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Welcome to the information sphere. Welcome to the World-Infostructure!
The transition from the industrial to the
information society has dramatically
changed the role and function of
information. Today, information has
become one of the most valuable
economic goods and the development of
the information society has created both
a new, global technical infrastructure and
- along with the new economy - a historically unique power structure.
World-Information.Org presents a close-up of the economic,
technical, and political foundations of the globalizing information
society.
The World-Infostructure focuses on the development of
communication technologies and their societal, cultural, and
economic impacts. Beginning with the alphabet, the World-Infostructure visualizes and describes the development of media:
communication codes, tools, and increasingly sophisticated
technical instruments.
Media have diversified and become
global - the media and IT sectors being
among the first to generate a trend
towards large-scale mergers. Ownership
of media equals power and influence. To
demonstrate this, the World-Infostructure features
the big players of the global media
market, who control literally thousands of newspapers, online
services, TV and radio stations: the production, manipulation,
distribution and control of information is concentrated in the hand of
few media oligopolies worldwide.
Satellites and cables provide the world's
central nerve system of information. Who owns and controls those electronic networks and who provides and possesses the technical information infrastructure? World-Infostructure gives
an overview of the complex interrelations of technology, private
investments and the public interest.
It shows the distribution of information and power: the
winners and losers of information globalization, the information-rich
and the information-poor.
World-Infostructure points
out the problem of human rights in a
digital world. A democratized society is
based upon a broad understanding of
communication processes and their
underlying technologies. Therefore
universal human rights have to be
extended to incorporate the information society. Basic digital human
rights mean the right to access the electronic domain, the right to
freedom of expression and association online, and the right to
privacy.
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