CSIS Seven Revolutions project: Information and Knowledge

CSIS Seven Revolutions project: Information and Knowledge

Introduction

Even though there has been a lot of diversity in the manner in which the issue of information and knowledge is effectively addressed. It is evident that the volume of data, as well as data growth, has indeed increased over the years, and by 2050 the volumes will be immense. Access to this kind of information, as well as privacy and education that comes from the information and knowledge will indeed be huge by 2050, and it will certainly influence how the people learn and govern. There have been a huge number of people that have been worried mainly because of how the issue of data privacy, as well as access to what should otherwise be private information, has been handled. The things that happen in society are based on several things. Some of these things include how the data is being created as well as the things people do with this data. There is a need to understand how this data is processed. There has been an evolution in the manner the new ideas spreads and innovations that have been able to change the lives of people. Today, due to effective access to information, there has been massive growth and development of society due to the ability to use the information to improve the lives of people.

Data Growth

There is a thin line between information and data. This is based on the fact that a huge chunk of the information that is usually discussed or talked about is derived from the mined data. It is clear that if such data is not effectively mined, then there is a huge possibility that there will be much information to use in governance and decision making. It is clear that a huge number of lives have been changed, and societies improved all because of the ability to effectively mine data and transforming it into valuable information (Brenner, 2017). The storage of data has been changed rather than storing it in the ordinary storage devices such as the floppy disks as it used to be, the use of cloud storage has certainly been a huge advancement that has ensured that huge chunks of data can be stored without spending much on storage space. It also enhances the issue of accessibility of that stored information.

The improvement in data mining technology has been a huge step in the improvement in the information revolution. It is clear that through data mining, a huge number of people have been able to mine the data and make good use of it. It is clear that through the mining of data, there has been a possibility to understand the key aspects of varied types of information that have played key roles in enhancing human life (Clegg, 2017). For the case of those in business, data mining has been able to ensure that the minute aspects of the population are understood. In other words, there has been an improvement in governance and leadership in overall since one can understand the needs of the people as well as some of the concerns they have.

It has also been predicted that in a couple of years, the amount of data that is stored in the core will be more than the amount of data that will be stored in the endpoint. This is a reverse of the dynamic that has been in existence since 2015. The changes have been witnessed in some of the devices such as smartphones that can now store up to 256GB of storage. Through the use of the internet of things, there has been a massive growth in data, and the shift has now turned to real-time data as opposed to stored up data that has to be acted upon later. It has been predicted that several digital interactions per day have improved from the current 700 to 800 to about 5000 in the next five years (Nazarov et al., 2019).  The storage industry is expected to ship 42ZB of capacity over the next seven years.  The internet of things will create about 90ZB of data. It is predicted that by 2025, about 49 percent of data will be stored in public cloud environments. It is also predicted that about 30 percent of the data generated by 2025 will be consumed in real-time.

Access to Information

Governance and leadership are influenced by access to information. The kind of information that the people in the society receives is what influences how they behave and respond to other things. In the last two decades, there have been several improved changes that have improved people’s lives globally (Ponizovkina & Agibalova, 2019). The internet has certainly been a source of a breakthrough when it comes to information and communication technologies. The access to information on markets has indeed improved, and this has been one of the factors that have sparred innovation as well as created new opportunities in business. The information technology has certainly helped emerging economies to become global powerhouses as it has been the case with countries such as China, which have been arguably the global market leaders in the manufacture of smartphones, among other communication devices. The information revolution has changed how economies operate. This is based on the fact that it has been the basis of the knowledge-based world that the global village has been transformed into. The information technology has certainly influenced how the policymakers have been able to use access to information to shape the manner in which society operates.

Information and Knowledge as the Engine of Growth

Most economies and societies today are knowledge-based economies. These economies have been able to make wealth from ideas and information that has influenced the products as well as the services they offer (Clegg, 2017). Through information and knowledge management, a huge number of firms have been able to give such firms a competitive advantage over their competitors. The knowledge-based economies have been effective when it comes to production. This is based on the issue of ensuring that the firms are aware of the demand levels; hence they only produce what is needed as opposed to producing way more than the market needs, which would have meant that there is a need for storage. The storage would have led to increased costs hence the reduction of the profits. The existence of information and knowledge of what the market wanted has been key in ensuring that the products or services are delivered based on the needs of the people and not a case of irregular production. The stages of production have also been integrated right from production to distribution, and this has made it easy to create global value chains.

Knowledge and information have indeed been key not only in leadership but also in the management of operations. A huge number of firms have been successful globally, mainly because of the ability to use the information they have to their advantage. This has been the case with most of the distribution firms (Ponizovkina & Agibalova, 2019). They have used the information at their disposal to ensure that they can come up with effective linkages that reduce the number of resources wasted in the process of distributing products. This has been mainly done through the use of global value chains that reduce the costs incurred in the distribution of the products. Such measures have been possible as a result of the existence of education, skills as well as knowledge in research and development. These knowledge-based developments have influenced the way firms to look at business, trade as well as investments.

