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. Information Society may refer to several subjects: Information Society (Society) Information Society (Band) This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with the same title. ... Young people interacting within an ethnically diverse society. ... The ASCII codes for the word Wikipedia represented in binary, the numeral system most commonly used for encoding computer information. ... A knowledge economy is either economy of knowledge focused on the economy of the producing and management of knowledge, or a knowledge-based economy. ...

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 (Daniel Bell), post-fordism, post-modern society, knowledge society, Telematic Society, Information Revolution, and network society (Manuel Castells). Information and communication technology spending in 2005 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 hardware. ... In sociology, industrial society refers to a society with a modern societal structure. ... A post-industrial society is a society in which an economic transition has occurred from a manufacturing based economy to a service based economy, a diffusion of national and global capital, and mass privatization. ... Daniel Bell Daniel Bell (born 10 May 1919) is a sociologist and professor emeritus at Harvard University. ... Post-fordism is the mode of production increasingly found in most industrialized countries today, which can be contrasted with fordism, the productive method typified by Henry Fords car plants, in which workers work on a production line, performing specialised tasks repetetively. ... Postmodernity (also called post-modernity or the postmodern condition) is a term used to describe the social and cultural implications of postmodernism. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... The term Network Society was coined by Jan van Dijk in his Dutch book De Netwerkmaatschappij (1991) -translation: The Network Society (1999, 2006)- and by Manuel Castells in the first part of his trilogy The Information Age (1996). ... Manuel Castells (full Spanish name: Manuel Castells Oliván[1]; born 1942 in Hellín, Albacete, Spain) is a sociologist, particularly associated with research into the information society and communications. ...

Development of the information society model

One of the first people to develop the concept of the information society was the economist Fritz Machlup. In 1933 Machlup began studying the effect of patents on research. His work culminated in the breakthrough study "The production and distribution of knowledge in the United States" in 1962. This book was widely regarded and was eventually translated into Russian and Japanese. The Japanese have also studied the information society Johoka Shakai (Umesao), which means the highest stage of societal evolution seen in analogy to biological evolution. This concept was discussed already in the 1950s and 1960s. [1] Alan Greenspan, former chairman, United States Federal Reserve. ... Fritz Machlup (December 15, 1902-January 30, 1983) was an Austrian-American economist. ... Year 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about evolution in biology. ... This does not cite any references or sources. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from January 1, 1960 to December 31, 1969, inclusive. ...

Definition

There are various concepts in scientific literature that have been used for discussing information society. This section introduces some of them. Concepts such as knowledge/information economy, post-industrial society, post-modern society, information society, network society, informational capitalism, network capitalism, etc. show that it is an important sociological question in which society we live and which role technologies and information play in contemporary society. Both aspects are central issues of information society theory.

Fritz Machlup (1962) has introduced the concept of the knowledge industry. He has distinguished five sectors of the knowledge sector: education, research and development, mass media, information technologies, information services. Based on this categorization he calculated that in 1959 29% per cent of the GNP in the USA had been produced in knowledge industries. Fritz Machlup (December 15, 1902-January 30, 1983) was an Austrian-American economist. ...

Peter Drucker (1969) has argued that there is a transition from an economy based on material goods to one based on knowledge. Marc Porat (1977) distinguishes a primary (information goods and services that are directly used in the production, distribution or processing of information) and a secondary sector (information services produced for internal consumption by government and non-information firms) of the information economy. Porrat uses the total value added by the primary and secondary information sector to the GNP as an indicator for the information economy. The OECD has employed Porat’s definition for calculating the share of the information economy in the total economy (e.g. OECD 1981, 1986). Based on such indicators the information society has been defined as a society where more than half of the GNP is produced and more than half of the employees are active in the information economy (Deutsch 1983). This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organization of those developed countries that accept the principles of representative democracy and a free market economy. ...

