NAME: ADAMA HARUNA ABDULMALIK
REG. NO: MIM/EDUC/0831/2009-2010
COURSE: LIBS 883: ONLINE INFORMATION INDUSTRY

SUMMARY OF THE ARTICLE: THE NEW INFORMATION INDUSTRY
The article; the new information industry examines the various technological transformations that had taken place in the information industry from time immemorial to date. The article also gave a prediction of the future nature of information industry which will be necessitated by various factors or technological convergence. This technological development also comes along with its sociological and economic impacts which is most especially felt in developed countries such as untied state of America.
The information industry comprises the elements of computing which deals with storage and processing of information; office automation which deals with automation of task, information creation and display; and telecommunications.
Traditionally, information industry in the past was organized base on its forms (Text, voice, image, audio/video, and data), as players within the industry had to focus on business opportunities related to a particular type of information form. The text was being dominated by the publishing industry, the image by the photographic industry, the voice by the telecommunication industry, audio/ video by the entertainment industry, and data by the computing industry, as each of the industry mentioned decides on the function of information to engage in, which could be creation and collection of content, display, storage, processing and distribution.
As information becomes crucial in our commercial and daily lives today, despite its inefficiencies, the information advancement in technologies as a result of digitization and convergence of technologies and industries. This convergence is driven by technological change which transforms to an ever-wide arrays of information business services.
The technological advancement was coupled with changes that accompanied the move from narrow band information to broadband communication, that necessitated a paradigm shift in the information industry. We now witnessed digital electronics as the dominating technology for any information business that exist, in which the information industry today had to realign to it. This realignment results to three major information industries, instead of the previous five. The new information industry are;
1. The information industry responsible for the creation and collection of digitized content.
2. The players involved in the manufacturing of wide arrays of information appliances.
3. Information distribution industry which includes players involved in various modes of information distribution.
The convergence was necessitated because the technological and business imperatives are compelling. As this technological transformation goes on, information storage, processing and software-based manipulations becomes the three ingredient of information business. These capabilities are supplied by the computer hardware industry to these new functional environments. The critical factors needed to succeed in this new environment are; global orientation, managing geo-political dynamics, flexibility, speed and productivity, allowance and partnering, quality obsession, mass customization, breakthrough innovation, access to capital, investment in human capital and end-user-focus.
Conclusively, a convergent information industry operating within the context of an advanced information infrastructure had been a huge boost to the U.S businesses, as it spurs billions of U.S dollars annually in new sales and had increases workers productivity by 20% to 40%. Today, two-third of American jobs are information related, and will increase as the shift from manufacturing to service industries continues.
CRITICISM
Though the article is highly intellectual and educating as its examines and provides an overview of the various ramifications of technological transformations in the information industry from its traditional point of view to the present, which was presented in a tutorial formatted, and which provides questions and answers at the end of the article. References was not provided by the writer to back-up the authoritativeness of this intellectual work.
Secondly, the article only covers the technological development and impact in the Untied States of America as a developed country and did not view the impact and the rate of developing economics especially in Africa and other continents and countries.
Finally, the writer haven given some critical factors needed to succeed in the new information environment, needs to highlight some challenges to this new environment.