第一课 1．信息社会

信息社会是一个以信息创建、发布、传播、使用和管理为重要经济、政治和文化活动的社会。知识经济是信息社会相应的经济部分，通过对经济开发的理解来创造财富。

这种社会的特点是普遍以信息技术为生产、经济和社会的中心。信息社会被看作工业社会的后继者。紧密相关的概念有后工业社会、后福特制、后现代社会、知识社会、信息通信社会、信息革命和网络社会。 2．信息科学

信息科学(也称信息研究)是一个跨学科的领域，主要涉及信息的收集、分类、管理、储存、检索和传播。一些人把信息科学看作图书馆的同义词，而其他人则认为这两个术语覆盖不同的领域。

信息科学研究知识在组织中的运用，以及人、组织和信息系统的交互作用。它经常被(错误地)看作计算机科学的一个分支。实际上，它是一个广泛的跨学科领域，不仅包括计算机科学，也包括数学、图书馆学、认知科学和社会科学。

信息科学的焦点是从涉及的利益相关方的观点看问题，然后应用信息和其他所需的技术。换言之，它首先处理的是系统性的问题，而不是系统中的个别技术问题。从这个角度来说，信息科学可以被看作对“技术决定论”的回应。“技术决定论”认为“技术按照自己的规律发展，实现自己的潜能，只受可用物质资源的限制，因此必须被看作一个自治系统，它控制并最终渗透到社会的各个子系统中”。在信息科学中，最近几年人们一直在关注人一机交互、组件、语义网、按价值设计、迭代设计过程和人们建立、使用和发现信息的方法。今天这个领域被叫做“信息领域”，有越来越多的信息学校和信息学院出现。

不应该把信息科学与信息论混淆。信息论研究信息的特定数学概念或图书馆学(与图书馆相关的领域，它使用信息科学的一些原理)。 3．信息技术

按照美国信息技术协会(ITAA)的定义，信息技术(IT)是“研究、设计、开发、执行、支持或管理基于计算机的信息系统，特别是在软件应用和计算机硬件方面。”IT涉及使用电子计算机和计算机软件来转换、存储、保护、处理、传输并安全检索信息。

今天，信息技术这个术语的意义已经扩展到许多计算和技术方面，而且比以往任何时候都更加得到人们的承认。信息技术这把伞可以非常大，覆盖许多领域。IT专业人员执行许多任务，其范围可以从安装应用软件到设计复杂的计算机网络和信息数据库。IT专业人员可以执行的一些任务包括管理数据、组建网络、设计计算机硬件、数据库和设计软件，以及经营和管理整个系统。当计算机与通信技术相结合时，就产生了信息技术。信息技术(IT)是一个广义的术语，可以描述任何有助于产生、管理、存储、通信和/或传播信息的技术。从广义上谈论信息技术时，应该注意到计算机的使用是与信息相关的。

4．信息论

信息论的主要概念可以通过人类最广泛的交流手段一语言一来理解。一种好的语言包含以下两个最主要方面：首先，最常用的词(如“一个”、“这个”、“我”)应该比那些不常用的词(如“益处”、“一代”、“平常的”)短，这样句子就不会太长。这样对词长短的权衡类似于数据压缩，而且是源编码的主要方面。其次，如果因为噪音(如车辆通过的噪音)错听或漏听了部分句子，听者应该仍然能够理解没有听到的信息的意思。这种健壮性对语言和电子通信系统都一样重要；通过信道编码可以适当地把这样的健壮性建立到通信中。源编码和信道编码是信息论的基本内容。

注意这些内容与信息的重要性无关。例如，常说的“谢谢，欢迎再来”所花费的时间与说或写紧急求救“叫救护车!”大约一样长，而后者明显更重要、更有意义。然而，信息论不考虑信息的重要性和意义，因为这些是数据的质量问题，而不是数据的数量和可读性问题，而后者完全由概率决定。

普遍认为，信息论是在1948年由克劳德·香农在其开创性的著作《一个通信的数学理论》中提出的。古典信息论的核心观点是在有噪音的信道中传递信息的工程问题。该理论最基本的结果是香农的源编码法则和噪声信道编码法则。源编码法则认为，平均而言，代表一个不确定事件所需要的位数由其熵决定。噪声信道编码法则认为，如果通信率低于一个确定的叫作信道容量的阈值，通过有噪声的信道提供可靠通信是可能的。实际上，使用适当的编码和解码系统，是有可能接近信道容量的。

信息论与一些纯学科和应用学科紧密相连。在过去的半个世纪或更长时间内，全世界的人们一直在研究并将其应用到各种工程实践中：适应系统、预测系统、人工智能、复杂系统、复杂性科学、控制论、信息论、机器学习以及许多其他的系统科学。信息论是广泛而深入的数学理论，具有同样广泛而深入的应用，其中最主要的领域是编码理论。

编码理论与寻找可以提高效率的简明方法相关，这种方法叫做编码，它最大可能地把数据在有噪声信道中通信的净错误率减少到接近香农提出的极限。这些编码可以粗略地分为数据压缩(源编码)和纠错技术(信道编码)。就后者而言，人们用了许多年才发现香农提出的方法是可能的。另一种信息论编码方法是加密算法(包括编码和加密)。来自编码理论和信息论的概念、方法和结果已被广泛应用于密码学和密码分析学。 信息论还被应用于信息检索、智能收集、统计学甚至作曲。

1. Information Society

An information society is a society in which the creation，distribution，diffusion，use，and manipulation of information is a significant economic, political，and cultural activity. The knowledge economy is its economic counterpart whereby wealth is created through the

economic exploitation of understanding.

Specific to this kind of society is the central position information technology has for production，economy，and society at large. Information society is seen as the successor to industrial society .Closely related concepts are the post-industrial society，post-modern society，knowledge society，telematic society，information revolution，and network society. 2. Information science

information science（also information studies）is an interdisciplinary science primarily concerned with the collection，classification，manipulation，storage，retrieval and dissemination of information. information science is by some regarded as synonym with library ，while others maintain the two terms cover different fields.

information science studies the application and usage of knowledge in organizations，and the interaction between people ，organizations and information systems. It is often （mistakenly) considered a branch of computer science. It is actually a broad, interdisciplinary field， incorporating not only aspects of computer science ，but also mathematics，library science， cognitive science，and the social science.

Information science focuses on understanding problems from the perspective of the stakeholders involved and then applying information and other technologies as needed. in the other words，it tackles systemic problems first rather than individual pieces of technology within that system. In this respect，information science can be seen as a response to technological determinism，the belief that technology “develops by its own laws，that it realizes its own potential ，limited only by the material resources available，and must therefore be regarded as an autonomous system controlling and ultimately permeating all other subsystems of society.” Within information science，attention has been given in recent years to human-computer interaction, groupware, the semantic web, value sensitive design, iterative design processed and the ways people generate, use, and find information. Today this field is called the Field of Information, and there are a growing number of schools and colleges of information.

