Information Revolution Exam 1 SG

What is information according to Claude Shannon and Bell Labs?

The reduction of uncertainty in a communication system.

What is knowledge?

Ideas and facts that a human mind has internalized and understood.

What is the relationship between information and knowledge?

Information becomes knowledge when a person internalizes and understands it.

What is an information system?

A technology of knowledge used to gather, organize, transform, store/retrieve, or communicate information.

What are the five functions of information systems?

Gathering; naming/classifying; transforming; storing/retrieving; communicating information.

What is an example of gathering information?

Journalists, researchers, laboratories, and surveys.

What is an example of naming and classifying information?

Classifying students by year and major.

What is an example of transforming information?

Turning statistics into graphs.

What is an example of storing and retrieving information?

Dictionaries and organized records.

What is an example of communicating information?

Postal systems, email, and phones.

Why does information become more important as societies become complex?

More complex societies have more interactions and require faster information.

How can information display social status?

Knowledgeable people can be viewed as more prestigious than ignorant people.

Why does the speed of obtaining information matter?

Time spent obtaining and using information creates a premium on efficiency.

What did Headrick argue about the history of information?

Information has continually evolved and has shaped success, status, politics, economics, culture, and research.

What is the "Information Age"?

The age characterized by widespread access to technologies that connect and inform people.

What did Headrick say about the beginning of the Information Age?

It has no single beginning; information is as old as humankind, with periods of information revolutions.

What are information revolutions?

Bursts or periods of rapid acceleration when new technologies greatly affect information.

What factors can mark the beginning of the Information Age?

The transistor, railroads, telegraph, steam-powered newspaper press, European printing press, or simply the existence of information itself.

What was the Enlightenment?

A period involving intellectuals and their ideas, associated with major changes in information systems.

How did information function as money during the Age of Reason and Revolution?

Information such as ship arrivals could determine wealth or failure for merchants.

How did information contribute to political success?

Governing required information such as maps, population numbers, and grain reports.

How did information contribute to professional success?

Professionals needed specialized information, such as patterns for seamstresses and legal lists for lawyers.

How did information relate to social class?

Social status could be judged through conversation, wit, knowledge, and awareness of current news.

What happened to the demand for information during the Age of Revolution?

The supply of information never fully satisfied demand, encouraging continued innovation.

What is instrumental progress?

Progress involving means of achieving a particular goal.

What is moral progress?

Progress that evaluates whether the goal itself is ethical.

What did the notes say about instrumental progress in information systems?

It has been phenomenal.

What did the notes say about moral progress?

Humanity may have made little or no moral progress over the last three centuries.

What is a revolution according to the class definition?

Significant change over a short period of time.

How does revolutionary change differ from incremental change?

Revolutionary change is significant and rapid, while incremental change develops gradually.

What factors can historians consider when deciding whether something is revolutionary?

Significance, speed, widespread impact, replacement or coexistence with older technologies, necessity, and resistance.

Can an old technology continue existing after a revolution?

Yes; revolutionary technologies can coexist with older technologies, such as postal service continuing after newer communication technologies.

What did Wheeler argue about technology and society?

The secondary effects and applications of technology can transform society more than the technology itself.

What responsibility does Wheeler place on people?

People have a responsibility to humanize technology-driven changes and use technology for good.

What creates many technological effects according to Wheeler?

Human decisions about how technology is applied.

What happens when an innovation begins affecting people's patterns of life?

The isolated innovation becomes a collective social challenge.

What caused information revolutions according to the class discussion?

Not simply machines, but demand for information, along with cultural and historical factors.

What are "times of acceleration"?

Periods when information is created and spread much more rapidly.

Why is the Information Age difficult to give one starting date?

There have been multiple information revolutions and multiple periods of acceleration.

What is exponential acceleration in information?

Access to existing information enables the development of newer and more advanced information systems.

What role did hardware play in information revolutions?

Hardware developed to store and handle the overwhelming increase in information.

Who was Samuel Sewall?

A wealthy Boston merchant and Salem witch-trial judge who relied heavily on personal networks for information.

How did Samuel Sewall commonly receive information?

Through church members, merchants, officials, and prominent people in his social circle rather than books or newspapers.

Who was William Byrd II?

A wealthy Virginia plantation owner who had slower access to information but subscribed to newspapers and exchanged letters.

Who was Joshua Hempstead?

A farmer, deacon, and militia member from New London, Connecticut, who kept a diary.

Who was Samuel Lane?

A farmer and tanner from New Hampshire who subscribed to newspapers and owned 307 books.

What is the main argument of Cook's "Technological Revolutions and the Gutenberg Myth"?

Technological and social change is caused by multiple mutually influencing innovations, not one invention.

What is the Gutenberg Myth?

The belief that the printing revolution and major social changes resulted primarily from Gutenberg's printing press.

Why does Cook reject the Gutenberg Myth?

Literacy and social change developed slowly through multiple technological, social, cultural, and economic factors.

