IS 376: Information Technology

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IS 376 Information Technology
SocietyIntroduction

• January 12, 2006

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Agrarian Revolution

• Shift from hunter-gatherer to settled
  agriculturalism
• Started in the Neolithic Age (10,000 B.C.)
• Staple source of crops from farming
• Domestication of animals

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Industrial Revolution

• Started in the 18th century in England
• Replacement of manual labor by machines
• The most important invention in the industrial
  revolution is the steam engine
• Leading field is textile manufacturing
• Urbanization

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The Second Industrial Revolution

• Started at the end of the 19th century with the
  introduction of internal combustion engine and
  the development of electrical power generation
• Leading industries are automobiles, chemicals,
  and electrical engineering
• Multi-national corporations become powerful
  agents of change
• Consumerism and mass culture

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New Communication Infrastructure in the
Industrial Society

• Railways
• Steamships
• Telegraph
• Radio
• Rise of television

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Information Revolution

• Started in the second half of the 20th century
• Production focus shifts from goods to services
  information
• Creation, distribution and consumption of
  information become the dominating activities in
  society
• Computers are the key tools (digitization of
  information)
• Growth and domination of the information (new)
  economy
• The hallmarks of the information revolution are
  the personal computers and the Internet

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Post-Industrial Society

• The dramatic rise in the service sector and the
  decline of the manufacturing sector in the
  information age has led some to call it the
  post-industrial society
• Information, knowledge and creativity are the key
  raw materials of the post-industrial society
• Prominent role of science and engineering in
  society
• Elevated importance of the technological
  intelligentsia

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What Next?

• What we are seeing lately on the horizon is the
  start of what I call the second information
  revolution. That will be the center of
  technological innovation for the next 50-100
  years.
• While the first information revolution has
  greatly expanded the amount of information in
  society, the second information revolution will
  focus on easy access to high-quality and highly
  customized information to users anytime,
  anywhere, and in a manner of the users
  preference.

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Technological Determinism

• Technological determinism argues that
• Technology is autonomous (that is, independent of
  human will and develops by its own laws), and
• It causes social change
• Technological developments are unstoppable
  (inevitability of technological progress)
• The technological determinist view is a
  technology-led theory of social change
  technology is seen as 'the prime mover' in
  history.
• Cause and effect relations between technology and
  human society

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Cultural (Social) Determinism

• Social determinism argues that society is
  responsible for the development and deployment
  (use) of particular technologies
• It is The making of the made world to suit
  perceived human priorities
• In the United States, government bureaucrats,
  corporate CEOs, scientists and engineers all have
  their bearings on the developments of
  technologies
• Technology mirrors our values, as well as our
  flaws. In other words, technologies are subject
  to social forces.
• The same technologies mean different things
  (e.g., advantages and disadvantages) to different
  social groups and societies

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Is Technology Neutral?

• A central issue of contention between
  technological determinists and social
  determinists is whether technology is neutral.
• Technological determinism holds that technology
  is value-free, and is therefore neutral.
• Technical features determine how people may use a
  particular technology
• Social determinism argues that technology is
  value-laden, and cannot be neutral (cannot exist
  in vacuum)
• What features are put there in the first place?
  Who makes the decision?

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The ABC of Technological Advance

• Technologys relationship to power and privilege,
  therefore, becomes a central question to examine
  for the social determinist tradition.
• Technology is developed based on decisions
  representing a limited range of social elites
• A armed forces
• B bureaucracy
• C corporate power

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Attitude Toward Technology Two Contrary Views

• Technophilia zealousness about technology,
  especially new technologies glorification of new
  (esp. computer-related) technology.
• Technophobia fear of or aversion to technology,
  especially computer-related devices.

New Technologies
Destructive
Liberating
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The Law of Unintended Consequences

• Human actions have unintended or unforeseen
  effects. These effects can be positive or
  negative, and in some cases perverse (totally in
  opposite to what was originally intended).
• This law equally applies to the study of
  information technology or just any other type of
  technology.

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Examples

• Lets look at these claims
• When everyone has easy access to automobiles,
  traffic conditions will improve significantly.
• An increase in bandwidth over the Internet will
  lead to quicker access to information.
• Adoption of the fastest computers will increase
  productivity in the organization.
• Digitization of information will reduce paper use
  (and hence save natural resources).
• And the reality?

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What is Information Technology?

• Information technology is used as an umbrella
  term to refer to all technological applications
  or systems that concern the creation, storage,
  collection, manipulation, management, protection,
  transport, and retrieval of information.
• Call called Information and Communication
  Technology (ICT) or Information Systems (IS)
• Information involved here can be text, audio or
  video.

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Why Study IT Society?

• Information technology attracts some of the most
  talented students in a variety of disciplines on
  college campuses today. They are the future of
  our increasingly technology-oriented society.
• But information technology (or any technology for
  that matter) is not an isolated sector in
  society. It directly impacts society and shapes
  the course of human society. Thats why we need
  input from different disciplines.

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Impact of IT

• IT can have an impact at these levels
• Individual
• Group
• Organizational
• Societal
• National
• Global

• The impact can be
• Social
• Economic
• Political
• Legal
• Psychological
• Historical
• Ethical

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Our exploration into specific topics starts next
week. So lets get ready to rock!