Information and communication from Coffee Houses to

CybercafesJames Stewart

University of Edinburgh

From Data ….

How much Information 1999: School of Information Management and Systems at the University of California at Berkeley.

Text (and Image)

Poem

Letter

Novel

Report

Order

Article

Thesis

Diary

Invitation

….

Manuscript

BookChapterVolume

NewspaperArticleAdvert

Column

PamphletLetter

PostcardPosterMemo

WritersReaders

ReviewersLibrariansPrintersEditors

BibliographerBinder

IllustratorSellers

DistributorsPostal service

Publishers

…to Information

New Media2 hour movie

30sec advert

1/2 hour programme

News bulletin

Interview

Live report

TV station

24 hour news station

Special interest channel

Soap opera

Home movies

Video

WebPage

Website

Newsgroup

Email

Chat

Links page

Weblog

Portal

Interactive

Webcam

Database

Search engine

Video/audio stream

Banner Ad

Metadata

URL

SMS

Radio stationRadio show

45 rpm singleLP/CDAdvertJingle

Radio PlayAudio Book

Phone call

….to knowledge

• Construction and application of information• Social process of knowledge development• Knowledge workers, ‘elites’• Knowledge includes how to deal with information

The Internet

• Changes the way we engage with ideas and people

• Offers new possibilities and challenges to individuals and communities

• Create new information and knowledge activties

• Still in infancy

Communication and information

• Most communication is affective not informational• Information makes its way though these

relationships• Construction of knowledge• Need local experts in subjects and technologies• Information junkies:

– Early adopters of internet high media users

• The Entertainment monster!

Technical layer Infrastructure Physical networks of computers, routers, switches, hubs and cables

Protocols and standards TCP/IP, application protocols running over TCP/IP or supporting TCP/IP, configurational “platforms”, emerging p-to-p systems.

Applications e-mail server/client, web server/client, distributed databases, transaction systems.

Human, social or Institutional Layer

Users Individuals, (personal users, ‘work’ users), institutional users, network companies, content and application providers. Real and virtual communities.

Development Content developers, technology developers, infrastructure developers, volunteer and paid developers

Finance User institutions, Public (government, universities), network companies, broadcasters, service companies, financial markets.

Regulators/ Governance Users, user institutions, government, commercial network owners, NGOs

‘Content’ Layer Type of Data ‘Multimedia’ Structured data, unstructured (text), images, video, audio, interactive applications etc

Type of format Web Page, music archive, interactive e-commerce site, chat room, e-mail, bulletin board, encrypted transaction, streaming radio station, short video clips, surveillance/monitoring data

Generic Type of use Data interchange, human voice or video communication, server storage, one to many (broadcasting, narrow casting), many to many (community, or market), remote data gathering

Specific use Political activism, supply chain management, on-line selling, music broadcasting etc

Governance Layer Ownership regulation Ownership of networks, control of content, closed/open networks,

Use regulation/promotion Appropriate use, universal access, controlled use, legal use

Interconnection regulation Open, closed, commercial, peer to peer,

Content regulation/promotion Copyright, Data protection, censorship, freedom of information/speech

Mode of governance Applied to operation and to development. anarchic, oligarchic, democratic, market, governmental, commercial

The Internet

Adoption and Use Development

• Start with communication and personal consumption

• Build skills and comfort

• Open possibilities of special information and communication use

• Creation and participation central

• We all write the internet

Places and Spaces

• Both Solitary and social use of media and information

• Places to access, to communicate and to develop knowledge

• Physical spaces

• Virtual spaces