For Daniel Bell the number of employees producing services and information is an indicator for the informational character of a society. “A post-industrial society is based on services. (…) What counts is not raw muscle power, or energy, but information. (…) A post industrial society is one in which the majority of those employed are not involved in the production of tangible goods“ (Bell 1976: 127, 348). Daniel Bell Daniel Bell (born 10 May 1919) is a sociologist and professor emeritus at Harvard University. ...

Alain Touraine already spoke in 1971 of the post-industrial society. “The passage to postindustrial society takes place when investment results in the production of symbolic goods that modify values, needs, representations, far more than in the production of material goods or even of ‘services’. Industrial society had transformed the means of production: post-industrial society changes the ends of production, that is, culture. (…) The decisive point here is that in postindustrial society all of the economic system is the object of intervention of society upon itself. That is why we can call it the programmed society, because this phrase captures its capacity to create models of management, production, organization, distribution, and consumption, so that such a society appears, at all its functional levels, as the product of an action exercised by the society itself, and not as the outcome of natural laws or cultural specificities” (Touraine 1988: 104). In the programmed society also the area of cultural reproduction including aspects such as information, consumption, health, research, education would be industrialized. That modern society is increasing its capacity to act upon itself means for Touraine that society is reinvesting ever larger parts of production and so produces and transforms itself. This idea is an early formulation of the notion of capitalism as self-referential economy (Fuchs 2004). Alain Touraine (1925- ) is a French sociologist born in Hermanville-sur-Mer. ...

Jean-François Lyotard (1984: 5) has argued that “knowledge has become the principle force of production over the last few decades“. Knowledge would be transformed into a commodity. Lyotard says that postindustrial society makes knowledge accessible to the layman because knowledge and information technologies would diffuse into society and break up Grand Narratives of centralized structures and groups. Lyotard denotes these changing circumstances as postmodern condition or postmodern society. Jean-François Lyotard (1924-1998) was a French philosopher and literary theorist. ...

Similarly to Bell Peter Otto and Philipp Sonntag (1985) say that an information society is a society where the majority of employees work in information jobs, i.e. they have to deal more with information, signals, symbols, and images than with energy and matter. Radovan Richta (1977) argues that society has been transformed into a scientific civilization based on services, education, and creative activities. This transformation would be the result of a scientific-technological transformation based on technological progress and the increasing importance of computer technology. Science and technology would become immediate forces of production. Radovan Richta (June 6, 1924 - July 21, 1983) was a Czech philosopher who coined the term technological evolution; a theory about societys replacement of physical labour with mental labour. ...

Nico Stehr (1994, 2002a, b) says that in the knowledge society a majority of jobs involves working with knowledge. “Contemporary society may be described as a knowledge society based on the extensive penetration of all its spheres of life and institutions by scientific and technological knowledge” (Stehr 2002b: 18). For Stehr knowledge is a capacity for social action. Science would become an immediate productive force, knowledge would no longer be primarily embodied in machines, but already appropriated nature that represents knowledge would be rearranged according to certain designs and programs (Ibid.: 41-46). For Stehr the economy of a knowledge society is largely driven not by material inputs, but by symbolic or knowledge-based inputs (Ibid.: 67), there would be a large number of professions that involve working with knowledge, and a declining number of jobs that demand low cognitive skills as well as in manufacturing (Stehr 2002a). Nico Stehr (*1942) is Karl Mannheim Professor for Cultural Studies at the Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen, Germany, a private German college start-up. ...

Also Alvin Toffler argues that knowledge is the central resource in the economy of the information society: “In a Third Wave economy, the central resource – a single word broadly encompassing data, information, images, symbols, culture, ideology, and values – is actionable knowledge“ (Dyson/Gilder/Keyworth/Toffler 1994). Alvin Toffler Alvin Toffler (born October 3, 1928) is an American writer and futurist, known for his works discussing the digital revolution, communications revolution, corporate revolution and technological singularity. ...

