THE INFORMATION AGE

UNIT 9

In partial fulfillment of our course Socsci 121 SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND

SOCIETY, we've prepared this paper as a summary of our report for unit 2. Data
and information's presented within this paper were retrieved from books and other
reliable online sources. Any misspelled and typographical errors, if ever, are not
made intentionally and must be understood. We are hoping for your understanding.

BSAIS-1 GROUP 3
Leader:
Paul Justin A. Borre
Members:
Jasmine A. Llego
Shella S. Pena
Angeline Demain
Kenneth Princillo

Prepared for:
Mark Darryl Abuyen
 Sts Instructor
INTRODUCTION

Highly modernized, automated, data-driven, and technologically advanced-these bests describe our society
nowadays, as evidenced by how information could be transferred or shared quickly. The different areas of
society have been influenced tremendously such as communication, economics, industry, health, and the
environment. Despite our gains due to the growing development of information technology, the rapid
upgrade of information also has disadvantages. This lesson will discuss the history and impact of
technological advancements to society.

Life is accompanied by endless transmission of information that takes place within and outside the human
body. According to Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary. information is "knowledge
communicated or obtained concerning a specific fact or circumstance." Hence, information is a very
important tool for survival.

The Information Age is defined as a "period starting in the last quarter of the 20t century when information
became effortlessly accessible through publications and through the management of information by
computers and computer networks" (Vocabulary.com, n.d.). the means of conveying symbolic information
(e.g., writing, math, other codes) among humans have evolved with increasing speed. The Information Age
is also called the Digital Age and the New Media Age because it was associated with the development of
computers.

According to James R. Messenger who proposed the Theory of Information Age in 1982, "the Information
Age is a true new age based upon the interconnection of computers via telecommunications, with these
information systems operating on both a real-time and as- needed basis. Furthermore, the primary factors
driving this new age forward are convenience and user-friendliness which, in turn, will create user
dependence."

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:

1. Define Information Age

2. discuss the history of Information Age, and

3. understand the factors that need to be considered in checking website sources

LESSON 1 HISTORY

TIMELINE OF THE INFORMATION AGE

3000 BC- Sumerian writing system used pictographs to represent words

2900 BC- Beginnings of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing

1300 BC- Tortoise shell and oracle bone writing were used

500 BC- Papyrus roll was used

220 BC- Chinese small seal writing was developed

100 AD- Book (parchment codex)

105 AD- Woodblock printing and paper was invited by the Chinese

1455- Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press using movable metal type
1755- Samuel Johnson's dictionary standardized English spelling

1802- The Library of Congress was established

- Invention of the carbon arc lamp

1824- Research on persistence of vision published

1830s- First viable design for a digital computer

- Augusta Lady Byron writes the world's first computer program

1837- Invention of the telegraph in Great Britain and the Unites States

1861- Motion pictures were projected on a screen

1876- Dewey Decimal system was introduced

1877- Eadweard Muybridge demonstrated high-speed photography

1899- First magnetic recordings were released

1902- Motion picture special effects were used

1906- Lee DeForest invented the electronic amplifying tube (triode)

1923- Television camera tube was invented by Zvorkyn

1926- First practical sound movie

1939- Regularly scheduled television broadcasting began in the US

1940s- Beginnings of information science as a discipline

1945- Vannevar Bush foresaw the invention of hypertext

1946- ENIAC computer was developed

1948- Birth of field-of-information theory proposed by Claude E Shannon

1957- Planar transistor was developed by Jean Hoerni

1958- First integrated circuit

1960s- Library of Congress developed LC MARC (machine-readable code)

In his article "Truths of the Information Age" (n.d.), Robert Harris detailed some facts on the
Information Age:

1. Information must compete.

2. Newer is equated with truer.

3. Selection is a viewpoint.

4. The media sells what the culture buys.

5. The early word gets the perm.

6. You are what you eat and so is your brain.

7. Anything in great demand will be counterfeited.

8. Ideas are seen as controversial.

9. Undead information walks ever on.

10. Media presence creates the story.

11. The medium selects the message.

12. The whole truth is a pursuit, the information that reaches us is usually selected, verbally
charged, filtered, slanted, and sometimes, fabricated.

Computer

Computers are among the most important contributions of advances in the Information Age to
society. A computer is an electronic device that stores and processes data (information). It runs on
a program that contains the exact, step-by-step directions to solve a problem (Ushistory.org,
2017).

