Editing Information Age (section)

==The theory of information revolution==
The term ''information revolution'' may relate to, or contrast with, such widely used terms as [[Industrial Revolution]] and [[British Agricultural Revolution|Agricultural Revolution]]. Note, however, that you may prefer mentalist to materialist paradigm. The following fundamental aspects of the theory of information revolution can be given:<ref name=Veneris1984/><ref name=Veneris1990/>

# The object of economic activities can be conceptualized according to the fundamental distinction between matter, energy, and information. These apply both to the object of each economic activity, as well as within each economic activity or enterprise. For instance, an industry may process matter (e.g. iron) using energy and information (production and process technologies, management, etc.).
# Information is a [[factor of production]] (along with [[Capital (economics)|capital]], [[Labor (economics)|labor]], [[land (economics)]]), as well as a [[Product (business)|product]] sold in the [[Market (economics)|market]], that is, a [[commodity]]. As such, it acquires [[use value]] and [[exchange value]], and therefore a [[price]].
# All products have use value, exchange value, and informational value. The latter can be measured by the information content of the product, in terms of innovation, design, etc.
# Industries develop information-generating activities, the so-called [[Research and Development]] ([[R&D]]) functions.
# Enterprises, and society at large, develop the information control and processing functions, in the form of management structures; these are also called "[[white-collar workers]]", "[[bureaucracy]]", "managerial functions", etc.
# Labor can be classified according to the object of labor, into information labor and non-information labor.
# Information activities constitute a large, new economic sector, the information sector along with the traditional [[primary sector]], [[secondary sector]], and [[tertiary sector]], according to the [[three-sector hypothesis]]. These should be restated because they are based on the ambiguous definitions made by [[Colin Clark (economist)|Colin Clark]] (1940), who included in the tertiary sector all activities that have not been included in the primary (agriculture, forestry, etc.) and secondary (manufacturing) sectors.<ref name=Clark/> The [[quaternary sector]] and the [[quinary sector of the economy]] attempt to classify these new activities, but their definitions are not based on a clear conceptual scheme, although the latter is considered by some as equivalent with the information sector.
# From a strategic point of view, sectors can be defined as information sector, [[means of production]], [[means of consumption]], thus extending the classical [[David Ricardo|Ricardo]]-[[Marx]] model of the [[Capitalist mode of production (Marxist theory)|Capitalist mode of production]] (see [[Influences on Karl Marx]]). [[Marx]] stressed in many occasions the role of the "intellectual element" in production, but failed to find a place for it into his model.<ref name=Ricardo/><ref name=Marx/>
# Innovations are the result of the production of new information, as new products, new methods of production, [[patents]], etc. [[Diffusion of innovations]] manifests saturation effects (related term: [[market saturation]]), following certain cyclical patterns and creating "economic waves", also referred to as "[[business cycles]]". There are various types of waves, such as [[Kondratiev wave]] (54 years), [[Kuznets swing]] (18 years), [[Juglar cycle]] (9 years) and [[Kitchin cycle|Kitchin]] (about 4 years, see also [[Joseph Schumpeter]]) distinguished by their nature, duration, and, thus, economic impact.
# Diffusion of innovations causes structural-sectoral shifts in the economy, which can be smooth or can create crisis and renewal, a process which [[Joseph Schumpeter]] called vividly "[[creative destruction]]".

From a different perspective, [[Irving E. Fang]] (1997) identified six 'Information Revolutions': writing, printing, mass media, entertainment, the 'tool shed' (which we call 'home' now), and the information highway. In this work the term 'information revolution' is used in a narrow sense, to describe trends in communication media.<ref name=Fang/>