Today in class we will discuss some important terms for the course as we give a preliminary answer to the question, “What are New Information Technologies?” We will begin with a brief definition:
New information technologies (NITs) are digital, networked, interactive, socio-technical systems for gathering, producing, and distributing information.
- Digital: Information is converted into computer-readable formats consisting of electronic signals. Digitization makes information compact (meaning it can be transmitted quickly and stored easily), easily duplicated, and uniform (information formats are the same as far as the computer is concerned).
- Networked: Linked in an inter-connected and inter-dependent system.
- Interactive: Communication is generally two-way rather than one-way.
- Socio-Technical: The characteristics of the system are based both on technical elements (what tools can do) and on social elements (what people choose to do or to allow).
The internet is one of the most obvious examples of an NIT we will explore. In our discussion today, we will compare the internet to some “old” information networks: wired telephone and wireless broadcast radio and television.
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Interactivity and Weblogs « New Information Technologies, Fall 2007 // September 5, 2007 at 11:16 am |
[...] 3rd, 2007 · No Comments As we discussed last week in class, interactivity is one of the key features of new information technologies. Today we will discuss in more detail what interactivity is and why it is significant, and look at [...]
NITs, Surveillance, and Monitoring « New Information Technologies, Fall 2007 // November 28, 2007 at 12:45 pm |
[...] 28, 2007 · No Comments In many respects, the same fundamental characteristics that make NITs good at giving users the opportunity to produce information and to collaborate [...]