TABLE OF CONTENTS A new Information Revolution is well under way It will radically change the meaning of information for both enterprises and individuals. It is not a revolution in technology, machinery, techniques, software or speed. It is a revolution in concepts. It is not happening in Information Technology (IT), or in Management Information Systems (MIS), and it is not being led by Chief Information Officers (CIOs). And what triggered this revolution and is driving it is the failure of the Information Industry the IT people, the MIS people, the CIOs to provide INFORMATION1.
(Drucker, 1999)
It seems that one of the greatest commentators on business this century believes IT people share their future with the dodo. This is not old criticism, Peter Drucker writes this opinion of IT and its people in 1999, so perhaps we had better take notice. Interestingly he is not really critical, rather he s dismissive:
They will not disappear. But they may be about to become Supporting Cast rather than the Superstars they have been over the last forty years.
(Drucker, 1999)
Drucker s reasoning comes from a perspective I hadn t considered in any depth, and it certainly changes my view on the Information Revolution. For Drucker explains that the current information revolution is in fact the fourth information revolution in human history. The first was the invention of writing between 5000 and 6000 years ago, the second was the invention of the...
