A Brief History of Information Technology

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A Brief History of Information Technology 

In prehistory, humans who possessed knowledge of value, which we call information, transferred it to others verbally and in some cases by means of drawings and physical constructions (e.g. Stonehenge). Early written communications (e.g. hieroglyphs and cuneiform writing) permitted information to be stored and then read by others at a later time. Transportability of knowledge could be achieved by writing or drawing on clay, wax, stone, or parchment. The storage and transport of information using this early technology was labour intensive, slow, and hence costly. As such, in most societies, it, and the information itself, was used and controlled by the rich and powerful.

With the invention of the printing press, information could be transferred to more people in more places, more cheaply. The impact of this technology is well known. The attendant spread of knowledge and ideas was instrumental in the development of modern Western society. Until comparatively recently however, the stores of knowledge in the form of libraries were largely accessible only by the privileged and powerful, in universities, religious institutions, and private holdings. The advent of public libraries placed written information in the public domain but not always under public control. Even as magazines and newspapers became widely available and affordable, the information itself was often controlled by a few powerful individuals (the information rich) or by public regulatory control (e.g. censorship).

In this century, the development of electronic media, including radio, television and the telephone, has brought about a dramatic reduction in the time required for information transfer and hence in the apparent spatial separation of the communicators of information. The cost of storing and transmitting information electronically has been to a large extent determined by public policy. Thus, the price of making a telephone call is more related to public regulatory policy than to the actual costs incurred. With the exception of the telephone, and until recently, most information transmitted by the electronic media has been one-way in nature so that the creation and control of information has resided in the hands of broadcasters, journalists, and commercial advertisers operating within a public regulatory structure.

Digital computers and the mass information storage media associated with them have made possible the assembly of large databases together with the capability of processing and manipulating the stored information. Unlike written information, data stored electronically are "invisible" except to the decoding hardware or software (e.g. a computer, magnetic card reader, or bar code reader) which has the effect of limiting access to the information.

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Taken alone, the electronic media and digital computer technologies are powerful enough but it has been the synergistic union of the two in what is broadly known as computer communications which has generated unprecedented technological possibilities. Time, space, and effective cost are continually being reduced by new combined applications of computer, mass storage, and electronic and optical transmission technologies. The control of information within this new technological framework is more dispersed and decentralized than ever before and the roles of governments, commercial interests, and private individuals are often difficult to determine and understand.

From the above short history, it ...

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