• Microwaves
• Color TV
• Color motion pictures
• Microchips
• Cell phones/pagers
• Photocopiers
• Fax machines
• Camcorders
• Videodisks
• Point & shoot cameras
• Holograms
• Fiber optics
• CD-ROMs
• Internet
• World Wide Web

The need for information has changed over the course of human history, which can be roughly divided into the following ages:

Stone Age- Agricultural Age - Industrial Age - Information Age

Compare the following considerations in information transfer from one age to the next:

• What were the means of communication during this time?
• What was the speed of the communication? What were the means of spreading the word?
• What was the size of the audience?
• How much information was transmitted in any one communication? (How big was the file?)
• What was the purpose of transmitting the information?

Basic needs for food, clothing, shelter and protection took most of a person's time. Hunters and gathers loved in roaming groups of 20-30 people and only the most immediate or important information was recorded.

Means of Communications

• Oral Histories
• Storytelling
• Pictorial inscriptions in animal bones, clay and stone

Speed, Size and Purpose of Communication

• Information was communicated slowly between groups of hunters and gatherers
• Information was for survival - Where is the food growing? Water location? Protected environment? Animals to hunt or hide from?

By 9,000 B.C. people were more settled and lived in small communities and growing crops. The wheel provides locomotion to begin more travel and shipping of goods, Animal domestication changes life dramatically.

Means of Communications

• Oral histories continue to be shared and passed down
• Record keeping is a must with more permanent life styles - crops and animals must be accounted for

 Later Advancements in Communication

• Tokens (3,400 B.C.)
• Scribes (2,600 B.C.)
• Seals (2,400 B.C.)
• Writing (1,400 B.C.)

During the Industrial Revolution (beginning around 1780) commerce, trade and politics sparked the change from the Agricultural Age to the Industrial Age. Farming loses ground to manufacturing and industry in Europe and America.

New Technology Tools for the Industrial Age

• Typewriters
• Photo-chemistry
• Telegraph
• Telephone
• Mimeograph
• Paper made from vegetable fiber
• Lithography
• Personal cameras
• Phonographic disks
• Radio Signal

New Communication Methods of the Industrial Age

• Circulating libraries
• Postal services
• Phonographs
• Motion Pictures
• Television
• Transcontinental Telephone calls
• Wireless radio
• Book of the month Club
• Air Mail
• Photocopiers
• Harvard's MARK I and Pennsylvania's ENIAC 0 the first computers

Beginning roughly around 1950, the Information Age brought more tools, technology and information. More white collar workers deal with information needs and decisions than blue collar workers deal with goods-producing jobs.

Industrial vs. Information Age Worker Needs