Information science should not be confused with information theory, the study of a particular mathematical concept of information, or with library science, a field related to libraries which use some of the principles of information science.

3．Information Technology

Information technology (IT), as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), is “the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer Hardwar.” IT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit, and securely retrieve information

Today, the term information technology has ballooned to encompass many aspects of computing and technology, and the term is more recognizable than ever before. The information technology umbrella can be quite large, covering many fields. IT professionals perform a variety of duties that range from installing applications to designing complex computer networks and information databases. A few of the duties that IT professionals perform may include data management, networking, engineering computer hardware, database and software design, as well as the management and administration of entire systems. When computer and communications technologies are combined, the result is information technology. Information Technology (IT) is a general term that describes any technology that helps to produce，manipulate，store，communicate，and/or disseminate information. Presumably，when speaking of Information Technology (IT) as a whole，it is noted that the use of computers and information are associated.

4. Information Theory

The main concepts of information theory can be grasped by considering the most widespread means of human communication: language. Two important aspects of a good language are as follows: First, the most common words (e.g.，a”，“the”，“I”）should be shorter than less common words (e.g., “benefit”, “generation”, “mediocre”), so that sentences will not be too long. Such a tradeoff in word length is analogous to data compression and is the essential aspect of source coding. Second, if part of a sentence is unheard or misheard due to noise----e.g., a passing car ----the listener should still be able to glean the meaning or the underlying message. Such robustness is as essential for an electronic communication system as it is for a language; properly building such robustness into communications is done by channel coding. Source coding and channel coding are the fundamental concerns of information theory.

Note that these concerns have nothing to do with the important of messages. For example, a platitude such as “Thank you! Come again” takes about as long to say or write as the urgent plea “Call an ambulance!”, while clearly the latter is more important and more meaningful. Information theory, however, does not consider message important or meaning, as these are matters of the quality of data rather than the quantity and readability of data, the latter of which is determined solely by probabilities.

Information theory is generally considered to have been founded in 1948 by Claude Shannon in his seminal work “A Mathematical theory of Communication”. The central paradigm of classical information theory is the engineering problem of the transmission of information over a noisy channel. The most fundamental results of this theory are Shannon’s source coding theorem, which establish that, on average, the number of bits needed to represent the result of an uncertain event is given by its entropy; and Shannon’s noisy-channel coding theorem which states that reliable communication is possible over noisy channels provided that the rate of

communication is below a certain threshold called the channel capacity can be approached in practice by using appropriate encoding and decoding systems.

Information theory is closely associated with a collecting of pure and applied disciplines that have been investigated and reduced to engineering practice under a verity of rubrics throughout the world over the past half century or more: adaptive systems, anticipatory systems, artificial intelligence, complex systems, complexity science, cybernetics, informatics, machine learning, along with systems sciences of many descriptions. Information theory is a broad and deep mathematical theory, with equally broad and deep applications, amongst which is the vital field of coding theory.

Coding theory is concerned with finding explicit methods, called codes, of increasing the efficiency and reducing the net error rate of data communication over a noisy channel to near the limit that Shannon proved is the maximum possible for that channel. These channel to near the limit that data compression (source coding) and error-correction (channel coding) techniques. In the latter case, it took many years to find the methods Shannon’s work proved were possible. A third class of information theory codes are cryptographic algorithms (both codes and ciphers). Concepts, methods and results from coding theory and information theory are widely used in cryptography and cryptanalysis.

Information theory is also used in information retrieval, intelligence gathering, statistics, and even in musical composition.

第二课

信息是如何组织的?

当你阅读我们为本课程收集的材料时，就在获得信息。你所读到的信息在你决定它的价值并长期保留之前，只是一个短暂的记忆。不管你要保留多久，我们都会保留它，以便你在以后使用，或供未来的学生阅读和吸收。为了以后的可用性，我们已完成了信息在计算机系统中的组织和存储。然而，对信息加工来说，情况并非总是如此。不是所有的信息都可以在线存储，即使它可以被在线存储，没有人保证你今天看到的内容下周还在那里，也没有人保证为了你再次找到它，所有的材料都以逻辑的方式被组织。

天哪!信息的确难以处理，不是吗?

但是，在本节论述中我们不要担心信息多么难以存取。现在，我们仅仅关注信息是什么，以及图书馆和可靠的查找技巧如何帮助你获得所需的信息。

1．信息是什么?

从人类的角度和最广泛的意义而言，信息是你能感觉到的任何事物。它可以包括信件、语言、照片、艺术品、音乐以及几乎所有可被察觉的事物。这确实包含了海量的因素，但事

实上，我们所接触到的一切都能提供并确实给我们提供了某种信息。所以我们都是漂浮在信息海洋中的微小有机体。

根据本课程和你现在的学习阶段，我们将以信息作为材料进行重点讲解，这种材料已经以某种方式储存，可以帮助我们更好地了解世界。那么，信息是以任何方式记录的、可供未来参考的、帮助理解和产生新信息的任何东西。例如，本课程提供给你的信息可以帮助你发现、分类和解释其他信息。简而言之，我们正面临一项艰巨的任务，因为有那么多信息需要去接受。但是，别灰心，只要努力就会成功。

2．信息如何组织?

如果我们将所有感知都看作是信息，那么，我们就不能在所有情况下真正找到信息的组织。因为你计划旅行、人际交往和其他日常活动，你的社会经历可能对信息的组织有一定的帮助，但即使你有最完美的计划，即使在最可控制的环境中，你还是无法控制你会接收到什么信息。没有人知道如何销毁信息。

如果我们从目前所讨论的角度来研究信息，那么我们可以限制我们的关注点、寻找大多数我们要寻找和使用的信息的组织模式。

在传统的图书馆中，信息包含在图书、杂志、报纸和其他类型的记录媒体中。就杂志和报纸的文章而言，它们可以通过图书馆的目录和索引进行查找。现在这种情况还是大量存在，但我们会发现组织方式发生了变化。我们不再通过目录卡片来寻找图书馆的藏书信息，我们不再依靠打印的《读者手册》来查找某一主题的文章的位置。以前这些耗时的任务已经由计算机化的“信息系统”来处理，这样就大大提高了查找速度。我们发现信息还是存储在图书馆，但是被很好地组织了。我们发现信息还是存储在杂志、报纸和其他媒体中，但这些信息源有了它们独特的组织系统。对于大部分研究者来说，问题不是图书馆、杂志、期刊或电影中没有他们要的信息，而是要找出信息的组织方法，以便帮助他们找到他们所需的信息。

