Problems and challenges in the information society — the next twenty years

Abstract

Predicting problems is not so different from forecasting technology. In both cases the phenomena are in evidence long before they are widely recognized - they have an incubation period, and their character can be changed during development. That is to say, the information problems of the next twenty years have their roots in the present. Viewed as a model or system, the information com munity has as participants: authors, primary publishers, secondary publishers, retrieval service vendors, information centres and libraries and patron end-users. The interrelation ships among the participants can be analysed along lines of: (1) economics; (2) politics; (3) professionalism. Complexities arise as a result of the pervasive nature of information needs and uses across government, commercial and non-profit sectors. This paper explores a few of the myriad interrelation ships to identify both systematic and specific problems cur rently in being, the challenges associated with these problems, and possible outcomes under various assumptive scenarios.