Economic reasons information society.

The information industry can be defined as a branch of the economy associated with the production, processing, transmission, storage of all types of information, the creation of the necessary technical devices and technology. It is the most dynamic sector of the world economy, generating products and services that significantly change the nature of doing business in traditional industries not directly related to the creation, processing and dissemination of information. The use of ITT in many areas of services and industry has become an absolutely necessary element of competition and strategic development.

The philosophical significance of this factor is that human activity is increasingly based on knowledge codified in various types of technologies and computer programs. Intellectualization economic life requires corresponding changes in the social organization of society, in the field of education, and in methods of production. Knowledge recorded in technologies and computer systems becomes an objective factor of development. The basis for the existence of society is knowledge, the use of which requires special means - information and telecommunication technologies. The production of knowledge is turning into the most important function of society, ensuring survival and further progress, and modern ITTs are becoming the means for realizing this function.

Common concept information economy characterizes the current trend in the development of the world economy associated with the increasing role of the information industry and knowledge in the economic life of society. Of course, traditional industry, agriculture and the service sector still dominate in production volumes, but the highest growth rates and profitability are observed in the information industry.

The modern information industry unites a wide range of companies and firms engaged in the production, transformation, and transmission of information presented in the form of data, text, graphics, video, and sound. Three branches of the information industry can be distinguished: production of information and telecommunications equipment, communications and production of content (information).

The information industry is undergoing intense structural changes driven by rapid technological advances, continued improvements in efficiency, and falling costs of these technologies.

These structural changes are transforming the information market. New market participants are emerging, often from other areas of the information industry. For example, telecommunications companies are entering content markets. The globalization of the electronic print market, combined with deregulation, is intensifying international competition in regional and national content markets. It becomes difficult to protect rights to intellectual products.

The development of the information industry is driven not only by new technological solutions and organizational mergers, but also by a whole complex of economic factors. The economic rationale for the activities of high-tech companies, which include manufacturers of information products and services, telecommunications and computer equipment, is the same as in other areas. This is the desire to dominate the market, expand its boundaries, offer new products, improve the quality of services and goods and, ultimately, get the maximum return on investment.

Information industry

Information industry

Information industry - production of information goods and services based on information technology. The information industry includes (1) computer production and (2) information production.

In English: Information industry

Finam Financial Dictionary.

See what “Information industry” is in other dictionaries:

Production of information goods and services based on information technologies. The information industry includes the production of computer technology and the production of information. Dictionary of business terms. Akademik.ru. 2001 ... Dictionary of business terms

information industry- Large-scale production of information goods and services various types based on the latest ICT (from newspapers, magazines and books to computer games and information content (content) of networks). It includes two significantly different parts: ... ... Technical Translator's Guide

Information industry/INFORMATION INDUSTRY- large-scale production of information goods and services of various types based on the latest technology (from newspapers, magazines and books to computer games and network content (content). It includes two significantly different parts: ... ... Explanatory dictionary on the information society and the new economy

Industry- (Industry) Industry is the most important sector of the national economy Beauty, tourism, development of the construction, hotel, gaming industries Contents >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Industry (In ... Investor Encyclopedia

The industry of material and intellectual production, which ensures the functioning of the network information space. In English: Internet industry See also: Information economics Internet Financial dictionary Finam... Financial Dictionary

Infrastructure- (Infrastructure) Infrastructure is a complex of interconnected service structures or objects Transport, social, road, market, innovative infrastructure, their development and elements Contents >>>>>>>> ... Investor Encyclopedia

A country's economy- (National economy) The economy of a country is social relations to ensure the wealth of the country and the well-being of its citizens. The role of the national economy in the life of the state, the essence, functions, sectors and indicators of the country’s economy, the structure of countries... ... Investor Encyclopedia

information discrete program computer

The information industry is the newest branch of the economy of individual states and the world. Having emerged in the second period of the scientific and technological revolution, it still remains an emerging industry, despite the large volume of work it already performs. information work and a very high assessment of its role in the global economy. Until now, there has not been a single, generally accepted name for this young industry (“information industry”, “informatics industry”, “informatics industry”). information services" etc.). There is also no uniform approach to the composition of its productions. All this explains the absence of data on the industry in the official directories of most states.