对图书馆材料来说，组织方法是一个详细的主题分类系统，用于检索联机“目录”。对于杂志文章来说，组织机制通常是一个在线索引和／或摘要系统，允许研究人员用主题或其他方法存取信息。对于报纸文章来说，组织机制通常是一个在线索引和／或摘要系统，允许研究人员用各种方式存取信息。所有这些信息查询系统的共性是组织。人们，包括各领域的专家，为了使这些信息可被他人查找和访问，都在花费时间，努力组织存储他们所获得的信息。简而言之，访问有价值的信息并不像把浏览器指定到AltaVista或HotBot那么简单。计算机可以帮助我们组织信息并自动检索和编目，但我们所有访问的信息是由其他人建立的。简单地说，寻找到特定信息而非偶然信息，要依赖许多人地系统描述大量的信息，不断地在有组织的系统中处理这些信息。

对于研究人员来说，幸运的是组织运动始终是人类有史以来一直具有的特点。历史本身就是人类创造和保留的东西，以期指导后人可以做什么和不可以做什么的方法。所以，当你在互联网上用鼠标点击一个资源并认为它是如此奇妙时，请记住它将比你想像的更精彩。但

是还有更好的方法来找到可靠的信息，而不是仅仅点击别人偶尔放在网上的任意一个链接。

是的，你可以找到无数免费的在线信息源，但实际可用材料的大部分都不是免费的，所以你需要在这些“大量”资源中组织、编目和检索，以产生有用的信息。对于那些你可能永远无法在互联网上免费获得的信息，你依然可以依靠图书馆。图书馆的任务就是存储和组织信息。

Unit2

Text A How Is Information Organized?

As you are reading the materials that we’ve gathered together for this course, you are assimilating information. What you’ve just read is information that you will keep in short term memory until you decide if it is worth keeping for a longer time. Regardless of how long you keep it ,we will keep it available for you to return to later or for future students to read and assimilate at a later date. We’ve made arrangements in a computer system to organize and store our information so that it is available for later use. This isn’t always the case with information, thought. Not everything is stored online, and, even if it is stored online, there is no guarantee that the information that you see today will still be there next week, and there is no guarantee that the material will be organized in a logical manner that will facilitate your finding it again.

Wow! Information sure is difficult to deal with, isn’t it?

Well, let’s not worry about how difficult it is to deal with information storage and retrieval at this stage of the game. Right now, let’s just look at what information is and how libraries and solid research skills help you get the information you need

1、What is information

Well, in human terms and in the broadest sense, information is anything that you are capable of perceiving. This can include written communications, photographs, art, music, and nearly anything that is perceptible. This really includes an enormous assortment of stimuli, but, realistically, everything we come in contact with is capable of providing and dose provide us with some sort of information. So we are essentially minute organisms afloat in a sea of information.

For this course, and for the academic climate in which you are now situated, we’ll focus on information as materials that have been stored in one manner or another that can educate us to a better understanding of our world. Information, then, is anything that can be documented in any form that can then be referred to later as means to understanding and to building new information. This course, for example, provides you with information that will help you to find, sort through, and interpret other information. In sort we have quite an undertaking ahead of us, since there is so much information to be bad. But, take heart. We will succeed in our endeavors.

2．How is information organized?

If we consider information in the sense of all stimuli as information, then we can’t really find organization in all cases. Your experience of the world may have some organization to it in that you plan trips and relationships and other daily activities, but you still have litter control over what information you will receive even with the best planning and even in the most controlled environments. Information is one thing that no one has ever figured out how to kill.

If we examine information in the sense discussed here, Then we can limit our focus and find patters of organization for most of the information that we will need to find and use.

Traditionally, in libraries, information was contained in books, periodicals, newspapers, other types of recorded media. It was accessible through a library’s catalog and with the assistance of indexes, in the case of periodical and newspaper articles, much of this is still true ,but the means by which we discover organization have changed .we no longer consult a card catalog for information about a library’s collection of information. we no longer consult a printed “Reader’s Guide” for information on where to find articles about a certain subject , most of these previously time-consuming takes have been step up by computerized “information system”. We still find information stored in libraries, and other media and these sources of information have their own systems of organization. The problem for most researchers is not that the information doesn’t exist in a library or in a journal or in a magazine or in a motion picture, but that they have yet to discover the organizing principles that are designed to help them find the information they need.

For library materials, the organizing principle is a detailed subject classification system available for searching in an online “catalog” . For journal articles, the organizing mechanism is typical an online indexing and /or abstracting system that allows researchers to access information by subject or by some other scheme .For newspaper articles, the organizing mechanism is typically an online indexing and/or abstracting system that allows researchers access in a variety of means. The one thing common to all of these access to all the stored information that they can get their hands on in order to make it searchable and pointing and accessible to other people . In short, accessing good information is not just an simple as pointing your browser to AltaVista or HotBot. Computer can help us to organize information and can even automate indexing and cataloging, but all of our accesses are ultimately created by other people. In short, finding information deliberately rather then serendipitously relies on many people describing myriad bites of information in a systematic manner that can be addressed consistently in an organized system.

Fortunately, for researchers, this organizing drive has been characteristic of people throughout history. History, itself, is something people have created and kept, hopefully as a means for teaching future people what to do and what not to do. So, when you click your mouse on a resource on the Internet and think that it is so wonderful, keep in mind that it is even more

than just following any link that anyone happens to stick on the Internet.

Yes, you can find myriad sources of information online for free, but many of the materials that you can really count on are not freely available, so you need to rely on organization, cataloging and indexing to take advantage of those “heavy duty” sources. And you can rely on libraries to continue to provide you with materials that you may never be able to access freely on the Internet. Information and organizing information is what libraries are about.

第三课

信息技术

记录、传输和早期计算机技术，这些科技上的新发展很快就融合为信息技术这一全新领域。信息技术是提高信息传输速度和效率的技术。

信息时代发展到今天，诸如移动电话、信息高速公路、口电话等技术的进步已经改变了全世界的生活方式，同时产生了许多关于控制和提供信息的新兴产业。

1．个人计算机

早期的计算机庞大而昂贵，并且只服务于大学和大企业。在20世纪90年代以前，绝大多数信息技术上的新发现是专业研究人员利用这种昂贵设备实现的。

然而，20世纪80年代后小型计算机出现了。个人计算机(Pc)一般只为个人单独使用，适合完成一般的任务，如文字处理、编程、编辑和个人电脑游戏，通常使用购买的或其他非用户自己编写的软件。与小型机不同，个人计算机通常为使用人所有，它的成本低廉、操作简单。现代个人计算机的用户十分了解操作环境和应用程序，但不必对编程感兴趣，甚至不需要有编程能力。

Pc这一词汇由苹果计算机普及，随后其他公司开始提供个人计算机。IBM公司研发了第一代开放标准的个人计算机(IBM Pc于1981年在美国市场推出，于1982年和1983年投放欧洲市场)，它为后来软件的开发设立了标准。有史以来第一次，我们有了使用类似的操作系统、可以使计算机用户在同一平台上交流的个人计算机。

