Information infrastructure

INFORMATION. More than data, less than knowledge, information surrounds us in manifold forms. It arrives in cascades of text, sound and imagery by way of books, newspapers, magazines, journals, reports, memoranda, television, telephone and radio. In the last decade or so, electronic information media have emerged from the research world and begun their inexorable spread to the business and residential sectors. Electronic messaging, conferencing and bulletin board systems are available in public and private forms. The cost of personal computer and workstation technology is falling within reach of all sectors of the economy. Networking, in almost zoological variety, is available in local, wide-area, public and private, shared and dedicated forms. Protocols and standards abound, forming a kind of primordial soup (to borrow a phrase from Julia Child) out of which one hopes will evolve a lingua digitalis vulgaris, or common digital language.