Information is information, knowledge, the possession of which enriches the understanding of the world around us, and in the practical activities of people influences decision-making processes and management. Its usefulness lies in giving the information consumer freedom of action. It helps to choose the optimal one from several or even many options for solving a problem or problem, and to evaluate the consequences of other rejected options. The most important property of information is that it is not a physical object. Therefore, its receipt, storage, transmission, and processing are carried out with very little energy and substance consumption.

The scientific and technological revolution led to an extremely rapid growth of new knowledge already at the turn of the 50-60s. XX century, which led to the “information revolution”. It coincided with revolutionary innovations in the field of microelectronics and computer technology. The development of science, technology, technology and the complex problems that arose in the organization and management of all spheres of economic and social life turned out to be very favorable for the formation of computer science as a scientific basis for studying the processes of obtaining and using information. This predetermined the emergence of the information industry with non-material-intensive products of its activities. The goal of this new industry is to collect, process information and provide information services to everyone in need using modern technology.

Information has become a new type of resource along with traditional labor, material or financial ones. It belongs to the resource-producing type of human activity and becomes the basis of modern and, especially, future (“information”) society. The difficulties of creating information and the great need for it have led to the desire to obtain it not only through legal but also illegal means (military, industrial, commercial espionage, etc.). Arose and received wide use disinformation: distortion or issuance of deliberately false information, most often based on political, diplomatic, economic and other goals.

Unlike material and financial resources, information has special properties:

• - the amount of information as a resource is continuously increasing, i.e. it is inexhaustible;
• - information does not decrease or disappear even if it is used simultaneously by many consumers;
• - the demand for information, unlike most other resources, can continue continuously;
• - the production of an information product may be more expensive than its copying or replication;
• - information, like equipment and technology, is subject to obsolescence, especially when new data arrives, but this usually happens much faster (within days and even hours).

The information industry occupies a special place in the areas of economic activity. Firstly, it is one of the most technically equipped sectors of the economy. Its services have sophisticated, expensive electronic equipment. Costs per employee in the industry are higher than in most other departments of the national economy. The functioning of many services is carried out automatically using electronic equipment and technology. The obsolescence of equipment occurs very quickly, as the electronics industry continuously develops and supplies more and more advanced types of equipment. Consumers of information industry products are also forced to update their equipment (computers, etc.) and technology (introduce new organizational types of software). All this brings the information industry closer to industrial production, which makes it possible to classify it as a secondary sector of human activity.

Secondly, the information industry fulfills the task of providing services in the form of a wide variety of information, providing it to a wide and constantly growing contingent of users in all spheres of the economy and public life. Already, the number of active consumers of its products covers more than half of the world's population. Its services are distributed to the consumer both free of charge and beyond his demand (for example, media messages go along with advertisements), and for a fee when one or another type of information is provided to a specific customer. In any case, the information industry performs typical functions of the tertiary sector - the service sector.

Thirdly, the information industry is a high-tech industry that uses the achievements of not only industrial equipment and technology, but also computer science as an area of ​​scientific activity.

One of the applied areas of computer science has acquired the greatest practical importance - the creation of software for computers. A special role is played by special individual programs for solving various scientific, technical, technological problems on computers, as well as economic problems in certain sectors of the national economy. Wherein software-- the result of highly qualified intellectual activity of specialist programmers, i.e. already belongs to the quaternary sector.

The effective functioning of the information industry is impossible without clear and reliable communications. Producers and consumers of information are located in most countries in all parts of the world. Timely and rapid supply of them with the necessary information of various contents and volumes is ensured by modern high-performance telecommunications facilities, which make it possible to switch to digital technology transmitting and receiving data. The same technology is found in computers. Perhaps this is why the information industry is mistakenly identified with telecommunications. However, these are two different sectors of the national economy with their own special tasks and structures, which only perform similar functions of providing services.

The information industry, combining the products and specific work of the secondary, tertiary and quaternary sectors of human activity, has become an integrator of their efforts to receive, store, transmit and process information. Such a close interweaving of such different and mainly non-material-intensive sectors of the economy and science is a new feature of the scientific and technological revolution era. It will have an increasing impact on the ongoing processes of internationalization and globalization of the world economy, gradually covering all spheres of production. They will allow you to create and exchange information resources faster and more efficiently.

The structure of the information industry itself is determined by the information product itself, the sources of its receipt, centers and organizations for its concentration and processing, as well as distribution.