不久以后，我们看到了我们所知道的当代信息技术的诞生：我们家里的个人计算机可以通过被称为调制解调器的设备与远程服务器进行通信。它们的第一个代表就是BBs服务器，被教育机构或个人用于存储信息并通过聊天和消息的方式进行讨论。

2．因特网

因特网最初的构想是分布式的、具有纠错能力的网络，它可以将计算机连接起来并能抵抗任何节点的失败。它主要是由美国国防部高级研究计划署创立的，最初的软件应用是电子邮件和计算机文件传输。

随着1989年万维网技术的诞生，因特网已经发展成为全球性的网络。现在，因特网最终成为有关信息流动的加速器。

3．数字革命

到目前为止，通信和信息传播已经有了革命性的技术突破。例如在1875年电话的发明突破了地域的限制。在1910年和1920年之间，第一批调幅无线电台开始广播。二十世纪四十年代电视开始为广大公众发送声音和图像。1943年世界上第一台电子计算机产生。但直到二十世纪七十年代微处理器的发明计算机才能为大众所用。二十世纪九十年代，互联网从大学和研究机构走向公司总部和家庭。

所有这些技术都是对信息存储和传输的处理，然而计算机技术的一个特点使之与早期的模拟技术相分离，这就是数字化。模拟信号依靠相应的电压值来工作，但是数字技术可以将任何事物转换为二进制的值，即0或者1。这是“通用语言”或者说它与每一个现代化的设备有关。用一个比喻的说法，数字世界是一个用一种语言连接的世界、一个人们跨越陆地彼此分享观念、一起工作建立事业和思想的世界。更多精确的信息被收集和生成，然而眨眼间被传输至那些明白其含义的接收者那里，转而使信息的接收者能为了自己的目的对其进行使用来生成并传播新观点，这样做的结果就是进步。从科技的层面来描述这一场景就是——所有类型的计算机、设备以及电器彼此相联作为一个整体发挥功效。到了今天，我们看到计算机与电话进行信息交换，计算机播放压缩音频文件，或像收音机一样播放网上即时播出的音频数据流，计算机可以播放电影和接收电视节目，一些现代住宅允许主人通过计算机控制中央照明和空调设备。这些仅仅是数字世界的一部分功能。

第三课

Information Technology

With recording technologies, transmission, and with early computers, it didn’t take very long for scientific advances merge together into the field of information technology. Information technology is the use of technology to enhance the speed and the efficiency of the transfer of information.

The information age continues to this day, and technological advances such as mobile phones, high-speed connections, Voice over IP have changed lifestyles around the world and spawned new industries around controlling and providing information.

1. The Personal Computer

At first, computers were big, costly, and available only to universities and big corporations. Before the 1990s, full time researchers having access to the high priced equipment drove most discoveries in information technology.

In the 1980s, however, small computers started to become available. A personal computer or PC is generally a microcomputer intended to be used by one person at a time, and suitable for general purpose tasks such as word processing, programming, editing or playing a personal computer game, and is usually used to run purchased or other software not written by the user. Unlike minicomputers, a personal computer is often owned by the person using it, indicating a low cast of purchase and simplicity of operation. The user of a modern personal computer may have significant knowledge of the operating environment and application programs, but is not necessarily interested in programming, nor even able to write programs for the computer.

The term PC was popularized by Apple Computer and soon after many other companies began offering personal computers. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) developed the first open standard personal computer (IBM PC launched in US markets in 1981, and the first deliveries to European markets were in 1982 and 1983), which standardized the software development. For the first time in the world history we had PCs that used the similar operating systems that allowed the computers users to communicate by using the same platform.

Soon after, we saw the birth of what we know as current information technology: personal

computers in our own homes, using communication devices known as modems to access information on remote servers. The first incarnation of those were BBS servers, setup by education facilities or even individual people to store both information and allow discussion with chat and message.

2. The Internet

The Internet was originally conceived as a distributed, fail-proof network that could connect computers together and be unaffected by failure at any point. It was created mainly by DARPA; its initial software applications were email and computer file transfer.

With the invention of the World Wide Web in 1989, the Internet really took off a global network. Now, the Internet is the ultimate place to accelerate the flow of relevant information.

3. Digital Revolution

Technological breakthroughs have revolutionized communications and the spread of information by far. In 1875, for example, the invention of the telephone breached distance through sound. Between 1910 and 1920, the first AM radio station began to broadcast sound. By the 1940s television was broadcasting both sound and visuals to a vast public. In 1943, the world’s first electronic computer was created. However, it was only with the invention of the microprocessor in the 1970s that computers became accessible to the public. In the 1990s, the Internet migrated from universities and research institutions to corporate headquarters and homes.

All of these technologies deal with information storage and transmission. However, the one characteristic of computer technology that sets it apart from earlier analogy technologies is that it is digital. Analogue signals work by having a signal (usually electric) where the voltage is proportional to some variable. Digital technology however converts everything into binary values that are either 0 or 1. This is the “universal language”or nearly every modern device. To use an analogy, a digital world is a world united by one language, a world where people from across continents shares ideas with one another and work together to build projects and ideas. More voluminous and accurate information is accumulated and generated, and distributed in a twinkling to an audience that understands exactly what is said. This in turn allows the recipients of the information to use it for their own purposes, to create ideas and to redistribute more ideas. The result is progress. Take this scenario to a technological lever---all kinds of computers, equipment and appliances are interconnected and functioning as one unit. Even today, we see telephones exchanging information with computers, and computers playing compressed audio data files or live audio data streams that play music over the Internet like radios. Computers can play movies and tune in to television. Some modern homes allow a person to control central

lighting and air-conditioning through computers. These are just some of the features of a digital world.

第四课

因特网介绍

信息——包括访问因特网的信息——将成为我们个人生活、经济和政治发展的基础。因特网一般也称为“信息高速公路”。如果你想找到最新的财经新闻、浏览图书馆目录、与同事交换信息或加入一场活跃的政治辩论，那么因特网就是一个崭新的网络信息世界的工具，比电话、传真和独立的计算机更优越。

因特网是对你收集信息、数据图表、新闻和与其他人交流的传统工具的补充。巧妙地使用因特网将缩小世界的范围，并直接把所有可以想到的领域的信息、专业技术和知识带到你的计算机中。

1．什么是因特网?

