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1. INST201 Intro to Information Science: Week 2
Foundations of Information Communications Technologies
some slides adapted from Vitak/ISAUTER

2. This Week
• DISCUSSION PROMPT:
• Think about your relationship with 'television' - (how)
has access and content influenced a) family and social
relationships; b) your relationship with information.
• Now find someone Gen X or older, and ask them the
same questions. Please share both perspectives and any
thoughts you have on why/ how they are similar or
different.
• READ:
• Telegraph Messenger Boys
• Victorian Internet

3. What are
ICTs?
Information and communication technologies (ICTs)
a “diverse set of technological tools and resources used to
communicate, and to create, disseminate, store, and manage
information”
(see UN definition here).
3
01
Major ICT
developments
• Printing Press
• Telegraph
• Telephone
• Radio/TV
02
Impact on Society
• Spread and Speed of
Information transfer
• Idea of Moral Panic
03
Network Effects
(Metcalfe’s Law)

5. Major ICTs and ICT milestones
1455
Printing Press
1837
Telegraph
1876
Telephone
1901
Radio (trans-
atlantic)
1923
First TV tubes
1969
ARPANET
(precursor to
Internet)
1991
World Wide Web
1993
Mosaic Browser
5

6. Before the printing
press…
Literacy was limited to
monks/clergy and upper class
(aristocracy).

7. Books were rare
due to the amount of work
in reproducing them by hand.
Before the printing press…

8. Enter Johannes Gutenberg
10

9. 11
Wooden movable type was
invented in China 400 years
earlier, around 1040 AD.
Actually….
Slide background courtesy of Kelly Hoffman

10. Enter Johannes Gutenberg
12
Movable type enabled mass production
of content at a much faster rate
than hand-copied or woodblock printing.

11. Literacy was limited ...

12. Gutenberg Bible &
Printing Revolution
• Gutenberg’s printing press (1440)
is considered one of the most
important inventions of last millennium.
• Printed “Gutenberg Bible” in 1455.
• By 1500, more than 8M copies of books
had been printed across Europe.
• Increase in availability led to increases
in literacy and led to emergence of
the middle class.
• Coincided with Renaissance Era in Europe and
enabled scientific revolution of 17th century.
14

13. “Cottage” Industry

14. LUDDITES (anti-tech? or pro-craft?)
Led by Ned Lud / inset

15. Jacquard Loom vs.
Handloom Craft

16. 18
Charles Babbage (1791-1871)
■ First to conceive of idea of a programmable computer
■ Developed Analytical Engine to perform a variety of mathematical functions
(1820s-60s)

17. 19
Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)
Wrote the FIRST computer program
Mini-tour on punch card computing

18. Graphic Novel by Sydney Padua: http://sydneypadua.com/

19. Graphic Novel by Sydney Padua: http://sydneypadua.com/
CELEBRATING WOMEN
IN TECH
(2nd Tuesday in October)

20. Steam Power (late 17th-18th centuries)
Watt-Boulton Engine ~ 1776

21. Photo Credit: Chris Allen, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2308677
Steam engine circa 1817

22. 24
Let’s jump ahead a couple of centuries …

23. 25

24. 26
Railroads across the US…

25. 27
Railroad expansion 1870-1890…

26. New Conceptions of Time: universal coordinated time

27. Telegraph’s “lightning lines”
29
Telegraph lines spread in conjunction with railroads;
made economic growth and spread of population possible

28. Telegraph’s “lightning lines”
30
Here’s a link to a short video on the first telegraphic message (1844)
Morse Code:
information encoded
in a simple format that
could be transmitted
over telegraph wire

29. 31
What do you notice about Morse Code “encoding”?
What do you notice about Morse Code “encoding”?

30. The Power of Network Effects
Metcalfe’s Law:
Value of a telecommunications network increases
as the number of users increases (network effect).
32
5 users, network value = 25 | 10 users = 100 | 100 users = 10,000
1000 users = 1M | 100,000 users = 10B
More specifically, the value of a network is proportional
to the square of the number of connected users (n) of the system (n2).

31. 33
U.S. National Archives (NAID) 1633445., No restrictions, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15523362
Adoption skyrockets at turn of the 20th century
1905: 2.2M telephones (1 in 10 US households)
1910: 5.8M telephones
1940: 30M telephones
1960: 80M in US; 160M globally
1915: Transcontinental phone lines established
Telephone Transforms Communication

32. Telephone signals the end
of telegraph
34
The rise of telephone signaled the end of
telegraph’s prominence, and end of telegraphy
as a premiere “information” job.
BUT
The impact of telegraph is still felt today.
• Telephone, fax machines, and Internet
were all built on the foundation of
telegraph
• Internet and telegraph facilitated
communication through
interconnected networks
• Computers and telegraphs follow the
same transmission process

33. Social Impacts of Telephone
Connected rural families with outside communities AND aided
population movement from cities to suburbs, which lead to the GROWTH
OF CITIES:
• Business operate more efficiently
• Decreased need for messengers to carry communications
• Allows for expansion
35

34. RADIO (circa 1930s-40s)
The “go-to” source for
home entertainment and news
By the 1930s, serials had become popular on radio
36

35. Radios & information standardization
37
Radio initially emerged as “wireless telegraphy”
(i.e., a method for transmitting messages without wires.)
In the 1840s, JC Maxwell showed how electromagnetic waves
moved through open spaces

36. 38
The downside of radio: War of the Worlds
Program led to panic and outrage against radio

37. Television amplifies positive and negative features of ICTs
• TVs became popular (i.e., affordable) in the 1950s
• By the 1970s, TVs were found in the majority of US homes.
• Originally limited to three networks (ABC, CBS, NBC); cable
networks became more popular in 1980s
• TV was viewed as both connecting us to each other/the world
AND making us stupid / anti-social
39

38. CHARACTERISTICS AND REACTIONS TO ICT
DEVELOPMENTS
38
•Businesses are generally the first to adopt new technologies en masse (to gain competitive
advantage)
All ICTs are initially met with mixture of excitement and skepticism by business,
government & public.
•Enabled wider spread of information (no longer limited to your local news)
•Dramatically sped up the dissemination of information
•(Major turning point: live coverage of JFK assassination in 1963)
•Introduced more perspectives by making marginalized voices heard
Foundations laid by new ICTs emerging throughout the 19th-20th centuries
•Utility of new tech is often in doubt
•Scammers have used all kinds of ICTs to extort money
•Consolidation of media companies allows a few groups to determine what information is important.
Downsides:

39. The Rise of the Information Society
How did we get here?

40. Information society:
When the gathering, organizing, production, and distribution of
information becomes the predominant economic activity.
1900 1950 2000s
20% growth predicted in information sector during 2020s

41. Global companies with highest market
capitalization, 2020
All numbers in USD millions [Source]

42. The Need for Control ! Information Society

43. The Rise of the Information Society
Contributing Factors
Electrification of communication
1800s
Convergence of
technologies
1960s +
Harmonization of Information
Systems
1990s+

44. Information Society
… and the need to manage (control?) data…
BIG DATA

45. 1960: 82 minutes available per minute consumed
2005: ~900 minutes available per minute consumed (source)
Growth in information available to public by media:

46. 2011-2012 2013-2014
Source: Mashable
Source: Mashable

47. BIG DATA
In 2020, more than 3.5 exabytes of data
were created each day…
This is expected to reach 463 exabytes
per day by 2025.

48. Wait … What? How much is an exabyte?

49. DATA IN CONTEXT…