The largest division of the structure is the organization for the formation electronic databases data. They have the most sophisticated equipment and account for the vast majority of turnover and income in the industry.

Databases are the basis of the information industry. They closely interact with “generators” - centers that initiate and ensure the preparation of information by its primary suppliers. At first, databases were formed by government services and organizations, scientific and technical societies, and now they are created mainly by commercial ones (more than 3/4). The number of databases is constantly growing and has exceeded 10 thousand in the world. Their potential is extremely great and continues to grow primarily due to technical capabilities modern species equipment and apparatus. Thus, one CD contains up to 250 thousand pages of text, i.e. contains the contents of several large multi-volume encyclopedias. The capacity of a regular floppy disk is 800-500 times less.

Important functions are performed by organizations (usually firms of varying sizes) for information processing. The most numerous companies provide professional computer services(programming, personnel training, consulting, creation of integrated computer systems, etc.).

• - current reports about events in public life, the natural environment, etc.;
• - information about scientific and technical achievements, about the organization and management of enterprises and institutions;
• - special economic and business information;
• - educational and cultural information.

Main suppliers:

• - national and international information services of scientific organizations ( research institutes, centers, universities, libraries, etc.);
• - government institutions and services (government organizations, statistical offices, archives, etc.);
• - production and non-production enterprises with their information services engaged in commercial activities;
• - individuals who own certain information data.

These producers of primary information can simultaneously be its active consumers. Types of information can be expressed:

• - in the form of words and corresponding text (reference books, dictionaries, books, newspapers, etc.);
• - numbers (commercial, technical, economic and other data);
• - visually (diagrams, photographs, still and moving paintings (cinema, television);
• - sounds (musical pieces, speeches, dialogue, etc.)

Currently, all of the above types of information in their various forms are encoded in the form of numbers and transmitted by telecommunications over very long distances in the shortest possible time and without any technical distortions or errors.

Production of information, i.e. obtaining new knowledge, for example in scientific research and development work, requires costs, sometimes very large ones. This is due to the costs of purchasing the necessary equipment, materials, developing technology, paying the labor of specialists involved in this, registration of patents, licenses, copyright documents, etc.

The very preparation of information just for placement in the database and its direct transfer require corresponding costs. Creating databases is capital-intensive: they are equipped with very powerful, expensive computers. Their operation is accompanied by costs that can be transferred to the requested information. Therefore, the total costs of the information industry often exceed those of a number of other sectors of the economy.

Information is a product of highly intellectual labor, but also a commodity that can be bought and sold. It receives its individual value already in the process of its production, has a selling price, and gives profit or loss. Hence, all the laws of a market economy fully apply to information. However, this specific “intangible” product must be brought to the buyer, taking into account his demand for this or that type of information and the form of its provision. This is achieved in different ways: through many national information services or worldwide computer system Internet.

The international information market represents a large and continuously growing segment of the world economy. A significant part of the intellectual products of all humanity - scientific, technical, economic, cultural, educational, etc. - is distributed through this international market. The discrepancies existing in the world in determining the structure of the information industry do not allow us to estimate the value of sales of information itself. Thus, in 1990, according to various estimates, its turnover ranged from 0.6 to 2 trillion dollars, but it also included the sale of equipment and communication services. Information services themselves (together with software) ranged from 25 to 40%. In 2000, turnover is expected to be at the level of 3-3.5 trillion dollars, of which the cost of direct information services will be at least 1 trillion dollars.

Information management

Information management becomes a specific section of management. When forming the tasks of information management, we must keep in mind that information resources and means of access to them, just like any other resources, require effective management. In addition, the rapid development of information processes in all spheres of human activity, the formation of information and telecommunications markets, high price services in the information sphere, the globalization of the economy and the emergence of global business information markets make this problem particularly acute.

Information management (IM) is a management technology whose components are documentary information, personnel, collections, technical and software ensuring information processes and procedures for the formation and use of IR.

In other words, information management is the management of activities to create and use information in the interests of the enterprise (organization).

Basic information management tasks:

· high-quality information services for management processes in the organization;

· enterprise IR management;

· management of information processing processes;

· management of communication processes;

· planning and managing the information needs of management personnel.

At enterprises, divisions are created that solve the above IM problems. The IM service is headed by the Chef Information Officer (CIO), a senior information manager.