因特网连接全世界的计算机网络，这样可以使用户彼此分享资源和相互交流。比如在大学中一些计算机可以直接使用所有的网络服务，而其他的计算机，如个人计算机，通过服务商间接连接，由其提供部分或全部的因特网服务。你必须通过服务商连接因特网。他们提供了许多按月收费的项目。根据所选项目的不同，访问时问也不一样。

因特网就是我们所称的元网络，即连接全球的计算机网络的网络。我们无法计算出因特网上用户和计算机网络的具体数量，但它们确实是十分庞大的数据。因特网采用一系列标准协议，使得网络中大量的不同类型的计算机间共享资源和彼此通信。这些标准，有时也叫作因特网协议包，是开发人员开发新的因特网功能时所遵守的规则。

我们有时也称网特网是一个分布式系统，它没有集中档案。从技术上说，没有人运行因特网。而因特网由成千上万的小型网络组成。因特网的繁荣和发展是因为许多用户找到了创建、显示和检索信息的新方法。

2．因特网的历史和发展

早期，因特网本来是国防部为在军事冲突发生时保护政府通信系统而设计的，最初的网络称为“ARPANET”(为美国国防部高级研究计划署开发)，进一步发展成为多个承建者、军事人员和为ARPA项目做出贡献的大学研究者之问的通信渠道。

网络利用一组标准协议为人们交流和共享信息提供了有效的方式。

ARPANET继续受研究人员的欢迎，二十世纪八十年代美国国家科学基金会，其设计的

NSFNET网络连接了几个高速计算机，负责设计了后来的因特网。

二十世纪八十年代后，数以千计的协作网络加入到因特网中。

1991年美国在《高性能计算法案》的指导下建立了NREN(国家研究教育网)。NREN的目

标是开发和维护研究和教育所用的高速网，以及研究因特网的商用价值。

正如他们所说，历史在发展中。因特网性能已经通过开发如Gopher和Www的服务得到改良。

尽管因特网被认为主要是面向研究的网络，但在全世界范围内它作为一个信息、创造、贸易的资源每天仍然在发展。

3．谁支付因特网的开销

这个问题没有明确的答案，因为因特网包括许多方面。不存在一个集中的代理来向每个因特网用户收费。然而，使用因特网服务的个人和机构向本地和地区性的因特网服务商付费，因为他们使用了这些共享服务。反过来，那些较小的因特网服务提供商可以从较大的网络购买这些服务。所以基本上每一个因特网的用户都以某种方式支付因特网的部分开销。

4．什么使因特网工作?

因特网的独特之处在于它允许许多不同的计算机相互连接和彼此通信。由于使用了被称为协议的一组标准，使这成为了可能。这些TcP佃(传输控制协议／网际协议)协议控制网络数据传输。多数因特网的用户不会关心这些协议的细节，然而，他们确实想知道在因特网上他们可以做什么和怎样做更有效。

5．客户，服务器(C，S)模式

最流行的因特网工具以c／s模式运行。假如你运行一个w曲客户端程序，这个软件模块为你显示文档和执行你的请求。如果要连接到其他类型的服务——如设置一个远程登录或下载一个文件——那么你的w曲客户端就执行它。你的w曲客户端程序与w曲服务器连接(或“对话”)来查询你需要的信息。

Web服务器是运行另一种类型web软件的计算机，它提供数据或为你的web客户端提供的信息资源。

所有基本的因特网工具——包括Telnet、FTP、Gopher和www——都是基于一个客户端与一个或多个服务器之间的合作。在不同情况下，你与客户端程序交互，它管理数据显示的细节或者你查找资源的方式。反过来，客户端程序与一个或多个信息驻留的服务器交互，服务器负责接收、处理请求并发送一个结果，而不需要知道你的计算机系统的细节，因为你的计算机的客户端软件会处理这些细节。

C／S模式的优点在于分布式工作，所以每种工具都可以针对或专门处理特定的任务：当每个用户的客户端软件处理自己的用户接口、请求的细节和结果时，服务器就为这些用户提供信息。

第四课

Internet Introduction

Information, including access to the Internet, will be the basis for personal, economic, and political advancement. The popular name for the Internet is the information superhighway. Whether you want to find the latest financial news, browse through library catalogs, exchange information with colleagues, or join in a lively political debate, the Internet is the tool that will take you beyond telephones, faxes, and isolated computers to a burgeoning networked information frontier.

The Internet supplements the traditional tools you use to gather information, Data Graphics, News and correspond with other people. Used skillfully, the Internet shrinks the world and brings information, expertise, and knowledge on nearly every subject imaginable straight to your computer.

What is the Internet?

The Internet links are computer networks all over the world so that users can share resources and communicate with each other. Some computers, have direct access to all the facilities on the Internet such as the universities. And other computers, e.g. privately-owned ones, have indirect links through a commercial service provider, who offers some or all of the Internet facilities. In order to be connected to Internet, you must go through service suppliers. Many options are offered with monthly rates. Depending on the option chosen, access time may vary.

The Internet is what we call a, met network, that is, a network of networks that spans the globe. It's impossible to give an exact count of the number of networks or users that comprise the Internet, but it is easily in the thousands and millions respectively. The Internet employs a set of standardized protocols which allow for the sharing of resources among different kinds of computers that communicate with each other on the network. These standards, sometimes referred to as the Internet Protocol Suite, are the rules that developers adhere to when creating new functions for the Internet.

The Internet is also what we call a distributed system; there is no central archive. Technically, no one runs the Internet. Rather, the Internet is made up of thousands of smaller networks. The Internet thrives and develops as its many users find new ways to create, display and retrieve the information that constitutes the Internet.

2、History & Development of the Internet:

In its infancy, the Internet was originally conceived by the Department of Defense as a way to protect government communications systems in the event of a military strike. The original network, dubbed Arpanet (for the Advanced Research Projects Agency that developed it) evolved into a communications channel among contractors, military personnel, and university researchers who were contributing to ARPA projects.

The network employed a set of standard protocols to create an effective way for these people to communicate and share data with each other.

Arpanet’s popularity continued to spread among researchers and in the 1980 the National Science Foundation, whose NSFNET, linked several high speed computers, took charge of the what had come to be known as the Internet.

By the late 1980's, thousands of cooperating networks were participating in the Internet. In 1991, the U.S. High Performance Computing Act established the NREN (National Research & Education Network). NREN's goal was to develop and maintain high-speed networks for research and education, and to investigate commercial uses for the Internet.

The rest, as they say, is history in the making. The Internet has been improved through the developments of such services as Gopher and the World Wide Web.

Even though the Internet is predominantly thought of as a research oriented network, it continues to grow as an informational, creative, and commercial resource every day and all over the world.

3. Who Pays for the Internet?

There is no clear answer to this question because the Internet involves many things. No one central agency exists that charges individual Internet users. Rather, individuals and institutions who use the Internet pay a local or regional Internet service provider for their share of services. And in turn, those smaller Internet service providers might purchase services from an even larger network. So basically, everyone who uses the Internet in some way pays for part of it.

4. What makes the internet work?

The unique thing about the Internet is that it allows many different computers to connect and talk to each other. This is possible because of a set of standards, known as protocols, that govern the transmission of data over the network: TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). Most people who use the Internet aren't so interested in details related to these protocols. They do, however, want to know what they can do on the Internet and how to do it effectively.