In recent years the concept of the network society has gained importance in information society theory. For Manuel Castells network logic is besides information, pervasiveness, flexibility, and convergence a central feature of the information technology paradigm (2000a: 69ff). “One of the key features of informational society is the networking logic of its basic structure, which explains the use of the concept of ’network society’” (Castells 2000: 21). “As an historical trend, dominant functions and processes in the Information Age are increasingly organized around networks. Networks constitute the new social morphology of our societies, and the diffusion of networking logic substantially modifies the operation and outcomes in processes of production, experience, power, and culture” (Castells 2000: 500). For Castells the network society is the result of informationalism, a new technological paradigm. Jan Van Dijk (2006) defines the network society as a “social formation with an infrastructure of social and media networks enabling its prime mode of organization at all levels (individual, group/organizational and societal). Increasingly, these networks link all units or parts of this formation (individuals, groups and organizations)” (Van Dijk 2006: 20). For Van Dijk networks have become the nervous system of society, whereas Castells links the concept of the network society to capitalist transformation, Van Dijk sees it as the logical result of the increasing widening and thickening of networks in nature and society. Darin Barney (2004) uses the term for characterizing societies that exhibit two fundamental characteristics: “The first is the presence in those societies of sophisticated – almost exclusively digital – technologies of networked communication and information management/distribution, technologies which form the basic infrastructure mediating an increasing array of social, political and economic practices. (…) The second, arguably more intriguing, characteristic of network societies is the reproduction and institutionalization throughout (and between) those societies of networks as the basic form of human organization and relationship across a wide range of social, political and economic configurations and associations” (Barney 2004: 25sq). Manuel Castells (full Spanish name: Manuel Castells Oliván[1]; born 1942 in Hellín, Albacete, Spain) is a sociologist, particularly associated with research into the information society and communications. ...

The major critique of concepts such as information society, knowledge society, network society, postmodern society, postindustrial society, etc. that has mainly been voiced by critical scholars is that they create the impression that we have entered a completely new type of society. “If there is just more information then it is hard to understand why anyone should suggest that we have before us something radically new” (Webster 2002a: 259). Critics such as Frank Webster argue that these approaches stress discontinuity, as if contemporary society had nothing in common with society as it was 100 or 150 years ago. Such assumptions would have ideological character because they would fit with the view that we can do nothing about change and have to adopt to existing political realities (Webster 2002b: 267). These critics argue that contemporary society first of all is still a capitalist society oriented towards accumulating economic, political, and cultural capital. They acknowledge that information society theories stress some important new qualities of society (notably globalization and informatization), but charge that they fail to show that these are attributes of overall capitalist structures. Critics such as Webster insist on the continuities that characterise change. In this way Webster distinguishes between different epochs of capitalism: laissez-faire capitalism of the 19th century, corporate capitalism in the 20th century, and informational capitalism for the 21st century (Webster 2006).

For describing contemporary society based on a dialectic of the old and the new, continuity and discontinuity, other critical scholars have suggested several terms like:

• transnational network capitalism, transnational informational capitalism (Christian Fuchs 2007):

“Computer networks are the technological foundation that has allowed the emergence of global network capitalism, i.e. regimes of accumulation, regulation and discipline that are helping to increasingly base the accumulation of economic, political and cultural capital on transnational network organisations that make use of cyberspace and other new technologies for global co-ordination and communication. [...] The need to find new strategies for executing corporate and political domination has resulted in a restructuration of capitalism that is characterised by the emergence of transnational, networked spaces in the economic, political and cultural system and has been mediated by cyberspace as a tool of global co-ordination and communication. Economic, political and cultural space have been restructured, they have become more fluid and dynamic, have enlarged their borders to a transnational scale and handle the inclusion and exclusion of nodes in flexible ways. These networks are complex due to the high number of nodes (individuals, enterprises, teams, political actors, etc.) that can be involved and the high speed at which a high number of resources is produced and transported within them. However, [...] global network capitalism is based on structural inequalities, it is made up of segmented spaces in which central hubs (transnational corporations, certain political actors, regions and countries, western lifestyles and world views) centralise the production, control and flows of economic, political and cultural capital (property, power, skills)“ (Fuchs 2007). Christian Fuchs (26 August 1976 Waidhofen/Thaya, Austria) is an Austrian social scientist who focuses his research on information society theory, social theory, critical theory, Internet and Society, and self-organization theory. ...

