The information superhighway and the Information Society: An association view
| Date | 01 February 1996 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb045450 |
| Published date | 01 February 1996 |
| Pages | 91-94 |
| Author | Ben Goedegebuure |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Guest Editorial
The information superhighway and
the Information Society: an
association view
Ben Goedegebuure
Executive
Director,
International
Federation
for
Information and
Documentation
(FID),
PO Box
90402,
2509 LK The
Hague,
The
Netherlands
E-mail:
fíd@python.konbib.nl
Almost daily we are bombarded in the press about the 'information superhighway'
and the 'Information Society' — how they will change our lives and our work, and
what new services we can expect in the future. Discussions range from the dangers
to life as we know it to the glorious Information Society that is to come, where we
can work from our homes, order everything we need and where we never need to
leave
the house again. Whatever the Information Society
will
bring, it
is
certain that
there will be an effect — indeed a great effect — on the general public and the
information professions of the future.
Copernicus and cyberspace
The organisation I work for — the In-
ternational Federation for Information
and Documentation (FID) — is also
trying to address the issues at hand,
from the perspective of the informa-
tion professional. In 1995 we cele-
brated the 100th anniversary of the
Federation and had a number of cele-
bration events culminating in
a
confer-
ence which was held in The Hague in
November. The organisation has al-
ways addressed information manage-
ment and information access from
different perspectives — perspectives
that have become even greater and ho-
rizons that have become wider since I
started working for the organisation
ten years ago.
The Federation, which was
founded in 1895 as the Institut Interna-
tional de Bibliographie by Paul Otlet
and Henry La Fontaine, has been at the
forefront of information provision and
the creation of possibilities for global
access to information sources from the
beginning. In its early years FID was
active solely as the owner and devel-
oper of the Universal Decimal Classi-
fication (UDC), of which it is now
only a
partner.
With the advent of new
communication and information tech-
nologies the dream of
the two
founders
has come much closer than was ever
thought possible. In our current soci-
ety where information systems and
networks are being connected, access
to relevant information and knowl-
edge is becoming more and more im-
portant, and adding value to informa-
tion services is on the mind of
everybody who works in the informa-
tion sector.
During the Centennial Conference,
which was entitled 'Copernicus and
cyberspace: a new view to the world',
many of the information issues of the
Information Society were addressed
(the Proceedings of this conference
have been published in the FID News
Bulletin,
vol.
46
(1996),
no.
1-2 (Janu-
ary-February)). The aim of the confer-
ence was to do just that — highlight
different perspectives and different
positions, and determine what chal-
lenges stand before the information
profession. A number of highly inter-
esting papers were given from differ-
ent viewpoints and from the perspec-
tive of change — ranging from the
changing society, the changing organ-
isation, the changing technology and
the effect of all these changes on the
information professions. The opening
speaker, Mr
L.
Geelhoed, Secretary of
the Netherlands Ministry of Economic
Affairs, gave the viewpoint of the
Netherlands government and the ac-
tions that are being taken in a small,
export-oriented nation. In his address
he highlighted the fact that the infor-
mation superhighway is attracting
keen interest from politicians and cap-
tains of industry. Companies are con-
cluding strategic alliances in order to
take up better positions without know-
ing
what the outcome will
be.
Who ex-
actly will win the battle in cyberspace
is anyone's guess. Will the winners in-
clude giants like AT&T, IBM, Mi-
crosoft, Time Warner, ABC-Disney,
Philips and Alcatel, or small innova-
tive companies like Netscape?
Clearly, profit margins for telecoms
companies and hardware suppliers are
shrinking all the time. The search for
added value in cyberspace is therefore
making it increasingly important for
manufacturers to focus on content. In
the rest of his address, he explained
how the Netherlands is trying to carve
out its own way in the midst of these
fast global developments — some-
thing that is happening in many na-
tions of the world at this point in time.
For the Netherlands (as with many
other nations), success in joining the
information superhighway is abso-
lutely vital, not least because of the
country's perceived position as the
The Electronic Library, Vol. 14, No. 2, April 1996 91
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