Information 2.0

This textbook provides an overview of the digital information landscape and explains the implications of the technological changes for the information industry, from publishers and broadcasters to the information professionals who manage information in all its forms.

This fully-updated second edition includes examples of organisations and individuals who are seizing the opportunities presented by this once-in-a-generation technological shift, providing a cutting-edge guide to where we are going both as information consumers and in terms of broader societal changes.

Each chapter explores aspects of the information lifecycle, including production, distribution, storage, and consumption, and contains case studies chosen to illustrate particular issues and challenges facing the information industry.

One of the key themes of the book is the way that organisations, public and commercial, are blurring their traditional lines of responsibility. Amazon is moving from simply selling books to offering the hardware and software for reading them. Apple still makes computer hardware but also manages one of the world’s leading marketplaces for music and software applications. Google maintains its position as the most popular internet search engine but has also digitised millions of copies of books from leading academic libraries and backed the development of the world’s most popular computing platform, Android. At the heart of these changes is the emergence of cheap computing devices for decoding and presenting digital information and a network that allows the bits and bytes to flow freely, for the moment at least, from producer to consumer.

While the digital revolution is impacting everyone who works with information, sometimes negatively, the second edition of Information 2.0 shows that the opportunities outweigh the risks for those who take the time to understand what is going on. Information has never been more abundant and accessible, so those who know how to manage it for the benefit of others in the digital age will be in great demand.

Readership: Students taking courses in library and information science, publishing and communication studies, with particular relevance to core modules exploring the information society and digital information. Academics and practitioners who need to get to grips with the new information environment.