New online information industry

DEPARTMENT OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA




TOPIC:
THE NEW INFORMATION INDUSTRY
SUMMARY





COURSE TITLE:
ONLINE INFORMATION INDUSTRY



COURSE CODE
LIBS 883



BY



THERESA EMEH C.
MIM/EDU/9734/2009-2010



JULY, 2010

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY


Americans, in their quest for information technology have become the most competitive power in the world spending a figure that represents a sixth of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) annually on information industry, to show its enormous impact on every other significant sector of the economy.

Historically, the industry has been organized on the basis of business opportunities related to a single form of information. But today extraordinary advances have occurred over the past two decades, technological developments have occasioned a major paradigm shift in information industry.

To succeed in the new environment, companies must learn how to operate on a global scale, partner with others; create breakthrough services concepts, customize their offerings to ever smaller market fragments; empower and develop their employees and gain access to capital.

INTRODUCTION
In the next ten to fifteen years, two major forces of technological movement which will trigger a corresponding change in economic forces will lead to information industry transformation and this will bring about sociological change. As information related goods and services are fast becoming electronic and digital, it will realign the information industry.


The Inefficient Information Industry
Because information industries are becoming increasingly crucial to our commercial and social lives, inefficiencies in these industries will be less tolerable.

The Vision
The convergent information industry will bring about creation of a national global electronic network with accessible handling devices to transact from anywhere you are with internet connection.

The Avalanche of Mergers and Alliances
As a result of the convergence of different forms of information, the earlier existed industries based on forms of information will have to merge and align in other to remain strong and relevant to the new trend in convergent information industry.

The Information Industry Today
The information industry today, when broadly defined are in three forms – computing, office technology and telecommunication – which become insufficient as industries begin to blur and differences in form of information which can be defined as five forms – creation and collection of content, display devices, storage devices, processing and transportation.

The form based industries of the past
Traditional information industries were based on information forms: voice, text, images, data and so on because technologies handling information at that time had been different and could not handle any other forms. Secondly, because of government restriction on information based industries from entering other types of information. The information functions are: content creation, collection, display, storage, processing, and distribution.

Technology Convergence and Digitization
The convergence of these different forms of information is brought by digitization and also dramatic changes in computing and telecommunication industries.

Breakthrough in Computing Technology
The advent of microprocessor and advancement in miniaturization and electric storage has made today’s computers more powerful than the 1980’s mainframes.
Breakthrough in Telecommunication
The coming era of broadband services and telecommunication will liberate the computer to fulfill its powers.

The Sociology of Convergent
The impact of these convergences will drive the industry especially the growth in internet use and broadband not yet understood. There is a suggestion for high-tech companies to pay attention to high touch issues.
Paradigm shift, the change to electronics and digitization, calls for companies’ mastery of the enabling technologies in order to create, produce, and distribute their goods and services. The transformation will result in three major industries – digitized content, multimedia devices and convergent network.
Computing will be diffused with critical ingredients of information business – storage, process, and software based manipulation. It will succeed only with specialization, alliances, investment, multiple technological appliances and periodical break prevailing price/performance norms.

The Overview of the new Information Industry
The information industry today is still in the early stages of momentous transformation. Historically, it was said to be restricted to a single form of information focusing only on business opportunities related to it.
Nowadays, information industry, though still developing, will be a great advantage to every economic activity resulting from the industry. With the advancement in information technologies managed by those industries, there will be future economic boom and increase in standard of leaving. Countries that seek to develop and remain competitive in the global economy will have to invest a huge sum of its gross domestic product (GDP) on information technology’s infrastructure and also human capacity to effectively and efficiently managed and integrate it into every aspect of the economy.
The advancement in microprocessors and free unlimited bandwidth with internet accessories will make daily activities and business transaction more meaningful especially as information will be digitized which makes it more accessible to every body. This will call for global international transactions. With information technologies coupled with the activities of these information industries, there will virtually be a need for our country to invest and implement policies that will guide information technology so that the country will found a place in the international competitive economic power.