ABSTRACT
Much of the character of the information age owes its existence to technologies such as computers, telecommunications networks, electronic media and the Internet. Computers provide the power to generate, manipulate, manage and index information. Telecommunications allows the movement of voice and data across space, while the information economy is cause and effect of the development and evolution of both computers and telecommunications. The importance of information is tied closely to the development of technologies to gather and manage this resource. Information technologies, initially computers and later the Internet, were developed to improve information processing, offering new ways to collect and manage information. As information was mined for its value, emphasis started to shift in its economic valuation, with core information growing in value relative to the traditional products of the manufacturing era. Stephen Saxby (1990) underscores the significance of technology and information, noting that the marriage of the two has
provided a stimulus that can be seen not just in terms of new products, services, wealth and success for the richer nations, but in the far-reaching implications for business methods, design and manufacturing techniques and the way individuals interact, travel, entertain themselves, obtain information and communicate.
