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CIAO DATE: 03/02
From the Editors
Human history has moved from the Stone Age to the Agrarian Age to the Industrial Age, and now the Information Age is upon us. In the past, the transition from one epoch to the next occurred slowly, unfolding over generations, but now the Information Age has shaken many societies like a sonic boom, sending sudden waves of change in all directions.
A population explosion has occurred in cyberspace. Recent estimates indicate that more than 300 million people worldwide are using the Internet frequently, an online population that is 3,000 times the size it was just seven years ago.
Information Technologies allow us to manage, process, and synthesize data in entirely new ways, but other more profound trends are also at work. The applications of advanced Information Technologies are as diverse as the many forms of human endeavor, and their impact is equally varied, creating new connections, inspiring new methods, and building new alliances. True to the natural architectural work after which it is named, the World Wide Web uses strands of data to weave a fabric of connections unimagined 10 years ago. Internet communities are created from this cloth, not defined by physical location, but rather by interest, intellectual activity, purpose, or concern.
In this publication, we turn to specialists in a variety of disciplines to discover how Information Technologies are redefining traditional activities, and expanding old boundaries. Their observations are made with the realization that the Internet is rapidly transforming itself as users and innovators apply these technologies in ways we cannot yet foresee.