5. The Client/Server Model:

The most popular Internet tools operate as client/server systems. You're running a program

called a Web client. This piece of software displays documents for you and carries out your requests. If it becomes necessary to connect to another type of service--say, to set up a Telnet session, or to download a file--your Web client will take care of this, too. Your Web client connects (or \

The Web server is a computer running another type of Web software which provides data, or \

All of the basic Internet tools--including Telnet, FTP, Gopher, and the World Wide Web--are based upon the cooperation of a client and one or more servers. In each case, you interact with the client program and it manages the details of how data is presented to you or the way in which you can look for resources. In turn, the client interacts with one or more servers where the information resides. The server receives a request, processes it, and sends a result, without having to know the details of your computer system, because the client software on your computer system is handling those details.

The advantage of the client/server model lies in distributing the work so that each tool can focus or specialize on particular tasks: the server serves information to many users while the client software for each user handles the individual user's interface and other details of the requests and results.

第五课

电子商务

确切地说，电子商务就像一个因特网上的市场。电子商务可也称为EC、e．Commerce、 eCommerce或者ecommerce，主要通过电子系统如因特网或其他计算机网络提供信息发布、购买、销售、营销产品或服务。信息技术业可以视其为一个针对商务交易的电子商务应用，基于这一概念，它包括了电子货币转账、供应链管理、电子交易、在线交易、在线交易处理、电子数据交换(EDI)、自动库存管理系统和自动信息收集系统。尽管电子商务常常依靠计算机技术而不是万维网，如数据库、电子邮件和其他非计算机技术(如通过电子商务买卖的实际商品的运输)，但是电子商务在某些交易环节中通常使用万维网电子通信技术。

根据派森·霍尔的《电子商务》一书，1994年，一则广告出现在网站上标志着电子商务的开始。

根据2006年10月佛瑞斯特的研究报告《美国电子商务：五年预测及数据概览》，到2011年，网上在线零售业的税收将达到250万亿美元。它的增长动力是什么?其中大部分来自于大约超过800万的网上购物家庭。首先这个用户群体非常接受这种技术；其次，在在线购物过程中他们重视便利超过其他一切。一旦零售商开始竭力丰富他们的数据仓库，并了解这个群体中的具体情况，他们将从这些目标客户中获益。

1．发展的历史

“电子商务”这一术语经过了30多年的发展。最初“电子商务”的含义是商务交易电子化，通常使用电子数据交换(EDI)、电子货币转账(EFT)——这两者都是在20世纪70年代后期产生——等技术来发送类似订单或发票等商务文档。

电子商务中的“电子”或“e”指技术／系统，“商务”指传统的商务模式。电子商务是支持网上商业交易活动的—套完整的处理过程。在二十世纪七十年代和八十年代，它还包含信息分析。二十世纪八十年代，发展起来并被广泛接受的信用卡、自动取款机(ATM)和电话银行也是电子商务的形式。然而，从二十世纪九十年代开始，它又包含了企业资源计划(ERP)系统、数据挖掘和数据仓库。

在点com时代，电子商务包括了被明确称为“Web电子商务”的活动——即利用安全链接(HTTP，对客户交易信息保密的特殊服务协议)、电子购物车和电子支付服务，如信用卡付款授权，通过网络购买商品。

今天，电子商务包括更广泛的商务活动和过程，从电子银行到海外制造，再到电子物流。由于现代工业对电子商务越来越依赖，使得支持系统得以发展和成长，包括后台支持系统、应用软件和中间件，例如宽带和光纤网、供应链管理软件、客户关系管理软件、库存控制系统和财务软件。

1 994年Web第一次被公众所周知时，许多记者和专家预测电子商务将成为一个重要的经济领域。然而，经过了四年安全协议(如HTTPS)才得到了充分的发展和广泛的应用。后来在1988到2000年间，美国和西欧的许多企业开发了基本的Web站点。

虽然大量“纯粹的”电子商务公司在2000到2001年网络危机期间消失了，但许多“砖头和水泥”零售商认为这些公司找到了有价值的市场缝隙，从而开始在自己的站点上增加电子商务的功能。例如，在线杂货零售商Webvan(网上大篷车)破产后，两个传统的超级市场公司(Albertsons和Safeway)都开通了电子商务，使客户可以在线购买商品。

电子商务的出现也极大地降低进入多种商品销售的门槛；相应地，许多小型家庭式经营者可以通过因特网销售商品。通常，小经销商通过在线拍卖站点(如eBay)或通过大公司站点(如Anlazon．COITI)销售自己的商品，以充分利用这些站点的陈列和组织货物的便利。

2．电子商务的类型

电子商务有多种不同的类型。 2．1 B2B——商家对商家的电子商务

B2B电子商务已用了多年，更多地被称作EDI(电子数据交换)o过去，EDI以两个商家直接连接的形式实现，而现在大部分通常是通过因特网连接，即两个商家互相传输电子信息。B2B电子商务占所有电子商务交易中的94％。

2．2 B2c——商家对消费者的电子商务

B2c电子商务在澳大利亚比较新兴。它采取消费者访问提供商系统的形式。它是一个双向活动，但通常只通过因特网来完成。

例如，一个家庭用户希望购买一些好酒，他可以访问站点h郇：，／、狲啊craigs．com．au，然后通过链接查看所推荐酒的相关信息报告，在阅读品尝说明后用户就可以通过链接下订单，并把送货和付款信息一起直接传输到商家的库存系统。然后酒就会从商家仓库发出，并且在理论上交货期不会拖延。

2．3 c2B——消费者对商家的电子商务

c2B是消费者向商家提出特殊的服务，它很具有发展前景。

例如，哈里正在计划达尔文的旅行。他打算在10月的第一周乘飞机，并只愿意付250美元。他将自己的要求提交到具有c2B功能的w曲网站。岛得基兄弟航空公司通过这个网站看到了哈里的请求，由于是在淡季，航空公司提供给哈里一张250美元的往返票。

2．4 B2E_商家对职员的电子商务

B2E电子商务的应用越来越多。这种形式的电子商务更多地被认为是一种In仃anet(企

业内部互联网)。Intranet是一个为员工提供信息服务的w曲站点。Intranet通常通过组织内部的网络进行访问。尽管使用因特网的新职员可以访问In仃anet，但通过签约和口令限制使用。

2．5 c2c——消费者对消费者的电子商务

这种站点通常是一些拍卖形式的站点。消费者可以在商务拍卖站点上列出自己的销售商品清单，其他消费者访问这个站点并对这些商品进行投标。这个站点在卖方和买方间建立连接以便他们完成交易。站点提供者常常收取相应的交易费用。其实这种站点应该叫作c2B2c。

Electronic Commerce

Electronic commerce is exactly analogous to a marketplace on the Internet. Electronic commerce, also referred to as EC, e-commerce ecommerce or ecommerce, consists primarily of the distributing, buying, selling, marketing and servicing of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The information technology industry might see it as an electronic business application aimed at commercial transactions; in this context, it can involve electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, e-marketing, online marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange(EDI), automated inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Electronic commerce typically uses electronic communications technology of the World Wide Web, at some point in the transaction’s lifecycle, although of course electronic commerce frequently depends on computer technologies other than the World Wide Web, such as databases, and e-mail, and on other non-computer technologies, such as transportation for physical goods sold via e-commerce.

