Information Age. The meaning of the phrase “information age.” Asymmetry in business

Information Age

“Cyberspace is made up of interactions and relationships, thinking and constructing itself like a standing wave in the web of our communications. Our world is simultaneously everywhere and nowhere, but not where our bodies live.” (Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace by John Barlow - the figure shows an approximate diagram of Internet traffic)

Sociologist Manuel Castells explains the term as follows:

Relationship to other theories and concepts

The concept of the information age is closely related to the theoretical developments of sociologists D. Bell, E. Toffler, P. Drucker, M. Castells and M. McLuhan. Each of them contributed to the development of the concept of post-industrial (or information) society, which is the next step in the development of human society.

Prerequisites for its origin

With its prerequisites, IE has the consequences of the information revolution in the field of information technology (the creation of the first computers - Z3, the Atanasov-Berry computer, MESM, ENIAC, the invention of transistors, miniaturization, global networks). These achievements made it possible to create complex technical systems that made it possible to process enormous amounts of information compared to previous years.

In parallel, the scientific basis for the effective operation and control of these systems was developed. The insufficiency of a mechanistic explanation of processes in the world has led to the emergence of a new approach in research methodology - a systems approach. In the middle of ΧΧ art. N. Wiener created a new science of relationships and control of systems - cybernetics, and information theory, developed by K. Shannon, made it possible to approach information as a certain quantity that can be measured and transmitted over long distances without loss of quality.

All this laid the foundation for the information revolution, the main consequence of which was the ever-increasing importance of high-quality, relevant information.

Main features

Economy

Along with the development of the information society, a transition to a service economy is predicted, which is based not on the production of goods, but on the provision of services.

Culture

There is a tendency in culture towards mass character; mass culture arises and develops. A number of subcultures emerge with their own unique characteristics: language (argot), preferences, values. E-sports emerges, in which world competitions are regularly held. The popularity of social networks and online media is growing - huge distances are turning into nothing, the world is becoming a “global city”. The search for one's identity becomes a problem, and violence becomes one of the main means of self-expression (M. McLuhan, “McLuhan's Awakening”).

In one of his speeches, Marshall McLuhan notes the birth of a new, electronic (that is, information) person: “We are talking about a literate person: a literate person absorbs everything like a sponge, which the new electronic person does not want to do. So, literacy is going downhill.” The issue of developing a new information culture among people is acute.

Policy

The widespread use of the latest information processing tools (personal computers, mobile phones, etc.) for social interaction has made it possible to quickly process large volumes of information, which can flow more quickly from the source to the consumer. The associated increase in the role of the media in the organization of society makes possible new forms of government of society - netocracy and mediacracy.

The increasing role of information as a resource has led to the official recognition by the leading states of the world of a new type of war - information wars. Information warfare), the goal of which is not to physically destroy the enemy, but, using information (information operations, psychological operations), to gain and consolidate a competitive advantage over him, that is, to make the enemy dependent in terms of his own information self-sufficiency, to force him to use such information resources that would first turn served their own interests (state or corporation).

Issues and trends

These changes not only brought new challenges to humanity associated with the directly proportional dependence of the intensity of informatization and urbanization with the growing number of diseases associated with physical inactivity and constant stress of urban residents (total “obesity” of residents of developed countries), but also made it more possible than ever to implement the provisions of the ancient thinkers of humanity - first of all, the introduction of the positive aspects of such concepts as the noosphere and coevolution.

One of the problems is choosing the right information. Waves of spam and flood (not only on the Internet, but also in the media) sometimes make obtaining truly necessary, useful information a difficult task. And the widespread use of computer technology poses a number of new challenges to the information security of individual organizations, individuals and entire states (see competitive intelligence, industrial espionage, cyberwar).

The use of network technologies (based on information) made possible not only the total pooling of the resources of all mankind, but also terrorist attacks unprecedented in the history of mankind (9/11, the Nord-Ost tragedy, the London Underground bombings). Terrorism has become a serious problem.