The use of IT is one of the most controversial intra-company issues. The creation of an information system is now considered as an investment direction for the enterprise. Being an investment product, IT competes for financial resources with other areas of enterprise development (for example, technology modernization) and requires a comprehensive assessment of efficiency.

All types of activities related to reproduction information resources, it is customary to combine them into the information industry. Various authors also offer definitions of the information sector of the economy, information industry, information processing industry, information business, commercial information dissemination industry, etc.

However, it should be noted that the term information industry is most often interpreted in a broader sense, including all the components of basic technologies, while the information business is usually limited to commercial activities related to the distribution of information products and services. Thus, the information industry includes several interrelated sectors, among which the most important are:

§ Market of information and communication products which offers computing equipment, communications and software products.

§ Information services market, offering consumers various information, databases on various media, as well as access services to information resources distributed in various systems and networks, electronic information processing services, consulting services, training, service, etc.

These components form the information and communication technology (ICT) market or simply the IT (information technology) market.

Investment in ICT has begun to rival other areas of investment. The costs of the world's largest firms on ICT market products reach 20% of profits. By the end of the 20th century, the volume of production of information products reached 3000 billion. $, which allowed information industry to come out on top among the largest industries in the world. Only the tourism industry competes with it - 2900 billion. $. For comparison, the turnover of the automotive industry in 2000 amounted to 1180 billion. $.

Introduction

The topic of the test is “Information industry in the economic development of society.”

Active development of automated information systems and their application in social practice revealed deep-seated problems associated with the technological cycle of processing and using information in planning, management, cognitive, production and other processes. They began to talk about information as a social resource that has its own purpose and its own mechanisms of functioning in society. This resource will become the subject of a new functional science. Thus, computer science, being the science of the laws of development, transmission and use of information resources in social practice, has theoretically established the role of computers and automated systems in these processes.

The purpose of the work is to become familiar with the information industry: the purpose and meaning of the activity; the place and role of the information industry in social production; modern structure information industry and the role of the state in the information industry.

Information industry: basic concepts

The increasing complexity of industrial production, social, economic and political relations, changes in the dynamics of processes in all spheres of human activity have led, on the one hand, to an increase in the needs for knowledge, and on the other, to the creation of new means and ways to satisfy these needs. A new industry is coming to the fore - the information industry associated with production technical means, methods and technologies for the production of new knowledge and guiding the movement of humanity towards the information society.

The information industry is the large-scale production of information products and services of various types based on the latest information and computer technology(from newspapers, magazines and books to computer games and network content). It includes two significantly different parts: the production of information technology (machines and equipment) and the production of information itself.

In addition to the concept of the information industry, in the literature there are such concepts as the information sector of the economy, social production, and national economy; information sphere of the national economy; information infrastructure; information activities; information processing industry; information processing industry; information industries; information types activities.

The emergence of the concept of the information industry is associated with the spread of the concept of post-industrial society, according to which the main resources of developed countries today are involved in the information sector of the economy, information services and information are becoming one of the most important products of social production, and modern economy becomes an information economy. The process of fundamental transformations of the productive forces of society, caused by the expanding use of knowledge in social production and accelerated renewal information technology, back in the late 70s of the XX century. received the name " information revolution" When identifying the information industry in social production, it is usually based on the number of people employed in it, directly or indirectly participating in the production and dissemination of information.

Inclusion in the information industry of all types of activities related to information (primarily living labor), attributing to its results not only information services themselves, but also all results of labor that appeared in connection with the use of information as a subject or means of labor and the use of means information technology appears to be illegal. It is also unlawful to attribute to the information industry everything that is used in activities related to information, comes as its input (for example, technical means, communication services), that cannot exist as independent object(for example, results scientific research), etc. Otherwise, any type of human activity carried out using not only one’s own, but also others who have received objective expression of knowledge, as well as any conscious activity would have to be classified as information activities and to the information industry.

The results of the information industry should probably include only those information services that have independent significance and/or a commercial nature, and are not prepared and consumed in the course of activities to obtain other results in material and spiritual production. The information industry should include only those activities that are associated with the preparation and provision of these services.

In practice, the information industry is understood as a complex of enterprises and organizations whose predominant (by value) product is information services. This means that if the preparation of information services is not the main task of the activities of enterprises and organizations, or the services are prepared in an organizationally non-separated unit, that is, not on an independent balance sheet and/or not maintaining independent accounting, then in this case enterprises and organizations cannot be classified as information industry.

