My ContentInformation IndustryInformation as ProductInformation IndustryRoles within the Information Industry
Information Industry
The information industry comprises a group of enterpries and organizations whose purpose is to produce and process information to develop the infrastructure and delivery mechanisms to distribute information. For the individuals and companies that implement these functions, it is important to understand the nature of the industry and the issues that affect its activities. For the people and organizations that use information, it is helpful to develop an understanding of the larger picture of the industry as a whole so they know where to find the information they need and how it is being made available.
Information as Product
The definition of "information" that will be used in this entry is that of Michael Buckland (1991), which regards information as objects. Information objects include things such as databases, electronic documents, newspapers, book's and calendars. Information is thus something that can be produced, sold, delivered and used. In order for these activities to happen, however, some aspects of the nature of information objects must be properly understood.
Information as a product must be used in some way (e.g. read, understood and applied) in order for its value to be realized, unlike goods such as food, information connot be consumed, once it is used, it can still be used again. Information also has a lifecycle; it moves from new to old, from specialized to general and from contested to accepted. All of these aspects of information affect its value as a product, from the perspectives of both the information buyer and seller. The value of information is sensitive to time; new information may cost more to deliver than old. For a buyer, information that is needed by the end of the day may be worth nothing if it is delivered the following day. Value is also affected by the strength of the need for information; finding an emergency room. Patient's medical history may have a different perceived value to the customer than answering a crossword puzzle clue. The value of information is also related to a number of factors such as its Scarcity or proprietary nature, the cost to produce or assemble the information, and the effect it will have when used. All of these factors affect how the information industry creates prices, and delivers information to consumers. These factors also affect the willingness of the consumer to purchase and use the information. For a clearer understanding, though, it is useful to examine the specific functions that are required for industry to handle information as a product.
Information Industry
The functions of the information industry can be separated broadly into four categories : production, processing, distribution and the building of infrastructure.
Many of the producers of information fall outside the bounds of the information industry proper; these include authors, illustrators, invertors and so on However, information is also produced within the industry itself; for example, companies specializing in data mining use large collections of data to create usable information products such as customer profiles or product purchasing trends. Also, some of the products generated in the processing of information are sufficiently novel that processing becomes a form of production.
Information processing comprises a large portion of the activities within the information industry, processing transforms information into products that can be packaged and sold as usable goods. For example, publishing a journal involves processing a number of articles into an edited and integrated package. Creating an electronic database of journal articles involves assembling citations, and abstracts for articles from a carefully selected group of journals and integrating them into a large, usable database system.
Distribution of information also comprises a large part of industry activity, distribution includes marketing the information products that were processed and delivering the products to the customers who purchase them. For example, once an electronic database of journal articles has been assembled, proper distribution ensures that potential customers know it exists and that they can access it after purchase. When the product is delivered to the customer, that individual might be a librarian or other information professional. This person who then distributes information to specific information users, is often called an "intermediary". For nonprofit segments of the information, industry, such as libraries, this may be referred to as "access"; rather than delivering information products to customers, they are making them available to people for their use.
Finally, information industry organization must build a robust infrastructure in order to support their activities. Such an infrastructure may include, for example, computer hardware and software, database systems, telecommunication systems, marketing channels, and other technological and social structures. An important piece of infrastructure that has had a great effect on the information industry is the internet; this widely available and standardized means of transferring electronic information (including text and graphics) has allowed organizations to more away from proprietary, dedicated delivery systems and toward integrated, multi product, multivendor access to electronic information products.
The four activities of the information industry do not operate in a vacuum; rather, they are the means by which information companies provide goods and services that meet customer needs. In doing so, the information industry plays a number of roles. For example the information industry attempts to reduce information overload; people and companies that use information perceive that they receive foo much information. To compensate, the information industry processes large amounts of information, reducing it to smaller, categorized packages that can be distributed to information users. The information industry also helps facilitate access to information, information users often have difficulty in obtaining information, whether they know what information they need or not. To make getting information easier, the information industry processes information into packages that people will understand and want to use, makes users aware of the existence of these efficient packages, and ensures that information products work properly and are timely and accurate.
The variety and complexity of the functions undertaken by the information industry lead one to wonder about who performs such tasks. Successful accomplishment of these activities requires specific Kinds of organizations and specialized jobs.
Roles within the Information Industry
Individuals and companies that perform production functions work primarily to change large amounts of raw data into information. In data mining, for example, very large stores of data are manipulated and examined in order to generate reports and profiles that identify and explain broad trends. Surveys, censuses, and other types of data collection do similar things on a smaller scale, numerical data are gathered and the results tabulated. In addition, data are changed into information by being arranged into databases. There are other kinds of information production such as authoring and illustrating; these creative processes generate information objects such as books and journal articles.
These people who are involved in information processing perform tasks that change information objects into organized collections or packages that are suitable for distribution. One important task is publishing, which can mean aggregating articles together to form a coherent journal or editing and assembling a book. Once information has been published, a second level of processing takes place, which places documents or their representations into organized forms. For example, indexers and abstracters generate standardized citations of documents and write summary abstracts of the repository where information is collected, organized and made accessible to users; the librarian is responsible for selecting items, organizing them within the library's own collection, or helping people with information needs to find answers. Some distributors do not collect items, they pay to access a wide variety of resources and employ people who are expert in using them. For example, information consulting or information-ondemand services are hired by customers who have specific information requests. Such companies fulfill the requests, using perhaps many libraries and database services, and sell the results to the customers. Similarly document delivery services do not collect materials; they use a number of information resources to provide articles or books on request.
Many different individuals and companies are involved in creating information infrastructures. In building the technical components, telecommunication companies provide the wiring content. These citations and abstracts can then be assembled in large, searchable document repositories. To help make these repositories easy to use, catalogers or subject analysts use standardized methods of arranging documents by subject and describing their content.
Once information has been packaged for distribution, many different people help transfer information from the producer to the customer marketing lets customers know that information resources exist, how they may be useful for the customer, and in what ways one product may be more suitable than another. Suppliers and database resellers act as "wholesalers"; fon example, they may repackage a number of databases from different producers into one new product or provide a gateway to electronic journals from a variety of publishers.
The form of distribution in which information professional acting as an intermediary users the packaged Product to provide information to end users can take several forms. A library is usually, telephone technical support workers and technical manual writers provide this assistance.
The information industry also includes people who manage these functions, whether or not the sole product of the organization is information. knowledge managers, information technology managers and other types of information managers work in organizations ranging from manufacturing companies to universities to hospitals to banks. These roles combine business knowledge with an understanding of the functional processes of information management to provide an in house information industry for the organization.
Given the wide variety of people and organizations that are working in the information industry, along with the profound shift caused by electronic information and telecommunications systems, it is inevitable that the information industry should face many issues. An examination of some of these issues will provide a greater and the communication systems that allow for the transfer of data. Internet Service Providers (ISP) provide the means for individuals to access telecommunication systems software programmers, software engineers, systems analysts and database designers build databases and other information systems that provide a framework for information objects and their representationis. Finally, interface designers ensure that, customers can interact successfully with the electronic information systems.
Equally important is the sociological in infrastructure. For sharing, transferring, and repackaging of information to occur, it must be in standardized electronic forms that move over standard communication channels. Standards must be designed and developed, but they must also be implemented when systems are built. The sociological infrastructure also provides help and support to people who are using information products and may need assistance in operating the system.
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