See also

Notes

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

See what “Information Age” is in other dictionaries:

It is a MEMBER of information, information infrastructure, entities collecting, generating, distributing and using information, as well as a system for regulating the social relations that arise in this case.... ... Wikipedia

The other day Leonid Parfyonov in the TV show “The other day” Genre Information program of non-political news (1990 1994), Historical series (1994 2001), information analytical program (2001 2004) Author Leonid Parfyonov Director Dzhanik Fayziev ... Wikipedia

- “The other day. Our Era" book album by Leonid Parfenov, created based on the documentary series "The other day. Our era." The book consists of five volumes, the first four describe historical phenomena by decade, the fifth over a five-year period.... ... Wikipedia

adjacent system (in relation to the ERA-GLONASS system)- 3.1.13 adjacent system (in relation to the ERA GLONASS system): Automated information system of the duty dispatch service, authorized in the manner prescribed by the legislation of the Russian Federation to carry out functions on ... ... Dictionary-reference book of terms of normative and technical documentation

History of technology By periods and regions: Neolithic Revolution Ancient technologies of Egypt Science and technology of ancient India Science and technology of ancient China Technologies of Ancient Greece Technologies of Ancient Rome Technologies of the Islamic world... ... Wikipedia e-book

Alexander Vasilenko
Head of the VMware representative office in Russia and the CIS

In today's dynamic world, the principles of doing business are changing rapidly. Mobile and cloud technologies are fundamentally transforming today's markets and forcing companies to find new ways to compete and interact with customers. To succeed in the digital age, businesses must learn to adapt to the unpredictable changes that occur 24/7.

There are a large number of new players emerging all over the world who are immediately starting to work with consumers in new ways. They take completely new approaches to developing products, services and interacting with users. We're not just talking about companies like Uber, Facebook, Airbnb and Alibaba; experts are talking about the whole thing. The founder and president of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Klaus Schwab, spoke about this: “In the past, the big fish ate the small ones, but now the fast fish eats the slow ones.”

New dynamic competitors are not burdened by outdated processes and infrastructures and pose a real threat to conservative organizations. Those companies that deny this and do not want to accept the new paradigm of digital business risk becoming less in demand and leaving the market altogether. Today the question is not whether to change. Changes are necessary, everyone understands this. The question is how exactly to change and what to do? The new wave of IT innovation poses new strategic challenges for organizations.

1. Asymmetry in business

There's never been a better time in history to be the first company in the industry to challenge the status quo. Thanks to the ubiquity of mobile-cloud technologies, agile innovators have quick and easy access to a global network of online “shared” resources, including talent, capital and a market of three billion connected people around the world. In today's asymmetrical business world, startups have nothing to lose, so they are actively moving to new business models that completely change the rules of the game. Large and established players must understand that a long stay in the market will soon cease to be their competitive advantage. The requirement of the modern world: to innovate like a startup and work at the level of a large corporation.

Let's remember Kodak, a manufacturer of film and photographic equipment. The giant company, which was a leader in its industry, went bankrupt in 2013. But right now, every minute, people around the world take more photographs than ever before. This is an example of how companies that fail to adapt to change risk losing everything.

Along with IT companies, banks are one of the most innovative industries. A striking example of an innovative IT-based business model is banks without physical branches, such as Tinkoff Bank, Touch Bank and many others. For traditional banks, this is a time of intense competition for consumers as many companies from other sectors begin to provide banking services. For example, telecom operators, Internet companies and gadget manufacturers that offer money transfer services, payment services and much more.

2. Near future: professional cloud era

While the cloud is a key driver of today's asymmetrical business world, the cloud services market itself is also changing rapidly. The cloud the industry has created so far is a lot like an unfinished bridge: two separate towers with little connection to each other. On the one hand, we have enterprise private clouds with well-developed management, but extremely slow application delivery. On the other hand, there are external public clouds with fast application delivery but poor management. In the near future, we need to move to connected and interoperable clouds so that businesses can run applications at the speed they need. The unified hybrid cloud is the future of IT and will become the industry standard for years to come.

According to IDC forecasts, the global market for public cloud services will grow by an average of 23% annually over the next four years. The domestic cloud services market, according to IDC forecasts, will grow much faster than the IT market as a whole, and by the end of 2016 its volume will be more than $460 million, the share of cloud services and related services will reach 13% of the Russian IT services market.

Let's imagine the infrastructure of companies in a couple of years. Businesses will appreciate the benefits of cloud computing and will use cloud resources using the IaaS model, as well as PaaS and SaaS. But for a large international company, the question arises: how to ensure the availability of all these computing resources in accordance with all requirements and regional characteristics? The solution is to create a single hybrid cloud space that will cover all private cloud computing. Hybrid apps will allow companies to provide employees with access to work applications and data from any device, anywhere, at any time. This provides unified network and application management, as well as a common level of security. Among Western companies there are already examples of creating a single hybrid cloud. For example, the largest international hotel chain InterContinental Hotels Group, whose transition to cloud infrastructure allows it to provide better service for 750 thousand rooms in 100 countries.