• digital capitalism (Schiller 2000, cf. also Peter Glotz 1999):“networks are directly generalizing the social and cultural range of the capitalist economy as never before” (Schiller 2000: xiv)
• virtual capitalism: the “combination of marketing and the new information technology will enable certain firms to obtain higher profit margins and larger market shares, and will thereby promote greater concentration and centralization of capital” (Dawson/John Bellamy Foster 1998: 63sq),
• high-tech capitalism (Haug 2003), or informatic capitalism (Fitzpatrick 2002) – to focus on the computer as a guiding technology that has transformed the productive forces of capitalism and has enabled a globalized economy.
• Other scholars prefer to speak of information capitalism (Morris-Suzuki 1997) or informational capitalism (Manuel Castells 2000, Christian Fuchs 2005, Schmiede 2006a, b). Manuel Castells sees informationalism as a new technological paradigm (he speaks of a mode of development) characterized by “information generation, processing, and transmission” that have become “the fundamental sources of productivity and power” (Castells 2000: 21). The “most decisive historical factor accelerating, channelling and shaping the information technology paradigm, and inducing its associated social forms, was/is the process of capitalist restructuring undertaken since the 1980s, so that the new techno-economic system can be adequately characterized as informational capitalism” (Castells 2000: 18). Castells has added to theories of the information society the idea that in contemporary society dominant functions and processes are increasingly organized around networks that constitute the new social morphology of society (Castells 2000: 500). Nicholas Garnham (2004) is critical of Castells and argues that the latter’s account is technologically determinist because Castells points out that his approach is based on a dialectic of technology and society in which technology embodies society and society uses technology (Castells 2000: 5sqq). But Castells also makes clear that the rise of a new “mode of development” is shaped by capitalist production, i.e. by society, which implies that technology isn’t the only driving force of society.
• Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt argue that contemporary society is an Empire that is characterized by a singular global logic of capitalist domination that is based on immaterial labour. With the concept of immaterial labour Negri and Hardt introduce ideas of information society discourse into their Marxist account of contemporary capitalism. Immaterial labour would be labour “that creates immaterial products, such as knowledge, information, communication, a relationship, or an emotional response” (Hardt/Negri 2005: 108; cf. also 2000: 280-303), or services, cultural products, knowledge (Hardt/Negri 2000: 290). There would be two forms: intellectual labour that produces ideas, symbols, codes, texts, linguistic figures, images, etc.; and affective labour that produces and manipulates affects such as a feeling of ease, well-being, satisfaction, excitement, passion, joy, sadness, etc. (Ibid.).

Overall, neo-Marxist accounts of the information society have in common that they stress that knowledge, information technologies, and computer networks have played a role in the restructuration and globalization of capitalism and the emergence of a flexible regime of accumulation (David Harvey 1989). They warn that new technologies are embedded into societal antagonisms that cause structural unemployment, rising poverty, social exclusion, the deregulation of the welfare state and of labour rights, the lowering of wages, warfare, etc. Peter Glotz Prof. ... John Bellamy Foster is an editor of the Monthly Review, a prominent socialist magazine. ... Christian Fuchs is a social scientist who focuses his research on information society theory, social theory, critical theory, Internet and Society, and self-organization theory. ... Manuel Castells (full Spanish name: Manuel Castells Oliván[1]; born 1942 in Hellín, Albacete, Spain) is a sociologist, particularly associated with research into the information society and communications. ... Nicholas Garnham (born 1937) is a British Marxist academic in the field of media studies. ... Antonio Toni Negri (born August 1, 1933) is an Italian Marxist political philosopher. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... David Harvey can refer to: David Harvey, former Leeds United goalkeeper (soccer) David Harvey, Marxist geographer David Harvey, philosopher David Harvey, Grammy Award winning producer D.Q.Harvey, statistician and treasurer of the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians David Harvey, television presenter and executive David Harvey, author of Monuments...

