defined as a “period starting in the last quarter of the 20th century when
information became effortlessly through publication and through the management
of information by computer networks.”
information age
Other terms for Information age
Digital Age
The New Media Age
Who proposed the theory of information age in 1982, the information age is a
true new aged based upon the interconnection of computers via
telecommunications, with basis. The primary factors of driving this new age
forward are convenience and user friendliness which, in turn, will create user
dependence.”
James R. Messenger
Called it “INFORMATION ANXIETY.” In the 1990s, information became the
currency in the business world. Information was the preferred medium of
exchange and the information managers served as information officers.
RICHARD WURMAN
is an electronic device that stores and processes data (information). It runs on
the program that contains the exact, step by step directions to solve a problem.
COMPUTER
TYPES OF COMPUTER
It is a single user instrument, PCs were first known as microcomputers since they
were a complete computer but built on a smaller scale than the enormous system
operated by most business.
PERSONAL COMPUTER(PC)
It is describe as a PC that is not designed for portability. The assumption with a
desktop is that it will be set up in a permanent spot. A workstation is simply a
desktop computer that has a more powerful processor, additional memory, and
enhanced capabilities for performing special group of tasks, such as 3D graphics or
game development.
DESKTOP COMPUTER
These are portable computers that integrate the essentials of a desktop computer in
a battery powered package, which are somewhat larger than a typical hardcover
book. They are commonly called notebooks.
LAPTOPS
There are tightly integrated computers that usually have no keyboards but rely on a
touch screen for user input. PDAs are typically smaller than a paperback,
lightweight, and battery powered.
PERSONAL DIGITAL ASSISTANTS(PDAs)
It refers to a computers that has been improved to provide network services to
other computers. Servers usually boast powerful processors, tons of memory, and
large drives.
SERVER
These are huge computer systems that can fill an entire room. They are use
specially by large firms to describe the large, expensive machines that process
millions of transactions every day. The term “mainframe” has been replaced by
enterprise server.
MAINFRAMES
They involve the materials that are usually integrated into cellphones, watches and
other small objects or places. They perform common computer applications such as
databases, email, multimedia, and schedulers.
WEARABLE COMPUTERS
THE WORLD WIDE WEB
INTERNET
Several historians trace the origin of the internet to Claude F. Shannon, an American
Mathematicians who was considered as the "Father of Information Theory". He
worked at Bell Laboratories and at age 32, he published a paper proposing that
information can be quantitatively encoded as a sequence of ones and zeroes.
The internet is a worldwide system of interconnected networks that facilitate data
transmission among innumerable computers. It was developed during the 1970s by
the Department of Defense. In case of an attack, military advisers suggested the
advantage of being able to operate on one computer from another terminal.
In the early days, the Internet was used mainly by scientists to communicate with
other scientists. The Internet remained under government control until 1984.
(Rouse, 2014).
Internet
One early problem faced by internet users was speed. Phone lines could only
transmit information at a limited rate. The development of fiber optic cables allowed
for billions of bits of information to be received every minute.
Sergey Brin and Larry Page, directors of a Stanford research project, built a research
engine that listed results to reflect page popularity when they determined that the
most popular results to frequently be the most usable. Google is now the world's
most popular search engine, accepting more than 200 million queries daily.
Back then, new forms of communication were also introduced. Electronic
mail, or email, was a suitable way to send a message to fellow workers, business
partners, or friends. Message could be sent and received at the convenience of the
individual.
THE WORLD WIDE WEB
INTERNET
A letter that took several days to arrive could be read in minutes. Internet service
providers like America Online and CompuServe set up electronic chat rooms. These
were open areas of cyberspace where interested parties could join in a conversation
with perfect strangers. "Surfing the net" became a pastime in and of itself.
Consequently, companies whose businesses are built on digitized
information have become valuable and powerful in relatively short period of
time; the current Information Age has spawned its own breed of wealthy influential
brokers from Microsoft's Bill Gates to Apple's Steve Jobs to Facebook's Mark
Zuckerberg.
Nowadays, crimes in various forms are rampant because of the use of social media.
Cyber bullying is an issue that poses alarm worldwide.
SWISS-PORT protein database, was initiated in 1986.
Some of the software tools which are handy in the analysis include:
BLAST- Use for comparing sequences
ANNOTATOR- An interactive genome analysis tool
GENEFINDER- Tool to identify coding regions and splice sites
The sequence information generated by the human genome research
initiated in 1988, has now been stored as primary information source for
future applications in medicine.
From the pharmaceutical industry’s point of view, the bioinformation is
the key to rational drug discovery.
Molecular modeling, which requires a lot of calculations, has become
faster due to the advances in computer processors and its architecture
In plant biotechnology, bioinformatics is found to be useful in the areas of
identifying disease genes and designing plants with high nutrition value