3. Information security: protecting people, applications and data

We now have a wide variety of security solutions available to us, but cyber hacks and data thefts continue to occur with enviable regularity. What are we missing? The answer is a common, universal architecture that allows IT departments to streamline security controls and protect what matters most: people, applications and data. In other words, what modern security systems lack is an architectural foundation. To do this, it is necessary to use a virtualization layer, which will change the very essence of cybersecurity. For the first time in history, virtualization will become the critical element between the IT infrastructure below and the applications and data above it. The use of virtualization as a core architecture is the beginning of a renaissance in security. The main thing is not to miss the moment.

In 2015, there were several large-scale hacks and leaks that led to multi-billion dollar losses. Companies affected include Anthem, Experian, Carphone Warehouse, Ashley Madison and TalkTalk. Almost every week the media receives information about new vulnerabilities in mobile platforms and an increase in the number of cyber attacks. According to a study by InfoWatch, in the first half of 2015, 723 cases of leakage of confidential information were registered, which is 10% higher than the number of leaks registered during the same period in 2014. Russia has been ranked first in the ranking of leaks since 2013, and among the companies that compromised users’ personal data were VTB-24, MTS, and Russian Railways.

The traditional hardware approach to security does not provide complete protection for a modern company, simply because it is impossible to supply hardware to every server, user, mobile phone or virtual machine. A simple example is analog and mobile telephony. In both cases, you can talk on the phone, but the user can only write SMS from a mobile phone. Security technology will be implemented in the form of software that will allow you to install a firewall on any network component, be it a laptop or a server.

4. New wave of IT innovation: proactive technologies

Despite the enormous amount of innovation available to us, all the technologies we use today are fundamentally “reactive,” that is, they expect commands from us. We are on the verge of moving to a new “proactive” technology model in which software will be able to make decisions on our behalf, managing everything from routine daily tasks to revolutionary medical procedures performed by nanorobots in the human circulatory system.

An example of such technologies is now a “smart home” based on , analytical systems in factories, as well as a variety of wearable and mobile devices. To monitor the body’s physical indicators, various fitness bracelets and other “smart” accessories come to the fore, the main functions of which are measuring heart rate, number of steps, physical activity, and calories burned. Soon, fitness bracelet technologies will make it possible to carry out more complete diagnostics of the body and, if indicators worsen, automatically send data to the hospital. Thus, the patient will be able to receive timely medical care in emergency situations. Or the IBM Watson supercomputer, which can analyze gigantic amounts of information, structure data and logically build parameters, which makes it possible to diagnose some types of cancer better than the most experienced specialists.

This just proves the fact that in the near future, “smart” things will help predict all processes several steps ahead.

5. Technological change will change industry leaders

Without a doubt, all these technological changes will have a huge impact on businesses around the world. According to forecasts, over the next ten years, 40% of publicly traded companies participating in the S&P 500 stock index will cease to exist. In other words, 4 out of 10 modern industry leaders by 2025 will merge with other companies, change their form of organization, or simply leave the market following Kodak. The fundamental shift within the technology sector will be even more pronounced. We predict that half of the companies in the current Tech 100 will disappear within 10 years. The last major challenge facing both large and small companies is to make every effort to remain relevant and current. Inaction is the biggest risk today. As IT drives change, it has the chance to become the entrepreneurs and innovators at the forefront of that change.

The Information Revolution is a metaphor that reflects the revolutionary impact of information technology on all spheres of society in the last quarter of the 20th century. This phenomenon integrates the effects of previous revolutionary inventions in the information sphere (printing, telephony, radio communications, personal computer), since it creates a technological basis for overcoming any distances when transmitting information, which contributes to the unification of intellectual...

The Information Age, also known as the computer era or the information age (electronic age) is an ongoing period in human history characterized by a global shift from traditional industry established by the industrial revolution to a digitized, computerized industry based on the transfer of information. The era is also characterized by widespread opportunities for individuals to freely transmit and receive information and instant access, both...

Media competence is the result of media education, a level of media culture that ensures an individual’s understanding of the sociocultural, economic and political context of the functioning of the media, which indicates his ability to be a bearer and transmitter of media cultural tastes and standards, to effectively interact with the media space, and to create new elements of the media culture of modern society.

Digital Revolution - a widespread transition from analogue to digital technologies, which began in the 1980s and continues in the first decades of the 21st century; fundamental changes associated with the widespread dissemination of information and communication technologies that began in the second half of the 20th century, and which became the prerequisites for the information revolution, which, in turn, predetermined the processes of globalization and the emergence of a post-industrial economy. Main driving forces...

