Information 101
By Michael Fraase
Thursday, 02 September 1999 08:26PM CST
Section: 01 Information 101
Chances are, you feel the same way I do about the information economy. We’ve all become knowledge workers, yet we feel as if we know proportionately less about our world now than our parents did. We feel like we have less time for life’s important things. We feel our collective attention spans growing shorter each year and we have an almost imperceptible, yet constantly nagging, feeling of dread that we’re missing Something Important. Of course, we have learned to drive the latest wonder of the twentieth century—we know how to operate computers—but less knowledgeable we sometimes feel, nonetheless.
We are likely feeling this way due to a combination of factors and forces—some we control, and some we may not even know exist—that have combined to form the information eclipse.
An eclipse occurs when the orbit of a body causes the body to come between, surpass, or overshadow other bodies, normally within each other’s view. An information eclipse occurs when two colliding information interests—information access and personal privacy—encroach upon each other. A four dimensional eclipse occurs when two additional overshadowing bodies—government and corporations—are added to the mix.
Most of us no longer make things with our hands. We create or manipulate symbols with our minds. The underlying source material for most of what we do in our personal and professional lives is information. Information is the coal, real estate, and machinery of our time, and it requires a new set of principles for intelligent observation and discussion.