The Habitat of Information: Social and Organizational Consequences of Information Growth
Information growth is a distinctive phenomenon of the late 20th and early 21st century. Large varieties of information are currently produced and circulated, in a rapidly increasing scale, across the various institutional domains of contemporary societies. Technical and administrative innovations have been expanding the interoperable platforms that make possible the development and diffusion of information within and across systems and organizations. At the same time, a range of devices from desktop computing to cell phones and digital cameras have been spreading across the population, making individuals and social groups important producers and consumers of information. A pivotal development has been the emergence, expansion and deepening involvement of the internet in social and economic life.
Taken together, these developments establish a new socio-economic environment in which information-based operations and services acquire crucial importance. This is clearly shown in the rapid ascent to economic dominance of internet-based companies that demonstrate superior data editing and information management strategies. New commercial possibilities steadily develop around the production, ordering and distribution of information, as data become interoperable across sources and older forms of information (e.g. image, text and sound) are brought to bear upon one another. But information growth has wider social implications as well. The involvement of information in every walk of life redefines the relationship between information and reality, and reshapes the social practices through which information is stored, retrieved, understood, disseminated and remembered. Increasingly, information mediates between humans and reality. In this context, the activities of ordering, making sense, evaluating, navigating and acting upon information step onto the centre-stage of contemporary life, impinging upon skill profiles and personal choices. They often do so under conditions in which the established boundaries between individuals and institutions are rendered shifting and negotiable.
There is a growing awareness of the current information growth dynamics and the emerging information habitat. However, the recent character of the phenomenon makes the social and economic implications of these dynamics not well understood. The 8th Social Study of ICT workshop brings together a number of prominent scholars and practitioners whose work and experience help illuminate the relevant developments.
Welcome address: Professor of Accounting and Research Theme Director of the ESRC Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation.
Mike Power
Video [136MB]
Keynote: Information Growth and the Texture of Reality
Albert Borgmann, Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Montana
Video [90MB]
The Expanding Information Universe
John Gantz, Chief Research Officer and Senior Vice President of IDC – International Data Corporation
Video [81MB]
Panel on the Organizational Consequences of Information Growth
This panel will address how companies and organizations are managing their information resources. Which strategies do they develop to cope with informa-tion growth and the increasing involvement of information in organizational operations? Which new practices, skills and roles emerge in today's informa-tion-intensive organizations and industries?
Chair: Carsten Sorensen, Information Systems and Innovation Group, Department of Management, London School of Economics.
-
Azeem Azhar, Head of Innovation, Reuters
-
James Backhouse, Information Systems and Innovation Group, Department of Management, London School of Economics
-
Richard Boulderstone, Director of eStrategy, The British Library
-
Ole Hanseth, Professor, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo
-
John Kay, Management Group, PA Consulting
Video [95MB]
Living in Ephemeria: On the Short-lived and Disposable Character of Information
Jannis Kallinikos, Professor, LSE
Video [86MB]
How to Track Global Digital Culture
Lev Manovich, Professor, Visual Arts Department, University of California, San Diego, California.
Video [82MB]
Panel on Information, Memory and Culture
The panel will address the contrast between, on the one hand, the durability of technological information (e.g. databases) and, on the other hand, the short lifespan of information and its rapidly evaporating value (e.g. global stock markets). Information growth is intimately tied to the management of time and the proliferation of events in contemporary life. In this respect, it is as much an instrumental as a cultural phenomenon.
Chair: Giovan-Francesco Lanzara Professor, Department of Organization and Political System, University of Bologna, Italy
Elena Espósito Associate Professor, Faculty of Communication Science , University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy
Mireille Hildebrandt Associate Professor, Law Faculty, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Free University Brussels
Felix Stadler, Lecturer, New Media Department, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Zurich
Video [105MB]
The Information Systems and Innovation Group is a centre of expertise on information technology (IT) innovation and concomitant organisational and social change. For more information on the group please click here.