Concepts such as knowledge society, information society, network society, informational capitalism, postindustrial society, transnational network capitalism, postmodern society, etc. show that there is a vivid discussion in contemporary sociology on the character of contemporary society and the role that technologies, information, communication, and co-operation play in it. Information society theory discusses the role of information and information technology in society, the question which key concepts shall be used for characterizing contemporary society, and how to define such concepts. It has become a specific branch of contemporary sociology.

What it is

There is currently no universally accepted concept of what exactly can be termed information society and what shall rather not so be termed. Most theoreticians agree that we see a transformation which started somewhere between the 1970s and today and is changing the way societies work fundamentally. Information technology is not only internet, and there are discussions how big the influence of specific media or specific modes of production really is. The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, also called The Seventies. ...

Some people, such as Antonio Negri and Newt Gingrich, characterize the information society as one in which people do immaterial labour. By this, they appear to refer to the production of knowledge or cultural artifacts. One problem with this model is that it ignores the material and essentially industrial basis of the society. However it does point to a problem for workers, namely how many creative people does this society need to function? For example, it may be that you only need a few star performers, rather than a plethora of non-celebrities, as the work of those performers can be easily distributed, forcing all secondary players to the bottom of the market. It is now common for publishers to promote only their best selling authors and to try and avoid the rest- even if they still sell steadily. Films are becoming more and more judged, in terms of distribution, by their first weekend's performance, in many cases cutting out opportunity for word-of-mouth development. Antonio Toni Negri (born August 1, 1933) is an Italian Marxist political philosopher. ... Newton Leroy Gingrich (born June 17, 1943), Ph. ...

Another problem with the idea of the information society is that there is no easily agreed upon definition of the term, which can not only include art, texts, blueprints and scientific theories, but also lies, football results, trivia, random letters, mistakes and so on. Information is not necessarily productive or useful. It can even be harmful.

Considering that metaphors and technologies of information move forward in a reciprocal relationship, we can describe some societies (especially the Japanese society) as an information society because we think of it as such (James Boyle, 1996, 6). james boyle is the most important person in american history he went there in 1994 and 2001 he changed the way the country ran ...

Related Terms

A number of terms in current use emphasize related but different aspects of the emerging global economic order. The Information Society is, perhaps, the most encompassing in that an economy is a subset of a society. The Information Age is somewhat limiting, in that it refers to a 30-year period between the widespread use of computers and the knowledge economy, rather than an emerging economic order. The knowledge era is about the nature of the content, not the socioeconomic processes by which it will be traded. The computer revolution, Information Revolution, and knowledge revolution refer to specific revolutionary transitions, rather than the end state towards which we are evolving. A university computer lab containing many desktop PCs The transition of communication technology: Oral Culture, Manuscript Culture, Print Culture, and Information Age Information Age is a name given to a period after the industrial age and before the Knowledge Economy. ... A knowledge economy is either economy of knowledge focused on the economy of the producing and management of knowledge, or a knowledge-based economy. ... This article presents a detailed timeline of events in the history of computing. ... The information revolution is one of the theoretical frameworks within which trends in current society can be conceptualized. ...

