People, Knowledge, and the Internet: Redefining Categories, Concepts, and Models

Abstract

The 20th century revolution in information and communication technologies has dramatically altered the way people live, work, think, and learn. Its impact has been compared with the impact of the scientific revolution in the 16th century and the industrial revolution in the 17th-19th centuries (Bossert, 1997; Castells, 1997; Denning & Metcalfe, 1997; Tapscott, 1996). Milestones of the progress of technology such as the invention of the steam engine, printing press, radio, television, or the microcomputer are all responsible for profound socio-economic transformations. This is especially true with regard to the roles played by knowledge in contemporary society. The “age of information,” “knowledge age,” “information society,” “knowledge-based society,” “information economy,” “knowledge economy,” and “knowledge era”– are all labels scholars currently use to define technological and societal changes of the present time (Chaffee & Rogers, 1997; Dutton, 1996; Marien, 1996; Tapscott, 1996). I propose that these labels reflect the changing nature of the relationship between people and knowledge. Instead of a single linear association among people (P) and knowledge (K), we now deal with a three