2. Like that car? The tricks of the data body industry
In the New Economy, data have become a primary resource. Businesses unable to respond to the pressure of informatisation are quickly left behind. "Information is everything" has become the war-cry of the New Economy. More than ever, business companies now collect data related to their customers, their competitors, economic indicators, etc., and compile them in
However, there are also many companies that specialise in data body economics as the main line of business. They collect huge amount of data process and enhance them (thereby increasing the value of the data) and offer them on to other companies.
For example, somebody who has been attracted by a car on display in an airport terminal and completes a card with name and address to participate in a draw reveals a lot of economically valuable information about him / herself. Apart from name and address, and other data that is completed on the card, this person also can be assumed to be a potential car buyer (evidently he / she wants a car) and to be relatively affluent (the poor do not normally travel by plane). The time when you complete the card also provides information: in July and August, you are more likely to be a holiday maker than in November. Possibly in small print somewhere on the ticket you complete you agree to receive more information about this and other products, and you agree also that your data are "electronically processed". The data acquired this way can normally be expected to be much more valuable than the car the is offered in the draw. Most people who completed the cards will not win in the draw, but instead end up on directs marketing data warehouses and one day receive offers of products and services which they never knew they wanted.
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1904
First broadcast talk
1918
Invention of the short-wave radio
1929
Invention of television in Germany and Russia
1941
Invention of microwave transmission
1946
Long-distance coaxial cable systems and mobile telephone services are introduced in the USA.
1957
First data transmissions over regular phone circuits.
At the beginning of the story of today's global data networks is the story of the development of
In 1955 President Eisenhower announced the USA's intention to launch a satellite. But it in the end it was the Soviet Union, which launched the first satellite in 1957: Sputnik I. After Sputnik's launch it became evident that the Cold War was also a race for leadership in the application of state-of-the-art technology to defense. As the US Department of Defense encouraged the formation of high-tech companies, it laid the ground to Silicon Valley, the hot spot of the world's computer industry.
The same year as the USA launched their first satellite - Explorer I - data was transmitted over regular phone circuits for the first time, thus laying the ground for today's global data networks.
Today's satellites may record weather data, scan the planet with powerful cameras, offer global positioning and monitoring services, and relay high-speed data transmissions. Yet up to now, most satellites are designed for military purposes such as reconnaissance.
1969
ARPAnet was the small network of individual computers connected by leased lines that marked the beginning of today's global data networks. An experimental network it mainly served the purpose of testing the feasibility of
In 1969 ARPANET went online and linked the first two computers, one located at the University of California, Los Angeles, the other at the Stanford Research Institute.
Yet ARPAnet did not become widely accepted before it was demonstrated in action to a public of computer experts at the First International Conference on Computers and Communication in Washington, D. C. in 1972.
Before it was decommissioned in 1990,
In the USA it was already in 1994 that commercial users outnumbered military and academic users.
Despite the rapid growth of the Net, most computers linked to it are still located in the United States.
1971
Invention of
1979
Introduction of
1992
Launch of the
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Born in 1944, Giuliani became famous in the mid Eighties, as a typical Eighties figure: a censor of corruption and greed. In the Seventies he had switched his registration from Democratic to Republican, and served a stint in the Reagan Justice Department. In 1983 he became U.S. Attorney for the southern District of New York, and his career took off. He was aggressive, headline grabbing, none too scrupulous about the finer points of civil liberties, and often effective. He used the RICO Act against organized crime, and pioneered the use of asset forfeiture in prosecuting drug dealers. He also moved against political corruption in New York City, toppling the Democratic leaders of the Bronx and Queens.
An international organization designed to supervise and liberalize world trade. The WTO (World Trade Organization) is the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which was created in 1947 and liberalized the world's trade over the next five decades. The WTO came into being on Jan. 1, 1995, with 104 countries as its founding members. The WTO is charged with policing member countries' adherence to all prior GATT agreements, including those of the last major GATT trade conference, the Uruguay Round (1986-94), at whose conclusion GATT had formally gone out of existence. The WTO is also responsible for negotiating and implementing new trade agreements. The WTO is governed by a Ministerial Conference, which meets every two years; a General Council, which implements the conference's policy decisions and is responsible for day-to-day administration; and a director-general, who is appointed by the Ministerial Conference. The WTO's headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland.