Information Age is a term applied to the period where movement of information became faster than physical movement, more narrowly applied to the very late 20th century (about 1991) and early 21st century. It is often used in conjunction with the term post-industrial society. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... In books based on the Demonic Era or Common Era, such as the Gregorian calendar, the 21st century is the current century, as of this writing. ... A post-industrial society is a proposed name for an economy that has undergone a specific series of changes in structure after a process of industrialization. ...

A Typical Informtion Network Hub

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History

Early Information Age

Main article: Digital recording

In 1837 Samuel Morse created a device which converted physical movement into electrical impulses that could travel over large distances: the telegraph. In 1844, it was used to transmit data along an experimental telegraph line from Washington DC to Baltimore, Maryland. Slightly more than 20 years later, the first telegraph cables were stretched across the Atlantic, in 1858, but failed to stay in operation, however in 1866 the uninterupted trans-Atlantic cable service began. In digital recording, the analog signal of a sound is converted into a stream of discrete numbers, representing the changes in air pressure through time; thus making an abstract template for the original sound. ... 1837 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Portrait of Samuel F. B. Morse by Mathew Brady, between 1855 and 1865 Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American inventor, and painter of portraits and historic scenes; he is most famous for inventing the electric telegraph and Morse code. ... Telegraphy (from the Greek words tele = far away and grapho = write) is the long distance transmission of written messages without physical transport of letters, originally over wire. ... 1844 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... ... Baltimore skyline at dusk Motto: The Greatest City in America (formerly The City That Reads; BELIEVE is not the official motto but rather a specific campaign) Nickname: Charm City Mob Town B-more Location in Maryland Founded Incorporated 30 July 1729 1797  County Independent city Mayor Martin J. OMalley... 1858 is a common year starting on Friday. ... 1866 is a common year starting on Monday. ... The Transatlantic telegraph cable is a telegraph cable that crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Valentia Island, in western Ireland to Trinity Bay, in eastern Newfoundland. ...

This invention set off a stream of devices used for the processing of information, the typewriter, the mechanical calculator, and finally, the telephone in 1876. "Informationalization" of previous devices occurred, such as the player piano. By the end of the 19th century, analog recording had begun. Telephone This article is about telephone technology. ... 1876 is a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Historical records of events have been made for thousands of years in one form or another. ...

The ability to distribute large runs of printed material had created the means for information transmission to change economic and social behavior. Telephones and ticker tape machines would be part of the infrastructure for the growth of stock markets, particularly the New York Stock Exchange or Wall Street, as well as the ability to trade precious metals, such as gold. It was the telegraph that made the news of Krakatoa's explosive eruption spread around the world rapidly. Ticker tape was used by ticker tape machines, stock ticker machines, or just stock tickers. ... New York Stock Exchange (June 2003) The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is the largest stock exchange in the world, although its trading volume was exceeded by that of NASDAQ (historic comparison graph {pdf}) during the 1990s. ... For other uses, see Wall Street (disambiguation). ... General Name, Symbol, Number gold, Au, 79 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 6, d Appearance metallic yellow Atomic mass 196. ... Krakatoa (Indonesian name: Krakatau) is a volcano near the Indonesian island of Rakata in the Sunda Strait. ...

Recording added a new means of distribution: namely that of sound. However, the distribution was either person to person, as in the telegraph, or through the distribution of a physical object. Since atoms are thousands of times heavier than electrons, the next stage of information technology was to be able to transmit pure information, as the telegraph did, but with mass reception. Historical records of events have been made for thousands of years in one form or another. ...

Broadcasting

Main article: Broadcasting

The information technologies of the 19th century allowed faster and wider dissemination of information than previously possible. However, ultimately such information had to be reduced to the same form which had been the final form for centuries: paper, whose analogs go back to stone and clay tablets. With the development of what was called wireless transmission, when combined with the ability to transmit voice and sound from the telephone, and recording technology, a new medium began to be born, which placed a different final result in the hands of the individual. These technologies would eventually become radio. Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video signals (programs) to a number of recipients (listeners or viewers) that belong to a large group. ... Wireless is an old-fashioned term for a radio receiver, referring to its use as a wireless telegraph. ... The word voice can be used to refer to: Sound: The human voice. ... A schematic representation of hearing. ... Historical records of events have been made for thousands of years in one form or another. ...

Television followed, allowing video to be displayed with sound. While radio brought the world's events to our homes, it was television that brought the first pictures of the world to many people. TVs were first used as a way to get information and news from other places, but quickly became a very important entertainment device, as well as a useful tool for learning. Unlike radio, television brought with it a whole new industry of content delivery, mainly cable providers. Not only were stations producing and broadcasting their own shows, but the broadcasting industry allowed homes to receive more and more channels. With the later advances in technology, satellite television provided the most diverse content anyone could want. This article needs copyediting (checking for proper English spelling, grammar, usage, tone, style, and voice). ... Entertainment is an amusement or diversion intended to hold the attention of an audience or its participants. ... A supervised child learning the countries of Asia on the floor of the central hall of the Field Museum, Chicago, Illinois Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values, through study, experience, or teaching, that causes a change of behavior that is persistent, measurable, and specified or... Coaxial cable is often used to transmit cable television into the house Cable television or Community Antenna Television (CATV) (often shortened to cable) is a system of providing television, FM radio programming and other services to consumers via radio frequency si sdfsdfBold textsdfsItalic textddd Bold textgnals transmitted directly to people... Artist impression of a Boeing 601 satellite, as configured for digital television transmission by SES Astra Satellite television is television delivered by way of communications satellites, as compared to conventional terrestrial television and cable television. ...

