INFORMATION AGE (TOPIC 9)

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Information Age

• It began in 1970’s and is still going on today.

• It is also known as Computer Age, Digital Age, or New Media Age.

• It is an era brought about a time period in which people could easily access information and knowledge

Information Age according to James R. Messenger

The Information Age is a true new age based upon the interconnection of computers via telecommunications, with these information systems operating on both a real-time and as needed basis. Furthermore, the primary factors driving this new age forward are convenience and user-friendliness which, in turn, will create user dependence.

Printing Press

• A device that applies pressure to an inked surface lying on a print medium (cloth or paper), to transfer ink.

• It improves the manual, tedious, and printing methods.

• The Gutenberg’s hand mould printing press led the creation of its metal movable type.

Inventor of the Printing Press

Johanne Gutenberg

Hand mould Printing Press

• It is the beginning of mass communication that widens the circulation of information which tremendously brought social change.

• However, political and religious authority were threatened due to the rise of literacy among people.

• It made the mass production of books were it is not just accessible only to the upper-class.

HARVARD MARK 1 – (IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator)

• It was created by the United States, member of the Allies (Canada, Britain, France, USSR, Australia) during WWII to address the serious shortage of human computers for military calculations.

• It is a general purpose electromechanical computer.

• Description: 50 ft long; can calculate in seconds (against people to compute for an hour)

Designer of the HARVARD MARK 1

Howard Aiken

Enigma M4 Cypher Machine

• It is used by Britain to crack the German Navy's Enigma code (Enigma– it is an enciphering machine that German armed forces used to securely send messages.)

• The code-breaking methods (industrial processes) have 12,000 people working 24/7.

• However, Nazis created more complicated Enigma having approximately 10114 possible permutations of every encrypted message.

Alan Turing

hired by British top-secret Government Code and Cipher school (Bletchley Park).

Bombe over German’s enigma 10114

• It was created by Alan Turing.

• An electromechanical machine enabled the British to decipher encrypted messages of German Enigma machine.

• The creation of Enigma and Bombe along with cryptologists shortened the WWII by two years

Turing’s Machine

• A theoretical machine presented by Turing in his paper entitled On computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem in 1937.

• It can solve problem from simple instructions encoded on a paper tape.

• It was used to construct a single Universal machine (demonstrated through simulation).

• It is the foundation of computer science and the invention of a machine called computer (which can solve problem by performing any task from a written program- DeHaan, 2012).

1970’s – The Generation of “electronic brain

• It is the dawn of computer age.

• Personal computers were first introduced.

• Homebrew Computer club (an early computer hobbyist group), traded parts of computer, hardware and plan how to make computers more accessible to everyone.

• The members of the club became high-profile entrepreneurs that includes the founder of Apple, Inc.

Apple I / Apple-1 / Apple Computer 1

• Created by Steve Wozniak in 1976

• He designed the operating system, hardware, and circuit board by himself.

• The Apple 1 was suggested to sold by Steve Jobs (friend of Wozniak) as a fully assembled printed circuit board.

• It jumpstarted Jobs and Wozniak careers as founders of Apple, Inc.

The rise of SOCIAL MEDIA

• It is the most technological advancement of the new millennium.

• It is designed to facilitate thencreation and exchange of information in a virtual space.

• People can easily access to any type of information through computers and mobile phones.

Uses of Social Media

• Institutions and government organizations used it for various purposes.

• It plays a big role in advertising industry.

• It engages people in political matters.

• It creates a virtual world where people can express themselves freely and share experiences.

• It is a mean for leisure and connects with family, friends, and loved ones.

Social Media Platforms

• It was introduced from 1973 onwards from variations of the following which enables information exchange at its most efficient level.

Significance of Computer Age

• It progressed the invention of printing press to the development of numerous social media platforms.

• It immensely influenced the lives of the people.

• It can be advantageous or disadvantageous

  depending on its use.