Computers are associated with numerous terms and descriptions. Most people suggest the
dimensions, intended use, or the computer’s power. While the term “computer” can apply to
virtually any device that has a microprocessor in it, most people think of a computer as a device
that receives input form the user through a mouse (hand-guided directions tool) or keyboard,
processes it in some fashion, and presents the result on a screen.

Types of Computer

1. Personal Computer (PC)- It is a single-user instrument. PCs were first known as

microcomputers since they were a complete computer but built on a smaller scale than the
enormous systems operated by most businesses.

2. Desktop Computer- It is described as a PC that is not designed for portability. The assumption
with a desktop is that it will be setup in a permanent spot. A workstation is simply a desktop
computer that has a more powerful processor, additional memory, and enhanced capabilities for
performing special group of tasks, such as 3D graphics or game development. Most desktops offer
more storage, power, and versatility than their portable version (UShistory.org, 2017).

3. Laptops- These are portable computers that integrate the essentials of a desktop computer in a
battery-powered package, which are somewhat larger than a typical hardcover book. They are
commonly called notebooks.

4. Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs)- These are tightly integrated computers that usually have no
keyboards but rely on a touch screen for user input. PDAs are typically smaller than a paperback,
lightweight, and battery-powered (Ushisory.org, 2017)

5. Server- It refers to a computer that has been improved to provide network services to other
computers. Servers usually boast powerful processors, tons of memory, and large hard drives
(Ushistory.org, 2017).

6. Mainframes- These are huge computer systems that can fill an entire room. They are used
especially by large firms to describe the large, expensive machines that process millions of
transactions every day. The term “mainframe” has been replaced by enterprise server. Although
some supercomputers are single computer systems, most compromise multiple, high-
performance, parallel computers working as a single system (Ushistory.org, 2017).

7. Wearable computers -They involve materials that are usually integrated into cell phones,
watches, and other small objects or places. They perform common computer applications such as
databases, email, multimedia, and schedulers (Ushistory.org.2017).

The World Wide Web (Internet)

Several historians trace the origin of the Internet to Claude E. Shannon, an American
Mathematician who was considered as the “Father of Information Theory.” He worked at Bell
Laboratories and at age 32, he published a paper proposing that information can be quantitatively
encoded as a sequence of ones and zeroes.

The Internet is a worldwide system of interconnected networks that facilitate data transmission
among innumerable computers. It was developed during the 1970s by the Department of Defense.
In case of an attack, military advisers suggested the advantage of
being able to operate on one computer from another terminal. In the early days, the Internet was
used mainly by scientists to communicate with other scientists. The Internet remained under
government control until 1984 (Rouse, 2014).

One early problem faced by Internet users was speed. Phone lines could only transmit
information at a limited rate. The development of fiber-optic cables allowed for billions of bits of
information to be received every minute. Companies like Intel developed faster microprocessors
so personal computers could process the incoming signals at a more rapid rate (Ushistory.org,
2017).

Sergey Brin and Larry Page, directors of a Stanford research project, built a search engine that
listed results to reflect popularity when they determined that the most popular result would
frequently be the most usable. After talking with family, friends, and other investors into
contributing $1 million, the researchers launched their company in 1998. Google is now the world’s
most popular search engine, accepting more than 200 million queries daily.

LESSON 2 APPLICATION OF COMPUTERS IN SCIENCE AND RESEARCH

One of the significant applications of computers for science and research is evident in the field of
bioinformatics.

Bioinformatics- is the application of information technology to store, organize, and analyze vast
amount of biological data which is available in the form ofsequences and structures of proteins the
building blocks of organisms and nucleic acids the information carrier (UShistory org, 2017).

Pharmacogenomics
-where the potential targets for drug development are hypothesized from the genome sequences
Molecular modeling, which requires a lot of calculations, has become faster dure to the advances
in computer processors and its architecture (Madan, n.d).

How to Check the Reliability of Web Sources

The Internet contains a vast collection of highly valuable information but it may also contain
unreliable, biased information that mislead people. The following guidelines can help us check the
reliability of web sources that we gather. It is noteworthy to consider and apply the following
guidelines to avoid misinformation. (Lee College Library, n.d.)

1. Who is the author of the article/site?

a. How to find out?

• Look for an "About" or "More About the Author" link at the top, bottom, oг sidebar of the
webpage. Some pages will have a corporate author rather than a single person as an author. If no
information about the author(s) of the page is provided, be suspicious.