The information economy and the knowledge economy emphasize the content or intellectual property that is being traded through an information market or knowledge market, respectively. Electronic commerce and electronic business emphasize the nature of transactions and running a business, respectively, using the Internet and World-Wide Web. The digital economy focuses on trading bits in cyberspace rather than atoms in physical space. The network economy stresses that businesses will work collectively in webs or as part of business ecosystems rather than as stand-alone units. Social networking refers to the process of collaboration on massive, global scales. The Internet Economy focuses on the nature of markets that are enabled by the Internet. Knowledge services and knowledge value put content into an economic context. Knowledge services integrates Knowledge management, within a Knowledge organization, that trades in a Knowledge market. Information economy is a loosely defined term to characterize an economy with increased role of informational activities and information industry. ... A knowledge economy is either economy of knowledge focused on the economy of the producing and management of knowledge, or a knowledge-based economy. ... Look up content in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For the 2006 film, see Intellectual Property (film). ... Knowledge market is a mechanism for distributing knowledge resources. ... Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. ... Electronic Business, or E-business, may be defined broadly as any business process that relies on an automated information system. ... Graphic representation of the world wide web around Wikipedia The World Wide Web (WWW, or simply Web) is an information space in which the items of interest, referred to as resources, are identified by global identifiers called Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI). ... A digital economy is an economy that is based on electronic goods and services produced by an electronic business and traded through electronic commerce. ... It has been suggested that Virtual world be merged into this article or section. ... A social network is a map of the relationships between individuals, indicating the ways in which they are connected through various social familiarities ranging from casual acquaintance to close familial bonds. ... The Internet Economy refers to conducting business through markets whose infrastructure is based on the Internet and World-Wide Web. ... Knowledge Management (KM) comprises a range of practices used by organisations to identify, create, represent, and distribute knowledge for reuse, awareness and learning. ... In a knowledge organization, people use systems and processes to generate, transform, manage, use, and transfer knowledge-based products and services to achieve organizational goals. ... Knowledge market is a mechanism for distributing knowledge resources. ...

Although seemingly synonymous, each term conveys more than nuances or slightly different views of the same thing. Each term represents one attribute of the likely nature of economic activity in the emerging post-industrial society. Alternatively, the new economic order will incorporate all of the above plus other attributes that have not yet fully emerged.

Intellectual property considerations

One of the central paradoxes of the information society is that it makes information easily reproducible, leading to a variety of freedom/control problems relating to intellectual property. Essentially, business and capital, whose place becomes that of producing and selling information and knowledge, seems to require control over this new resource so that it can effectively be managed and sold as the basis of the information economy. However, such control can prove to be both technically and socially problematic. Technically because copy protection is often easily circumvented and socially rejected [2] because the users and citizens of the information society can prove to be unwilling to accept such absolute commodification of the facts and information that compose their environment. For the 2006 film, see Intellectual Property (film). ... Copy prevention, also known as copy protection, is any technical measure designed to prevent duplication of information. ...

Responses to this concern range from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the United States (and similar legislation elsewhere) which make copy protection (see DRM) circumvention illegal, to the open source and copyleft movements, which seek to encourage and disseminate the "freedom" of various information products (traditionally both as in "gratis" or free of cost, and liberty, as in freedom to use, explore and share). The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a United States copyright law which implements two 1996 WIPO treaties. ... Copy prevention, also known as copy protection, is any technical measure designed to prevent duplication of information. ... Digital rights management (DRM) is an umbrella term that refers to access control technologies used by publishers and other copyright holders to limit usage of digital media or devices. ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... The reversed c in a full circle is the copyleft symbol. ...

Caveat: Information society is often used by politicians meaning something like "we all do internet now"; the sociological term information society (or informational society) has some deeper implications about change of societal structure.