Scientific and technological progress (STP) is the forward movement of science and technology, the evolutionary development of all elements of the productive forces of social production based on broad knowledge and mastery of the external forces of nature; This is an objective, constantly operating pattern of development of material production, the result of which is the consistent improvement of equipment, technology and organization of production, increasing their efficiency.

This is a historical period in which human society operates “within the framework of a theoretical paradigm defined by information communication technologies, which are based on electronics and genetic engineering.” The information age is characterized by widespread reproduction of information and knowledge; the economy is global and informational in nature, that is, the availability of timely and necessary information becomes a factor in the successful competition of organizations.
The development of information technologies and new methods of communication requires the creation in the socio-economic system of a flexible network management structure, a focus on innovation, information, intellectual property, new technologies for organizing business processes, delegation of authority, responsibility, and independence of organizational elements with a single culture.
Changing the structure of a socio-economic system is impossible without changing the organizational culture, since, as stated above, organizational culture has a structure-forming function, and, in addition, has a direct impact on the process of self-organization of the system.
The organizational structure can be of two types: traditional hierarchical and network. Hierarchical are the most common linear-functional, divisional structures. Networks rely on the interaction of elements and horizontal connections.
A change in structure is associated with a change in connections and relationships between elements: their interaction, risk distribution, etc.
Thus, if in traditional hierarchical structures the risk is minimized through unification and strict control, then in network structures the risk is distributed among the elements of the organization. Risk distribution, flexibility of various connections and cultural unity ensure the stability and survival of the system, despite external shocks and changes.
Examples of such a structure include the church, effectively operating firms, informal organizations and associations of people. If in the old management system the emphasis was on vertical connections and hierarchy, then in the new management model the emphasis should be on horizontal connections that will provide the necessary degree of independence to the members of the organization.
It should be noted that a flexible structure does not imply a lack of structure. There is no hierarchy in the network management model, but there are
different levels, and they are determined not by the position held, a step in the hierarchy, but by professionalism and competence.
In modern conditions of functioning of organizations, labor relations are changing (that is, the relationships between elements of the social system are changing their nature): the importance of social status and position becomes less than the possession of information and professionalism. Information technologies allow workers in many specialties to be outside the workplace, outside the organization, and even outside the city and country.
Thus, when forming and developing organizational culture, it should be borne in mind that it directly affects the structure of the socio-economic system, forms new relationships and connections between people as elements of the system.

The current state of world military and political thought is characterized by the presence of many concepts of military development that give priority to information technology. The most well-known and developed concepts include information warfare, network warfare, network-centric warfare, cyber warfare, a number of concepts of asymmetric conflict, “new wars” and (to a lesser extent) postmodern warfare.

Information warfare concept

In the late 1980s-1990s. in literature, mainly journalistic, the term arose "information wars" So far there is no definition of this term in international law, and various national departments (mostly security forces) in their strategic documents focus on the military-political aspect of this concept.

As Alvin and Heidi Toffler wrote in their work “War and Anti-War,” the history of wars can be divided into three large periods corresponding to the history of the development of human civilizations: agricultural, industrial and informational. According to the Toffler model, future wars for civilizations of the third, information wave should take the form of information wars based on advanced communication systems, access to space and real-time decision-making. This means that information wars are characteristic only of the information society.

M. Castells in his work “The Information Age: Economy, Society, Culture” talks about “instant wars”. This is what he calls the wars that, after the end of the Cold War, the powers fought in short, decisive surges, using new technologies, and which the media presented in a “sterile” form to the whole world (ordinary wars continued, but on the periphery). Castells believes that the end of traditional wars has come. He says that throughout much of history, at least in Europe, war has been a necessary "rite of passage" and has served as a constant reminder of human mortality as well as a point of reference for survivors. Now this is becoming a thing of the past. Moreover, the network society, with its emphasis on instantaneous communication, can collect information almost at lightning speed across the globe and transmit it through hypermedia, which makes forays into history without placing historical fact in historical context, leaving us in a “timeless mental landscape.” " And all this comes together in the culture of the network society, which means “systemic disorder”, constant immediacy and spontaneity.

The term “information warfare” first appeared in the mid-1980s. in connection with the new tasks of the US Armed Forces in the conditions

Cold War and was the result of the work of a group of American military theorists consisting of G. Eccles, G. Summers and others. Subsequently, the term began to be actively used after Operation Desert Storm in 1991 in Iraq, where new ICTs were first used used for military purposes.