1. Does the author provide his or her credentials?

2. What type of expertise does he or she have on the subject he or she is writing about? Does he
or she indicate what his or her education is?

3. What type of experience does he or she have? Should you trust his or her knowledge of the
subject?

• Try searching the internet for information about the author

1. What kinds of websites are associated with the author's name? Is he or she affiliated with any
educational institution?

2. Do commercial sites come up? Do the websites associated with the author give you any clues
to particular biases the author might have?

II. Who published the site?

a. How to find out? Look at the domain name of the website that will tell you who is hosting the
site. For instance, the Lee College Library website IS: http://www.ee.edu/library. The domain name
is "lee,edu." This tells you that the library is hosted by Lee College. Search the domain name at
http://www.whois.sc/. The site provides information about the owners of registered domain names.
What is the organization's main purpose? Check the organization's main website, if it has one. Is it
educational? Commercial? Is it a reputable organization?

• Do not ignore the suffix on the domain name (the three-letter part that comes after the "."). The
suffix is usually (but not always) descriptive of what type of entity hosts the website. Keep in mind
that it is possible for sites to obtain suffixes that are misleading. Here are some examples:

a. edu educational

b. com commercial

c. mil = military

d. .gov government e.org nonprofit

What is the main purpose of the site? Why did the author write it and why did the publisher post it?

a. To sell a product?

b. As a personal hobby?

c. As public service?

d. To further scholarship on a topic?

e. To provide general information on a topic?

f. To persuade you of a particular point of view?

IV. Who is the intended audience?

a. Scholars or general public?

b. Which age group is it written for?

c. Is it aimed at people from a particular geographic area?

d. Is it aimed at members of a particular profession or with specific training?

V. What is the quality of information provided on the website?

a. Timeliness: When was the website first published? Is it regularly updated? Check for dates at
the bottom of each page on the site.

b. Does the author cite sources? Just as in print sources, web sources that cite their sources are
considered more reliable.

c. What type of other sites does the website link to? Are they reputable sites?
Examples of Useful and Reliable Web Sources

1. AFA e-Newsletter (Alzheimer's Foundation of America newsletter)

2. American Memory-the Library of Congress historical digital collection

3. Bartleby.com Great Books Online a collection of free e-books including fictions, nonfictions,
references, and verses.

4 Chronicling America-search and view pages form American newspapers from 1880-1922

5. Cyber Bullying-a free collection of e-books from ebrary plus additional reports and documents to
help better understand, prevent and take action against this growing concern

6 Drug information websites:

a National Library of Medicine's MedinePlus

b. Drugs.com

c. PDRhealth

7. Global Gateway World Culture & Resources (from the Library of Congress)

8.Google Books

9. Googlescholar.com

10. History sites with primary documents

a AMDOCS Documents for the study of American history

b. Avalon Project. Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy (Yale Lew School)
c. Internet Modern History Sourcebook Colonial Latin America

d. Teacher Oz's Kingdom of History

11. Illinois Digital Archives the Ilincis State Library working with libraries, museums, and historical
societies in illinois provides this collection of matenals related to Illinois history.

12. Internet Archive - a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form.

13. Internet Archive for CARLI digitized resources

14. Internet Public Library

17.Making of America - a digital library

of primary sources

of America social history

16. Librarians' Internet Index

15. ip12-a merger of Librarians Intemet Index and Internet Public Library Special interest may
include the "Literary Criticisms page which can be found after dicking on the Special Collections"
link

20.Nursing Sites:

a. AHRQ(www.ahrq.gov)

b. National Guidelines Clearinghouse(www.guideline.gov)

c.PubMed(www.nim,nin.gov)

21.Project Gutenberg - the first and the largest collection of free electronic books with currently
over 20.000 e-books available.

22.Shmoop- literature,Us history and poetry information written primarily by PhD and masters
students from top universities like Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, and Yale.

23.StateMaster- a unique statistical data base which allows you to research and compare of
multitude of different data on US stats using various primary sources such as the US census
Bureau, the FBI and the national center for educational statistics, it uses visualization technology
like pie charts, maps,graph's and scotter plots to provide data.
According to James R. Messenger who proposed the Theory of Information Age in 1982, "the Information Age is a
true new age based upon the interconnection of computers via telecommunications, with these information systems
operating on both a real-time and as- needed basis. Furthermore, the primary factors driving this new age forward are
convenience and user-friendliness which, in turn, will create user dependence.