References

• Darin Barney (2003) The Network Society. Cambridge: Polity.
• Daniel Bell (1976) The Coming of Post-Industrial Society. New York: Basic Books.
• Manuel Castells (2000) The Rise of the Network Society. The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture. Volume 1. Malden: Blackwell. Second Edition.
• Michael Dawson/John Bellamy Foster (1998) Virtual Capitalism. In: Robert W. McChesney/Ellen Meiksins Wood/John Bellamy Foster (Eds.) (1998) Capitalism and the Information Age. New York: Monthly Review Press. pp. 51-67.
• Karl Deutsch (1983) Soziale und politische Aspekte der Informationsgesellschaft. In: Philipp Sonntag (Ed.) (1983) Die Zukunft der Informationsgesellschaft. Frankfurt/Main: Haag & Herchen. pp. 68-88.
• Peter Drucker (1969) The Age of Discontinuity. London: Heinemann.
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• Christian Fuchs (2004) The Antagonistic Self-Organization of Modern Society. In: Studies in Political Economy, No. 73 (2004), pp. 183- 209.
• Nicholas Garnham (2004) Information Society Theory as Ideology. In: Frank Webster (Ed.) (2004) The Information Society Reader. London: Routledge.
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• Michael Hardt/Antonio Negri (2005) Multitude. War and Democracy in the Age of the Empire. New York: Hamish Hamilton.
• Michael Hardt/Antonio Negri Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• David Harvey (1989) The Condition of Postmodernity. London: Blackwell.
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• Jean-François Lyotard (1984) The Postmodern Condition. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
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• OECD (1986) Trends in The Information Economy. Paris: OECD.
• OECD (1981) Information Activities, Electronics and Telecommunications Technologies: Impact on Employment, Growth and Trade. Paris: OECD.
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• Marc Porat (1977) The Information Economy. Washington, DC: US Department of Commerce.
• Radovan Richta (1977) The Scientific and Technological Revolution and the Prospects of Social Development. In: Ralf Dahrendorf (Ed.) (1977) Scientific-Technological Revolution. Social Aspects. London: Sage. pp. 25–72.
• Dan Schiller (2000) Digital Capitalism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Rudi Schmiede (2006a) Knowledge, Work and Subject in Informational Capitalism. In: Berleur, Jacques/Nurminen, Markku I./Impagliazzo, John (Eds.) (2006) Social Informatics: An Information Society for All? New York: Springer. pp. 333-354.
• Rudi Schmiede (2006b) Wissen und Arbeit im “Informational Capitalism”. In: Baukrowitz, Andrea et al. (Eds.) (2006) Informatisierung der Arbeit – Gesellschaft im Umbruch. Berlin: Edition Sigma. pp. 455-488.
• Nico Stehr (1994) Arbeit, Eigentum und Wissen. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp.
• Nico Stehr (2002a) A World Made of Knowledge. Lecture at the Conference “New Knowledge and New Consciousness in the Era of the Knowledge Society", Budapest, January 31st 2002. Online: [[http://www.crsi.mq.edu.au/documents/worldknowledge.pdf
• Nico Stehr (2002b) Knowledge & Economic Conduct. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
• Alain Touraine (1988) Return of the Actor. Minneapolis. University of Minnesota Press.
• Jan Van Dijk (2006) The Network Society. London: Sage. Second Edition.
• Frank Webster (2002a) The Information Society Revisited. In: Lievrouw, Leah A./Livingstone, Sonia (Eds.) (2002) Handbook of New Media. London: Sage. pp. 255-266.
• Frank Webster (2002b) Theories of the Information Society. London: Routledge.
• Frank Webster (2006) Theories of the Information Society. 3rd edition. London: Routledge