E-Commerce, according to Person Hall’s book E-Commerce, started in 1994 with the first banner ad being placed om a website.

According to the October 2006 Forrester research report entitled “US ecommerce: Five-Year Forecast and Data Overviwe”, nontravel online retail revenues will top the quarter-trillion-dollar mark by 2011.The driver of this growth? A segment of the most active Web shopping households that is approximately 8 million strong. This group of consumers is extremely comfortable with technology and values convenience above else in the online retail experience. As retailers begin to wade through their copious data warehouses and understand the who, what, where, why, and how of this segment, they will benefit from targeting these customers.

Historical Development

The meaning of the term “electronic commerce” has changed over the last 30 years. Originally, “electronic commerce” meant the facilitation of commercial transactions electronically, usually using technologies like Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), which both were introduced in the late 1970s, for example, to send commercial documents

like purchase orders or invoices electronically.

The “electronic” or “e” in e-commerce refers to the technology/systems; the “commerce” refers to the traditional business models. E-commerce is the complete set of processes the support commercial business activities on the network. In the 1970s and 1980s, this would also have information analysis. The growth and acceptance of credit cards, automated teller machines (ATM) and telephone banking in the 1980s were also forms of e-commerce. However, from the 1990s onwards, this would include enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data warehousing.

In the dot-com era, it came to include activities more precisely termed “Web commerce” - the purchase of goods and services over the World Wide Web, usually with secure connections (HTTPS, a special server protocol that encrypts confidential ordering data for customer protection) with e-shopping carts and with electronic payment services, like credit card payment authorizations.

Today, it encompasses a very wide range of business activities and processes, from e-banking to offshore manufacturing to e-logistics. The ever growing dependence of modern industries on electronically enabled business processes gives impetus to the growth and development of supporting systems, including background systems, applications and middlewares. Examples are broadband and fiber-optic network, supply-chain management software, customer relationship management software, inventory control systems and financial accounting software.

When the Web first became well-known among the general public in 1994, many journalists and pundits forecast that e-commerce would soon become a major economic sector. However, it took about four years for security protocols (like HTTPS) to become sufficiently and widely deployed. Subsequently, between 1998 and 2000, a substantial number of businesses in the United States and Western Europe develop rudimentary web sites.

Although a large number of “pure e-commerce” companies disappeared during the dot-com collapse in 2000 and 2001, many “brick-and-mortar” retailers recognized that such companies had identified valuable niche markets and began to add e-commerce capabilities to their Web sites. For example after the collapse of online grocer Webvan, two traditional supermarket chains, Albertsons and Safeway, both stared e-commerce subsidiaries through which consumers could order groceries online.

The emergence of e-commerce also significantly lowered barriers to entry in the selling of many types of goods; accordingly many small home-based proprietors are able to use the Internet to sell goods. Often, small sellers use online auction sites such as eBay, or sell via large corporate website like Amazon. com, in order to take advantage of the setup convenience of such sites.

Type of E-Commerce

There are a number of different types of e-commerce. 2.1 B2B---Business to Business

Business to Business e-commerce has been in use fou quite a few years and is more commonly known as EDI (electronic data interchange).In the past EDI was conducted on a direct link of some form between the two businesses where as today the most popular connection is the Internet. The two businesses pass information electronically to each other.B2B e-commerce currently makes up about 94% of all e-commerce transactions.

2.2 B2C---business to Consumer

Business to consumer e-commerce is relatively new to Australia .This is where the consumer accesses the system of the supplier .IT is still a two-way function but is usually done solely through the Internet.

Example: A home user wishes to purchase some good quality wine. The user accesses the Internet site http://www.craigs.com.au and follows the links to read a report on the recommended wines .After reading the tasting notes the user follows the links to place an order along with delivery and payment details dirtily into the merchant’s inventory system. The wine is then dispatched from the supplier’s warehouse and in theory is delivered to the consumer without delay.

2.3 C2B---Consumer to Business

Consumer to Business is a growing arena where the consumer requests a specific service from the business.

Example: Harry is planning a holiday in Darwin. He requires a flier in the first week of December and is only willing to pay $250.Harry places a submission with in a web-based C2B facility .Dodgy Brothers Airways accesses the facility and sees Hurry’s submission. Due to being a slow period, the airline offers Harry a return fare for$250.

2.4 C2C –--Business to Employee

Business to Employee e-commerce is growing in use. This form of e-commerce is more commonly known as an “Intranet”. An intranet is a web site developed to provide employees of an organization with information. The intranet is usually accessed through the organization’s network, though it can and is often extended to an entrant who uses the Internet uses by signon and password.

2.5 C2C---Consumer to Consumer

These sites are usually some from of an auction site. The consumer lists items for sale with a commercial auction site, Other consumers access the site and place bids on the items. The site then provides a connection between the seller and buyer to complete the transaction. The site provider usually charges a transaction cost. In reality, this site should be called C2B2C.

第六课

信息经济

1．什么是信息经济?

信息经济是单位或代理商在其经济活动中(无论是公司、地区还是国家)主要依靠自身的能 力有效地产生、处理和应用基于知识的信息，也可以被描述为信息既是货币也是产品的经济。 虽然我们总是依靠信息交流来工作和生活，但信息经济是不同的，因为它在适当的时候可以收集更多的相关信息。因此，信息经济的产品可以用以前从没有想象过的方式获取。在这种经济中，信息和通信技术的普遍使用产生了大量的信息。 2．信息经济的主要特征是什么?

信息经济是全球化的。作为历史的新事实，全球经济已经可以作为整体在全球范围内同时运行，企业和公司现在可以在全球范围内使用熟练的劳动力。资金可以在国家之间自由的流动，国家可以实时地利用这些资金。

然而，有些评论家声称一个真正的全球经济还没有真正实现。斯蒂芬·科恩发现劳动力的灵活性已被人们的排外和更加严格的移民法所限制，跨国公司仍然将自己的资产和指挥中心留在本国，资本仍然被银行法和金融法所限制。

然而，凯斯泰认为即使全球化还没有完全实现，但这只是一个时间问题。全球化将受到政府法规和政策的影响，它将影响到全球经济的范围和结构。

信息经济的第二个特征是高生产力。美国国家经济研究办公室的威廉·诺德汉斯认为： 这些新经济领域生产力的增长已经为更广泛的经济生产力的增长作出了重要的贡献。在商业领域，不包括新经济部分在内的生产力增长率是2．24％，然而包括新经济部分在内的劳动生产力增长率则为3．19％。同前期相比，过去三年的劳动力增长率达到了1．82％，而其中0．65％归因于新经济部分的增长。因为新经济小于商业经济，所以对于测定良好的产出来说，新经济的贡献稍大。

