ABSTRACT
The information challenge of the workplace today is the “feast-or-famine” syndrome: workers often cannot find information when they need it, or they may be confronted by too much information at any given time. Information is of no use unless we know where it is and how to get at it. Information services are where that access is achieved. (Note that although there are many useful distinctions to be made among the words “data,” “information,” and “knowledge,” this chapter will use both the words data and information to refer to the knowledge or content being managed in a netcentric environment.)
In a traditional computing environment, an organization’s information is usually centralized in a particular location, or it may be fragmented across multiple locations. In a netcentric environment, however, information is most often distributed because distribution of processors and data is an inherent part of the new styles of netcentric computing.