See also: Daniel Bell Daniel Bell (born 10 May 1919) is a sociologist and professor emeritus at Harvard University. ... Manuel Castells (full Spanish name: Manuel Castells Oliván[1]; born 1942 in Hellín, Albacete, Spain) is a sociologist, particularly associated with research into the information society and communications. ... John Bellamy Foster is an editor of the Monthly Review, a prominent socialist magazine. ... Robert Waterman McChesney is a media critic, academic, and activist. ... John Bellamy Foster is an editor of the Monthly Review, a prominent socialist magazine. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Esther Dyson in San Francisco in 2005 Esther Dyson (born 14 July 1951 in Zürich, Switzerland) is a self-described authority on emerging digital technology, and considered a founding member of the digerati. ... George Gilder (born 1939, in New York City) is a libertarian, right-wing, American philosopher, futurologist, and author. ... Dr. George Albert II Keyworth (G. A. Keyworth) (born 1939), U.S. physicist; presidential science advisor 1981-1985. ... Alvin Toffler Alvin Toffler (born October 3, 1928) is an American writer and futurist, known for his works discussing the digital revolution, communications revolution, corporate revolution and technological singularity. ... Christian Fuchs is a social scientist who focuses his research on information society theory, social theory, critical theory, Internet and Society, and self-organization theory. ... Christian Fuchs is a social scientist who focuses his research on information society theory, social theory, critical theory, Internet and Society, and self-organization theory. ... Christian Fuchs is a social scientist who focuses his research on information society theory, social theory, critical theory, Internet and Society, and self-organization theory. ... Nicholas Garnham (born 1937) is a British Marxist academic in the field of media studies. ... Peter Glotz Prof. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Antonio Toni Negri (born August 1, 1933) is an Italian Marxist political philosopher. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Antonio Toni Negri (born August 1, 1933) is an Italian Marxist political philosopher. ... David Harvey can refer to: David Harvey, former Leeds United goalkeeper (soccer) David Harvey, Marxist geographer David Harvey, philosopher David Harvey, Grammy Award winning producer D.Q.Harvey, statistician and treasurer of the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians David Harvey, television presenter and executive David Harvey, author of Monuments... Wolfgang Fritz Haug, born March 23, 1936 in Esslingen am Neckar, Germany, was from 1979 till his retirement in 2001 professor of philosophy at the Free University Berlin, where he had also studied (philosophy, romance languages and religious studies) and taken his PhD (in 1966 on the topic of Jean... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Fritz Machlup (December 15, 1902-January 30, 1983) was an Austrian-American economist. ... The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organization of those developed countries that accept the principles of representative democracy and a free market economy. ... The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organization of those developed countries that accept the principles of representative democracy and a free market economy. ... Radovan Richta (June 6, 1924 - July 21, 1983) was a Czech philosopher who coined the term technological evolution; a theory about societys replacement of physical labour with mental labour. ... Ralf Dahrendorf Ralf Gustav Dahrendorf, Baron Dahrendorf, KBE, (born May 1, 1929) is a German-British sociologist, philosopher, political scientist and politician. ... Nico Stehr (*1942) is Karl Mannheim Professor for Cultural Studies at the Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen, Germany, a private German college start-up. ... Nico Stehr (*1942) is Karl Mannheim Professor for Cultural Studies at the Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen, Germany, a private German college start-up. ... Nico Stehr (*1942) is Karl Mannheim Professor for Cultural Studies at the Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen, Germany, a private German college start-up. ... Alain Touraine (1925- ) is a French sociologist born in Hermanville-sur-Mer. ...

• World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
• Simon Buckingham and unorganisation

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was a pair of United Nations-sponsored conferences about information, communication and, in broad terms, the information society that took place in 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis. ... Simon David Buckingham. ... Unorganisation is an approach to organisational structure that consciously removes or avoids layers of management and bureaucracy, eschews job titles, and instead attempts to operate with the minimum of formal structure so as to become as flexible and efficient as possible. ...

External links

• Special Report - "Information Society: The Next Steps"
• Knowledge Assessment Methodology - interactive country-level data for the information society and knowledge economy
• The origin and development of a concept: the information society.
• Global Information Society Project at the World Policy Institute
• i-Witness|journalists shaping the information society - debate, news and resources for journalists creating a fairer information society
• I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society - Ohio State law journal which addresses legal aspects related to the information society.
• [3] - Participation in the Broadband Society. European network on social and technical research on the emerging information society.

The World Policy Institute at The New School in New York City is a research and education policy center that has been a source of informed policy leadership for over 50 years. ...

Wikibooks : UNDP-APDIP Books

• The Information Age

This e-primer provides a comprehensive review of the digital and information and communications technology revolutions and how they are changing the economy and society. The primer also addresses the challenges arising from the widening digital divide.

• Legal and Regulatory Issues in the Information Economy

Other Relevant Books

• The Information Society Library: Getting the Best out of Cyberspace, DiploFoundation
• Gelbstein, E. (2006) Crossing the Executive Digital Divide. DiploFoundation, ISBN 99932-53-17-0