" Different?

• How is information

different from digital,

internet, computer,

etc.?

• What is novel about

the information age?

• What age does the

"information age"

succeed?

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Defining the "InformationAge"

information ageThe period beginning around 1970 andnoted for the abundant publication,consumption, and manipulation ofinformation, especially by computersand computer networks.

American Heritage Dict., 4th ed.

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"Information" as a lens fororganizing the past

History 3493 (Oklahoma U.) The CulturalHistory of Information.

Prerequisite: junior standing or permission ofinstructor. An introduction to the history of

information technologies and communicationsmedia from the printing press to the internet.Topics will include the print revolution, theadvent of electronic communications, thegrowth of broadcast media, the developmentof the digital computer, and the internetboom.

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Information and"Information Technologies"

What makes for "Information technology"?

Prototypical instances of modern "IT"

Tracing Technological"Antecedents"

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Ask a silly question:"What was the first computer"?

Antikythera mechanism, ca. 150 B.C.

Abacus 2400, B.C.Stonehenge, 3100 B.C.

Ishango bone, 20,000 B.C.

Pascal's calculator, 1624

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The Whiggishness ofTechnologically-focussed

Histories

All history = a triumphant (and,often, ineluctable) progresstoward the present state…

… the history of our country during

the last hundred and sixty years iseminently the history of physical, ofmoral, and of intellectualimprovement.

Thos. Babington Macaulay, 1848

That great, growling engine of change --technology.

Alvin Toffler, 1970.

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The Perils of "ChronologicalSnobbery"

"Chronological snobbery" [is] the uncriticalacceptance of the intellectual climate commonto our own age. .. Our own age is also "a period,"and certainly has, like all periods, its owncharacteristic illusions. They are likeliest tolurk in those widespread assumptions whichare so ingrained in the age that no one dares toattack or feels it necessary to defend them.

C. S. Lewis

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The World Turned Upside-Down

“InformationRevolution”--880k Google hits

"Everything is different"

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Approaching "information"historically

"Information" = a conceptual template forclassifying the various technologies, practices,and political, social, & legal insitutions thatcontribute to the creation, collection, storage,transmission, diffusion, and reproduction ofknowledge in a particular society…

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Approaching "information"historically

"Information" = a conceptual template for classifyingthe various technologies, practices, and political,social, & legal insitutions that contribute to thecreation, collection, storage, transmission, diffusion,and reproduction of knowledge in a particularsociety…

Points to bear in mind:

• Technology is often, but not invariably, a focus ofthese accounts…

• But technology is never a determinative agent byitself ..

• Issues of relation of technology to socialbackground recur…

• Information-centered analysis doesn't presupposethe idea of historical progress…

• In this sense, all ages are "information ages"…

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Assignment for SecondMeeting

In a few sentences, describe a situationin the last 48 hours in which you haveacquired, discovered, received,transmitted, or created someinformation, whether or not technologyis involved. Bring your description toclass on a piece of paper.

Plan of the Course

Course webCourse web pagepage