Until the modern stage, information wars were only a part of conventional wars, defined purely in terms of force. Now the humanitarian, economic, and legal aspects of information confrontation are coming to the fore, and information wars are becoming a special type of war that can be waged separately from military operations. Nowadays, a situation is possible where there is an information war, but there is no military action, but not vice versa, since military actions have become inseparable from the information war.

The correct use of the term “information war” is quite controversial and is not used by all scientists. This term is often replaced with the term “information warfare”, because information war is a more complex concept and implies the involvement of the entire population and all the resources of the state in it. V. Pirumov defines information warfare as a new form of struggle between two or more parties, which consists in the targeted use of special means and methods of influencing the enemy’s information resources, as well as in protecting one’s own information resource to achieve designated goals. According to S. Rastorguev, information war is open and hidden targeted information impacts of information systems on each other in order to obtain a certain gain in the material sphere. But almost any action of informational and psychological influence falls under this definition. One of the signs of an information war can be the fact of the use of information weapons. Another sign of information-psychological warfare is a special, characteristic only for war, organizational form of implementing intentions - secret operations.

Information warfare may include diplomacy, propaganda and psychological campaigns, political and cultural subversion, the use of local media to publish false information, infiltration of information networks and databases, and the promotion of opposition or dissident movements through computer networks. The main methods include disinformation, lobbying, propaganda, blackmail, cyber terrorism and manipulation.

Information warfare differs from computer crime in that it involves hostile action on the part of an adversary - be it an individual, a rival organization or a hostile state - in a struggle for hegemony in the market or political arena. W. Schwartau, in his work “Information Warfare: Chaos on the Electronic Superhighway,” defined information warfare as an electronic conflict in which information is a strategic asset worthy of conquest or destruction. Information must be both a goal and a means in an information war.

According to the least disputed definition of information warfare (which was given by R. Szafranski), information warfare is the use of information weapons to influence the enemy’s knowledge and belief systems. Even primitive societies can become targets for information warfare.

M. Libicki from the US National Defense University highlighted seven forms of information warfare:

• 1) war of “means of command and control,” which involves the use of material force;
• 2) knowledge-based warfare, which consists of designing, defending and repelling systems that seek knowledge that can ensure dominance in space;
• 3) electronic warfare, where radio, electronic or encryption methods are used;
• 4) psychological warfare, where information is used to influence the minds of friends, neutral parties and opponents;
• 5) “hacker war”, where computer systems are attacked;
• 6) economic and information war aimed at blocking information or its movement in order to ensure economic superiority;
• 7) cyber warfare: a combination of the previous six methods.

Based on the studies already conducted, several main characteristics of information warfare.

• 1. Information warfare is quite cheap. Although it must be admitted that there is now a tendency for such wars to become more expensive due to the growing demand for means of waging them, in terms of the general level of investment in their organization they are still relatively cheap. Unlike traditional military technologies, information technologies do not require mandatory government support.
• 2. Traditional distinctions between public and private interests, between military actions and criminal behavior are erased. Recognized interstate borders are being erased.
• 3. Industrialized countries are the most vulnerable to information attacks. For example, the United States is the most developed, but at the same time the most vulnerable country in the information sphere, since its economy, politics, diplomacy and other areas are highly dependent on information technologies and systems, and their destruction threatens the collapse of the entire life-supporting internal security infrastructure. These concerns are reflected in the National Homeland Security Strategy.

However, there is an alternative approach to the essence of information conflicts. Former National Security Agency trustee Lawrence Greenberg identified three main features of the war:

• 1) physical destructive action;
• 2) territorial seizure;
• 3) the military nature of the target.

In general, with respect to the concept of “information warfare”, its researchers can be divided into three main groups:

• ? socio-communicative approach (reduces everything to individual information methods of conducting interstate confrontation, communication technologies for influencing mass consciousness);
• ? military-applied approach (representatives of military departments consider information warfare as a complex joint use of forces and means of information and armed warfare);
• ? geopolitical approach (considers information war to be a phenomenon of an apparently peaceful period of interstate confrontation, which makes it possible to solve foreign policy problems in a non-forceful way in the traditional sense, i.e. the method of geopolitical confrontation).

However, it seems necessary to consider the concept of information warfare comprehensively, without being limited to one or another individual aspect of it. As American expert Martin Libicki writes, “attempts to comprehend individual facets of the information war can be compared to the efforts of blind people trying to understand what an “elephant” is. The one who touched his leg called him a tree; the one who touched the tail called it a rope, etc.<...>. Those who give too broad a definition cannot highlight the essential features of this concept (they give a definition like “information warfare is something that includes information and war”), and those who bring to the fore some separate aspect of information warfare wars, they overestimate its importance."