Nature of Information Society

he information society is the first society in the civilisation history in which central places take knowledge and intellectual technologies. It is not the position that is a guarantee of success and prosperity, but the level of education and knowledge of every one individual. In the centre of information society are universities as resources of theoretic knowledge. The contemporary society identifies itself with the concept of information society, in which by F. Williams ″knowledge, education, scientific researches, computer and telecommunications using are basis for economical growth″.

As the agricultural and industrial thus and the information society has its labour tools and product. The labour tools of the information society are computers and telecommunication technologieswith the help of which the data can be conveyed, kept and processed easily and economically, and a product is the new knowledge in all its forms.

Main driving force in the information society is the numericallisation, that allows processing and carrying of big amounts of data including audio, video, graphic, confluence of communication and computer infrastructure into information superhighwayand global telecommunication networks; globalisation, thanks to which everyone has access to common information resources. The progress in telecommunications and systems for satellite diffusion, telephone cables and fibro optics, numericalisation of information and the totally new way of preservation, processing and distribution with the help of computers and computers networks brought to natural convergation of communicative, telecommunicate and information technologies. As a result to this merger the traditional means of communication continuously expand and form new world communicative system, which promises to be the only one system for total communication with the help of the information superhighway. George Shamunt, an explorer of the American information society specifies 6 components of the information society:

1. The information is exchanged as an economic commodity;

2. Presence of great number of information labour force. The production, storage and offering of information are priority functions of great number of labour force in majority of professional spheres;

3. An extended interaction between the information technologies and the institutions, between individuals and institutions. Presence of detailed information stream and homogenate of the industries;

4. The scientific knowledge has a special status. Academic and scientific knowledge are commercial sources;

5. The social environment becomes a creator of mass media. The increasing communication channels and messages become main interpreters and makers of the reality;

6. The information technologies penetrate in the society. The mechanical devices allow individuals to preserve, convey and process information.

The computer revolution places conditions for access to great amounts of information for conveying it far away and quick consumers’ service. These new opportunities change all spheres of social life and provoke fundamental social changes. Thus, the information society becomes ″a society, where more than the half of the labour force is engaged in collecting, preserving and traction of information and not in manufacturing″ /P. T. Elmor, 1992/, society, based mostly on knowledge, if the symbols of agricultural and industrial phase are accordingly the farm and factory thus a symbol of information society is ″the office equipped with computers which have access to a certain information stream.″/ Palushev, 13,1995/