Information technology

Main article: Information Technology

With recording technologies, with transmission, and with early computers, it didn't take very long for scientific advances to merge everything together. Information technology is the use of technology to enhance the speed and the efficiency of the transfer of information. Category: Information technology ... Historical records of events have been made for thousands of years in one form or another. ... Transmission is the following: Generally, transmission is the act of passing something on. ... The tower of a personal computer. ...

At first, computers were big, costly, and available only to universities and big corporations. Before the 1990s, most discoveries in information technology were driven by full time researchers having access to the high priced equipment. In the late 1980s however, small computers started to become available, such as the early Apple systems, and PCs. For the Temptations album, see 1990 (Temptations album) MCMXC redirects here; for the Enigma album, see MCMXC a. ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... Apple Computer, Inc. ... The tower of a personal computer. ...

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 messages. A modem (a portmanteau word constructed from modulator and demodulator) is a device that modulates a carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. ... A bulletin board system or BBS is a computer system running software that allows users to dial into the system over a phone line and, using a terminal program, perform functions such as downloading software and data, uploading data, playing games, reading news, and exchanging messages with other users. ... This Soviet war poster reads: Dont chatter! Gossiping borders on treason (1941). ... Message in its most general meaning is the object of communication. ...

The Personal Computer

Main article: Personal Computer

An Example of a Local Area Network

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, multimedia editing or game play, 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 cost 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. Image File history File links LAN.png Summary Got from Wikimedia Commons. ... Image File history File links LAN.png Summary Got from Wikimedia Commons. ... Apple IIc Hi class Although there is no rigid definition, a microcomputer (sometimes shortened to micro) is most often taken to mean a computer with a microprocessor (µP) as its CPU. Another general characteristic of these computers is that they occupy physically small amounts of space. ... Word processing, in its now-usual meaning, is the use of a word processor to create documents using computers. ... Computer programming (often simply programming) is the craft of implementing one or more interrelated abstract algorithms using a particular programming language to produce a concrete computer program. ... Multimedia is the use of several different media to convey information (text, audio, graphics, animation, video, and interactivity). ... An Alienware PC Personal computer games are games played on a personal computer. ... Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ... HP2114 minicomputer Minicomputer is a largely obsolete term for a class of multi-user computers which make up the middle range of the computing spectrum, in between the largest multi-user systems (mainframe computers) and the smallest single-user systems (microcomputers or personal computers). ...

The Internet

Main articles: Internet, History of the Internet

The Internet at Work

The Internet was originally conceived as a distributed, fail-proof network that could connect computers together and be resistant to any point of failure. It was created mainly by DARPA; its initial applications were email and file transfer. ... Download high resolution version (995x815, 156 KB)screenshot of different internet applications. ... Download high resolution version (995x815, 156 KB)screenshot of different internet applications. ... The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technology for use by the military. ... Application software is a subclass of computer software that employs the capabilities of a computer directly to a task that the user wishes to perform. ... E-mail, or email, is short for electronic mail and is a method of composing, sending, and receiving messages over electronic communication systems. ... A file in a computer system is a stream (sequence) of bits stored as a single unit, typically in a file system on disk or magnetic tape. ...

With the invention of the World Wide Web by CERN, the Internet really took off as a global network. Now, the Internet is the ultimate place to accelerate the flow of relevant information. Graphic representation of the World Wide Web around Wikipedia The World Wide Web (WWW, W3, or simply the Web) is an information space in which the items of interest, referred to as resources, are identified by global identifiers called Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs). ... CERN logo CERN is the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Organisation Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire), the worlds largest particle physics laboratory, situated on the border between France and Switzerland, just west of Geneva. ...

The information age continues to this day, and technological advances such as mobile phones, high speed connections, Voice Over IP, and many more, our lives are forever changed from what it used to be, no more than 10 years ago. A WildBlue Satellite Internet dish. ... IP Telephony, also called Internet telephony, is the technology that makes it possible to have a telephone conversation over the Internet or a dedicated Internet Protocol (IP) network instead of dedicated voice transmission lines. ...

The Digital Revolution

Main article: Digital Revolution

The Digital Revolution is a term describing the effects of the rapid drop in cost and rapid expansion of power of digital devices such as computers and telecommunications. It includes changes in technology and society, and is often specifically used to refer to the controversies that occur as these technologies are widely adopted. The Digital Revolution is a term describing the effects of the rapid drop in cost and rapid expansion of power of digital devices such as computers and telecommunications. ... The tower of a personal computer. ... Telecommunication is the extension of communication over a distance. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... For the song by the California punk band Pennywise, see Society (song). ...