Unit 6: The Information Revolution

Question 1

What is the Information Revolution?

Answer 1

Roots back to 3000 B.C.

Technological innovations due to this revolution influence all aspects of our lives, providing citizens with tools which can be used to safeguard their democratic rights.

Question 2

Babylonians

Answer 2

The information revolution has its roots in the year 3000 BC, when Babylonians used pictographs to keep track of records.

Question 3

Gutenberg’s Printing Press

Answer 3

Invented in 1455. Writing was a powerful asset to preserve and spread information.

Gutenberg’s invention was a breakthrough as it allowed the printing of multiple copies at the same time, and efficiently.

Question 4

Analytic Engine

Answer 4

Produced by Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace in the early 1830s.

This was a general purpose mechanical printer which was never made operational.

Question 5

Telephone

Answer 5

Invented by Alexander Graham Bell in the 1870s, making it easier to disseminate information.

Question 6

Turing Machine

Answer 6

Forerunning of the traditional computer, engineered by the British Mathematical genius Alan Turing, to crack the code of the Nazi Enigma Enciphering machine.

Question 7

The Colossus

Answer 7

Decoding machine developed during the Second World War, considered as the first of electronic devices with programmability.

Set of computers by research telephone engineer Tommy Flowers.

Question 8

Factors driving the Information Revolution

Answer 8

1. The rise of information-based occupations
2. The development of cheap computing power (1980s)
3. The presence of the internet as a global network that could be used to connect information providers to information consumers globally.

Question 9

ARPANET

Answer 9

Developed in the 1960s by the US Department of Defence, the precursor of the internet, which was used to connect several computers amongst American universities.

Question 10

World Wide Web

Answer 10

Developed by Tim Burners Lee, a global communication system that would allow researches anywhere to share information in the 1980s.

In 1993 the web was made available to the general public.

Question 11

Changes in the Field of Technology, Caused by the Development of the Internet

Answer 11

1. Cost-effective cloud computing and data storage.
2. Virtual Assistants
3. Social Networking
4. The Internet of Things (IoT)