The reduction in the cost of sending and receiving the information has certainly been one of the key things that have been at the center of the information revolution. Initially, the cost of communication was indeed high (Khamaksorn et al., 2017). It took away a huge chunk of the business profits based on the fact that much was involved for any piece of information to send from one office to another. For the leaders, it was indeed hard to operate based on the fact that it was hard to have private meetings or even communicate without much publicity. The nature of communication had to be face to face or through the public and visible means of communication such as noticeboards. This complicated the process of communication more so when the nature of the information involved was indeed delicate.

Today much has changed. The information and knowledge revolution has improved how information and knowledge are shared. For the case of information, the introduction of the electronic means of sharing data as well as information played a key part in shaping how organizations operate. The technology has enhanced the sharing of information to an extent through the use of emails; one can be able to send some message to employees in a different continent and be able to get information with seconds. The actual sending of such information happens within a click. This is has reduced the cost implications as well as brought about efficiency in the manner in which information is distributed. It is because of the reason that knowledge has become a tacit resource ha one cannot hold on to and personalize it. As long as it is written in books, then such books can be obtained online through ICT enabled platforms. In terms of leadership, ICT has ensured the effective application of various leadership styles due to the ability to enhance the continuous flow of information (Brenner, 2017).

Leaders have been able to enhance effective relations with their subjects. Based on the leadership model being used by the firm, the fact that the communication channels have been streamlined and efficient and faster flow of information guaranteed, the level of cooperation in such organizations has certainly improved (Nazarov et al., 2019). When it comes to the issue of knowledge, their information has enhanced some of the training that organizations offer to their employees. There has been an introduction of webinar-based training whereby the employees in one continent are trained by someone who is in another continent without any of the two parties being forced to move at all. Such kind of arrangements have reduced the training costs but at the same time increasing the level of knowledge that the employees get. Such arrangements have certainly improved performance.

It is indeed key to note that a huge number of employees have been able to access knowledge from information and communication-based technology platforms. There are a number of people in organizations that have been able to learn from YouTube and apply the same knowledge in the betterment of the organizations they work for. The improved communication through effective sharing of information has been key in improving teamwork among the employees. It is indeed through the improved teamwork; the organizations have been able to improve their productivity level. The nature of leadership has also changed as a result of the information revolution. Initially, the leaders had a monopoly on knowledge. They were the ones who had the control of information, and they believed that they were the only ones who knew how based on doing some of the things; hence they did not allow room for consultation. This affected the manner in which the organizations were managed since it was never about team leadership or a transformational leadership style, but instead, in most cases, it was an autocratic-transactional leadership style. The fact that the leaders and those they lead all have access to similar information; it has indeed been easy to ensure that they all have the same information since they all have access to similar information sources. It is because of this reason that the leaders are forced to use an effective leadership style if they want to achieve increased productivity.

Information and Privacy Issues

Even though the information era has revolutionized so many things, there have been a number of demerits that have come as a result of the ICT era. There have been many cases of people’s private information being hacked into. This has been the case with the information stored on the cloud. Such information has been hacked in which has led to compromising the privacy of those who end up losing what should have otherwise been personal and private data. There has been a huge development in the information sector to an extent with the advanced technology one can even be able to tell the kind of sites that one visits online. Such effects are indeed limiting and work to the detriment of the internet-based sources of information.

Another key privacy-related challenge has been a violation of copyright laws. There has much theft of so many online-based innovation information or ideas from the young people by those who are well established. Under the guise of helping them, many have even ended up stealing the whole idea hence making it hard for such people to play a role in the spread of knowledge since they are skeptical of sharing what they know for fear of it being stolen. In the long run, this has hindered the sharing of information, ideas as well as knowledge. It has also hindered the development of some of these ideas.

Conclusion

With the continuous development in technology as well as societal advancement, the role of information and knowledge has certainly expanded. The growth of the society or lack thereof will majorly depend on the kind of information and knowledge they share. This is anchored on the understanding that the nature of society, as well as the projects that society initiates, all depend on the kind of k knowledge the society as well as the information that is shared among the populace. There is a need for effective collaboration in firm leadership between the employees and their leaders so that there can be an effective flow of information to and from both parties. No one has a monopoly on quality information since they all have almost similar access to it.

References

Nazarov, D. M., Fitina, E. K., & Juraeva, A. O. (2019, May). The digital economy as a result of the genesis of the information revolution of society. In 1st International Scientific Conference” Modern Management Trends and the Digital Economy: from Regional Development to Global Economic Growth”(MTDE 2019). Atlantis Press.

Ponizovkina, I., & Agibalova, E. (2019, July). Information Revolution: Achievements and Controversies in Science. In 4th International Conference on Contemporary Education, Social Sciences, and Humanities (ICCESSH 2019). Atlantis Press.

Khamaksorn, A., Kurul, E., & Tah, J. H. M. (2017, December). Factors affecting knowledge transfer in international construction joint venture projects. In Paper presented at the International Conference on Civil, Architecture and Sustainable Development.

Brenner, J. E. (2017). Philosophy of Information: Revolution in Philosophy. In Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Proceedings (Vol. 1, No. 3, p. 101).

Clegg, B. (2017). Big Data: How the information revolution is transforming our lives. Icon Books.