The Changing Information Environment - 9780367021900

Taylor & Francis

A revolution has occurred during our lifetime in the collection, storage, and communication of information, a revolution whose full significance is scarcely understood even by those responsible for its development. At the core of this revolution, and its most visible component, is electronic data processing via the computer. The computer has shown an impressive ability to handle increasing complexity at greater speeds while decreasing its use of power, cost, and space. In this book, however, John McHale shows how the impact of the information revolution stretches far beyond these specific developments. It lies (1) in the expansion and interlinkage of computer-based systems and their extension into larger areas of automated control; (2) in the convergence and relationship of such systems with concurrently developing communications technologies; and (3) in the ways in which these combine together to create a radically new information environment, whose major impacts will be felt most c.