一些评论家争辩到，在IcT中投资与收益率没有关系。凯斯泰研究先进市场经济体的劳动力增长历史并且发现，在二十世纪七十年代早期信息技术革命形成的初期生产力的增长呈下降趋势。根据他的研究，在所有提供服务活动的国家中，这种下降尤其明显，这是因为新的信息处理设备提高了生产力。然而，制造业生产力却显现出不同的景象。美国和日本制造业生产力在1988～1989年间迅猛增长，分别为平均每年3％和4．1％，比二十世纪九十年代增长速度更快。凯斯泰总结到，经济的统计数据不能充分反映新信息经济的发展，恰恰因

为在信息技术和相关组织变革的冲击下产生了广泛的改革，从信息技术、制造、通信、金融服务业，最终蔓延到制造服务业，再到商业服务行业。

信息经济的第三个特征是获得效益方式的改变。罗伯特·瑞齐观察到，旧经济时代的效益来自于经济实体的规模——长期经营同样的或相似的产品，所以我们有工厂、装配线和工业。现在的效益来自于革新的速度及吸引和保住客户的能力。以前成功者是大的公司，现在成功者是那些具有先进理念、为自身和产品建立知名品牌并且进行有效销售的具有高灵活性的小公司。成功者是那些率先通过知名品牌提供低成本高附加值产品的竞争者，但是成功是暂时的，竞争永远不会结束。那些领先者为了避免落后就不断创新。

3．信息经济与“知识经济”“新经济”“网络经济”不同?

所有这些术语经常互换，虽然不同的概念强调现象的不同侧面——如“知识”代替“信息”、“网络”与“新”相对。彼得·达克把信息革命描述为知识革命。他认为关键不是电子科学而是认知科学的发展。计算机软件仅仅重新组织了基于经验的传统工作。它只是通过特殊的系统的、逻辑分析完成了对知识的运用。仅仅建立一个IT结构是不够的。在新的经济时代要保持领先，知识专家的社会地位和社会对他们价值的认同需要得到保障。

知识经济也是一种网络经济，这个概念强调在新经济时代个体、团体、公司之间联系的重要性。由于其固有的灵活性和适应性使网络成为一种理想的组织工具，这一点已取得共识。然而，传统网络无法超越一定的规模和复杂性，早期的局限已经通过ICTs的引入得到克服，特别是因特网，由此网络的灵活性和适应性得到了发展，并且他们的发展特性已得到证实。

Information Economy

1. What is the information economy?

An information economy is where the productivity and competitiveness of units or agents in the economy (be they firms, regions or nations) depend mainly on their capacity to generate, process, and apply efficiently knowledge-based information. It is also described as an economy where information is both the currency and the product.

While we have always relied on information exchange to do our jobs and run our lives, the information economy is different in that it can collect more relevant information at the appropriate time. Consequently, production in the information economy can be fine tuned in ways heretofore undreamed of. What makes information plentiful in this economy is the pervasive use of information and communications technology.

2. What are the main features of the information economy?

The information economy is global. A historically new reality, the global economy has the capacity to work as a unit in real time on a planetary scale. Corporations and firms now have a worldwide base for skilled labor to tap. Capital flows freely between countries, and countries can utilize this capital in real time.

However, some critics claim that a true global economy has yet to be achieved. Stephen Cohen observes that the mobility of labor is undermined by people’s xenophobia and stricter immigration laws. Multinational corporations still maintain their assets and strategic command centers in their home nations, and capital is still limited by banking and finance laws.

Castells, however, argues that even if globalization has not yet been fully realized, it will only be a matter of time before this happens. Globalization will be affected by government regulations and policies, which will affect international boundaries and the structure of the global economy.

A second characteristic of the information economy is that it is highly productive. William Nordhaus of the US National bureau of Economic Research states that:

Productivity growth in the new economy sectors has made a significant contribution to economy-wide productivity growth. In the business sector, labor-productivity growth excluding the new economy sectors was 2.24 percent per year as compared to 3.19 percent per year including the new economy. Of the 1.82 percentage point increase in labor-productivity growth in the last three years relative to the earlier period, 0.65 percentage point was due to the new economy sector. The contribution of the new economy was slightly larger for well-measured

output because that sector is smaller than the business economy.

Some critics argue that there is no relationship between profitability and investment in ITC（information communication technology）. Castells looks into the history of productivity growth in advanced market economies and observes a downward trend of productivity growth starting roughly around the time that the information technology revolution was taking shape in the early 1970s. According to him, this decline was particularly marked in all countries for serviced activities, where new information-processing devices could be thought to have increased productivity. However, manufacturing productivity presents a different picture. Manufacturing productivity in the US and Japan increased dramatically in 1988-1989 by an annual average of 3% and 4.1% respectively, and productivity increased at a faster pace than during the 1990s. Castells concludes that economic statistics do not adequately capture the movements of the new information economy, precisely because of the broad scope of transformation under the impact of information technology and related organizational change. There may be a diffusion from information technology, manufacturing, telecommunications, and financial services into manufacturing services at large, and then into business services.

A third characteristic of the information economy is the change in the manner of obtaining profits. Robert Reich observes that profits in the old economy came from economies of scale-long runs of more or less identical products. Thus, we had factories, assembly lines, and industries. Now profits come from speed of innovation and the ability to attract and keep customers. Where before the winners were big corporations, now the winners are small, highly flexible groups that devise great ideas, develop trustworthy branding for themselves and their products, and market these effectively. The winning competitors are those who are first at providing lower prices and higher value through intermediaries of trustworthy brands. But the winning is temporary, and the race is never over. Those in the lead cannot stop innovating lest they fall behind the competition.

3. Is the information economy different from the “knowledge economy”, the “new economy”, or the “network economy”?

All these terms are used interchangeably, although the various concepts tend to emphasize different aspects of the phenomenon--like “knowledge” instead of “information” or “network” as opposed to “new”. Peter Drucker describes the information revolution as a knowledge revolution. The key, he says, is not electronics but cognitive science. The software used for computers merely reorganizes traditional work, which had been based on experience. This is done through the application of knowledge, in particular systematic, logical analysis. Setting up an IT structure is not enough. To maintain leadership in the new economy, the social position of knowledge professionals and the social acceptance of their values should be guaranteed.

The knowledge economy is also a networked economy. The concept stresses the important role of links among individuals, groups and corporations in the new economy. It has been argued

that networks have always been an ideal organizing tool due to their inherent flexibility and adaptability. However, traditional networks were not designed to coordinate functions beyond a certain size and complexity. This early limitation has been overcome with the introduction of ICTs, particularly the Internet, where the flexibility and adaptability of networks are brought to the fore and their evolutionary nature is asserted.