What were important components of the printing revolution besides movable type?

Paper, literacy, social conditions, economic factors, and supporting technologies.

What was an advantage of Gutenberg's movable type?

More information could reach more people in less time and at lower cost.

Why was paper important to printing?

It provided a printable medium available in quantities suitable for wider distribution.

Why was literacy necessary for printing to create mass social change?

People had to be able to read the printed material.

Who was credited with the Gutenberg Bible?

Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, Germany.

Who else was suggested in the notes as a possible printing pioneer?

Laurens Janszoon Coster.

What role did Asian print blocks play in printing history?

They are considered an early starting point of the print revolution.

Why did printing technology not immediately create mass social change?

Printed materials were expensive and most of the population was illiterate.

Who primarily had access to early printed materials?

Clergy, scholars, and aristocrats.

How expensive were early printed books?

They were too expensive for most ordinary people.

What happened to printing after Gutenberg?

It became cheaper and faster than copying manuscripts and spread across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.

How did literacy change over time according to the notes?

Literacy increased gradually, with major gains connected to later social and technological changes.

What role did class and gender play in literacy?

Access to learning was strongly related to class and gender.

What major 19th-century development helped make mass literacy practical?

Cheap mass-produced paper made from wood pulp.

How did public education affect literacy?

State-supported public education contributed to a dramatic decrease in illiteracy.

What did mass literacy make possible?

Rapid and inexpensive mass production and distribution of printed words.

What does the printing example suggest about technological revolutions?

They are historically and culturally complex rather than caused by one technology.

What is social construction of technology?

The idea that social factors and choices help shape technological development.

What is technological determinism?

The idea that technology itself determines or strongly drives social change.

How do Cook's ideas relate to social construction?

Cook emphasizes social, cultural, and economic factors rather than technology acting alone.

What did Headrick and Cook have in common?

Both recognized technological factors but emphasized broader social factors and periods of information acceleration.

What is a substrate?

A substance acted upon; in printing, it is the material printed on.

What are examples of printing substrates?

Paper, animal skin, wood, textiles, plastics, composites, and printed circuit boards.

What were the main steps in traditional papermaking?

Rag collection, fiber breakdown, sheet formation, slurry vat, couching, and pressure/drying.

What was relief printing?

Printing using raised surfaces, such as carved wood blocks.

Why was relief printing useful for some religious texts?

It worked well for texts that did not change frequently.

Why was relief printing less useful for newspapers?

Newspapers constantly changed and required more flexible printing.

What was letterpress printing?

A process using movable metal type arranged into words and printed with a press.

What metals were used in printing type?

Lead, tin, and antimony.

What is type setting?

Arranging individual metal characters by hand into words, sentences, and paragraphs.

What was the purpose of spacing material?

To fill empty spaces between words and lines.

What were the main steps of the printing press?

Hand press, inking, placing type and paper, making an impression, and drying.

How did Gutenberg's Bible compare with handwritten production?

About 150 copies were made in 4–5 years, while scribes could make only 2–3 in the same time.

Why did Gutenberg's Bible resemble handwritten books?

The printed Bible was designed to look similar to manuscripts and be valued like them.

What is "fixity" in print culture?

The ability to assume that copies of a printed book are identical or highly consistent.

What did Elizabeth Eisenstein argue about print culture?

Print was one factor that changed data collection, storage, retrieval, and communication among learned societies.

What are major features of Eisenstein's print culture argument?

Rapid dissemination, increased output, standardization, reorganized texts, new data collection, fixity, and cumulative change.

What did Adrian Johns argue about the nature of books?

The nature and credibility of books were socially constructed rather than being inherent technical qualities of print.

Who was Tycho Brahe?

A wealthy astronomer whose publications were connected to the patronage system.

How did Tycho Brahe distribute some of his work?

Handwritten copies were given to princes and patrons because they were expensive and rare.

What problem did printed and pirated copies create for authors?

Mistakes or misinformation could damage an author's reputation because the author's name was attached to the work.

What roles existed in London bookmaking?

Master printer, compositor, corrector, pressman/printer, and warehouse keeper.

What did the London book trade require?

Multiple specialized workers and systems for printing, correcting, storing, and authorizing books.

What was the main argument of Henkin's "The Postal Age"?

Printing and letter writing had major social effects as postal communication became an everyday practice.

How did personal letters change in the 1840s–1850s?

They became widespread for maintaining relationships, not just for news or special occasions.

Who gained greater access to personal postal communication?

Ordinary middle-class people, not just elites and businessmen.

How did the post become part of everyday life?

Letter writing became a habit rather than something reserved for special occasions.

How did the postal system support business?

Long-distance trade depended heavily on writing, copying, and filing letters.

What was the "new breed of white-collar employee"?

Entry-level, salaried middle-class workers performing mental labor such as correspondence.

What skills were important for correspondence work?

Composition, orthography, and penmanship.

How did people view personal letters?

As intimate social exchanges and ways to maintain relationships across distance.