The main task of the information industry is the transformation of information (processing of information resources) in the interests of solving any problems of consumers and providing conditions for consumers to access the information they need. Considering the goal of the information industry to be the timely satisfaction of the needs of the national economy for new information based on the use of new computer technology, communications, new information technology, forms and methods of information production, is apparently unlawful, since in this case the goals of the information industry and its consumers are confused . Information is a non-decreasing and reproducible resource for the life support of society. At the same time, for the development of society it is necessary to attract not only existing, but also new information resources, and replace old ones with more promising ones. The more and faster high-quality information is introduced into all spheres of life and economy, the higher the scientific, technical, economic, political and social potential of the country. Despite its growing role in social production, the information industry is not independent; it provides normal and efficient work other spheres of activity and divisions of social production (both independent and non-independent), that is, it is an infrastructure industry. In accordance with the types of activities served and provided within information infrastructure it is possible to highlight the research and development infrastructure; development, maintenance and management of production in general and by industry; political, social, state and economic management; recreation and entertainment; education, etc.

Services for transforming information and providing consumers with access to it are precisely the main results of the information industry, or information services, which, along with the material form of use values, can also have an intangible form - act as a useful effect of labor, inseparable from the activity of serving the consumer itself. They can be attributed to those of the material conditions of labor, without which it can only occur in an imperfect form. For information services in immaterial form, the processes of production and consumption coincide in time, which determines a number of their specific features as use values. In most cases, these services are individual in nature, cannot be accumulated, have a specific focus and cannot exist outside of individual contact with the consumer, are not subject to storage, and are focused on local markets. At the same time, information services in intangible form account for an ever smaller share of labor results in the information industry. More and more information services in material form are becoming closer to the products of material production, although they retain a number of features. The technical and economic characteristics of these services, the technologies they use, which are close to industrial production methods, the high and constantly growing capital-labor ratio of information production, based on the use of a large fleet of technical means, the processes of intensification of expanded reproduction occurring in the information industry itself, bring the information industry closer to material production . The scale of use of information services today is so great that they, along with information resources, can be considered as a special resource, an important and increasingly significant element of the production potential of an enterprise, industry, and economy as a whole.

To prepare information services within the information industry, an information processing process such as sorting is used (mainly its division and combination, including semantic ones), which is the main technological process of the information industry. In turn, the successful implementation of this technological process requires the implementation of other processes both at previous (for example, collecting and organizing information for subsequent processing) and at subsequent stages of working with information (for example, providing information, its reproduction in a certain form and in the required number of copies, delivery to consumers).

It is important to note that the emergence of the information industry as an independent and widespread type of activity was associated with the transition to the use of computers and modern means of communication for processing information and providing consumers with access to it. Therefore, the main subject of labor in a mature, independent field of activity of the information industry is information in machine-readable form, and the main means of labor in it is a computer. Along with this, in certain divisions of the information industry, information in other forms can act as objects of labor, for example in print, that is, on various non-machine media, in audio and visual forms, etc., as well as information services prepared in divisions information industry and other industries.

National and global information resources are considered as the subject of information production work. The means of labor in the information industry, along with computers and other equipment for information processing, are printing and reprographic equipment, some office equipment directly used for the preparation and provision of information services. Tools of labor can be attributed to the concepts of “information technology” and “information technology tools”. As noted above, the mass introduction of computer technology, which stimulates the growth of human intellectual capabilities, contributes to the intensification of information activities, specializing in the preparation of information services.

The set of enterprises, organizations and entire industries related to the information industry is included in the concept of “information and communication infrastructure”. By this term we understand a complex of organizational and technological means of searching, storing, distributing and using information products and services in all spheres of life of society and the state. Such funds include geographically distributed depositories of information resources, state and corporate computer networks, telecommunication networks and systems for special purposes and general use, communication lines, networks and data transmission channels, means of switching and managing information flows, organizational structures of management and control.

The information and communication infrastructure of the state occupies a special place among the enlarged infrastructures of modern social production, since it is this infrastructure that plays a decisive role in the organizational and technological ensuring the unity and integrity of the country’s information space, its successful integration into the world information space, the main task of which is to include the national information and communication infrastructure into the global one.