Prerequisite for market formationInformation services has become a rapid development of the economy in different countries of the world. With the growth of the economy and increasing competition, the society realizes the need for information resources. The first information products and services appear in the media and telecommunications. Technological progress is becoming a powerful impetus for the development of the information market. The first commercial computers appear, and in time, the first personal computers. Computer equipment is rapidly increasing its potential - it becomes more powerful and less expensive. PCs are beginning to be actively used in science and business, and with the advent and development of the Internet, in all spheres of human activity.
Market of information products and services
Currently ongoing intensivethe formation and development of the information services market. An economy of a new type is being formed, where information plays an increasing role - the production of information goods is increasing, new industries, new professions and new jobs are emerging.
Market potential and statistics
For comparison:According to statistics, the production of world goods and services per year grows in the region of 10 percent. The production of information products and services is growing annually in the region of 30 percent or more. The potential of the information market and its impact on the development of the economy is difficult to overestimate. Thus, in the first decade of the 21st century, the share of spending on information resources increased by tens of percent. The market of information products and services is now the most important element of the new type of economy. The successful functioning of the information market is the most important guarantee of the development of the community, the region and the country as a whole.
Information product - what is it?
Объектами информационного рынка являются information products and services. So what is an information product? An information product is information with a sign of expert evaluation, presented in a tangible or intangible form with the aim of commercial realization and meeting consumer demand.
Types of information products
It is worth saying that at the moment there is nocommon classification of information products and offers many interpretations of the concept. The most popular is the classification of information products by scope. So, there are five main areas:
1. Business area.The following types of information products are presented here: exchange documentation and financial information (exchange rates, investments, prices, quotations of securities, discount rates), statistical data (forecasts and estimates), commercial information about the companies' activities (about its financial condition, areas of work, prices, mergers and acquisitions, transactions, negotiation and legal practice).
2. Highly specialized sphere.The information product presented here is the content of narrow specialization (various kinds of professional information, scientific and technical documentation, archival materials, access to primary sources).
3. Consumer sector.It includes various news sources - content of news agencies and the press, literature on both physical and electronic media, reference books, encyclopedias, booklets, magazines, entertainment products - gaming, television and video content.
4. Educational sphere. Here are the educational literature, teaching aids, learning computer content, testing and control systems, teaching and development techniques.
5. Информационная индустрия.It is an extremely important and growing branch of the information market. Information software products are presented here - various kinds of databases (bibliographic, statistical, informational, documentographic), electronic reference books, multimedia applications (for business, entertainment, developmental), electronic archives, general-purpose software products - for processing graphics, documents, multimedia content.
This area also includes technicalmeans - computers and components, telecommunications equipment, office equipment and related consumables, software development and support staff - which together form information systems. An information product of a system consists of several processes — obtaining information from internal or external sources, processing and adapting information, providing information to the consumer, and receiving feedback. In this case, the information product is the startup files for programs and applications, spreadsheets, tools for working with content (graphics, video), personal computer maintenance systems, equipment administration systems. The artificial intelligence system is also an information product.
Scope of information products
The above classification of applicationsinformation products clearly shows that for the given period of the development of society, infoprodukts have found their application in almost all branches of human life. The production of information products in each individual case is unique, but the general technology of information products includes three stages — collection of primary data, processing and adaptation, and proposing a solution in the form of an information product. An example is a book about popularizing a scientific idea, for writing which the author processes a large amount of source information, adapts it into available text and prepares for commercial realization in the form of a book on electronic or physical media.
Properties of information products
The information product is a unique indicator of the era of universal automation and informatization and has a number of certain differences from the material product.
So, any information product hasquality, which is inherent in information in general - it is not subject to depreciation, physical deterioration. You can repeatedly use the information product and it will not lose in quality and uniqueness. For an example: repeated reproduction of a film will not affect its content in any way. The film does not get worse with each viewing.
But it should be said that the information productsubject to the so-called moral obsolescence. Information that was relevant yesterday, may lose all its relevance and relevance today. At current rates of technological progress, it is becoming obsolete at a record pace and losing in price, for example, office equipment.
Also indicative of the informationproduct is that the cost of its manufacture, as a rule, several times higher than the further costs of its replication. Writing a unique work is always more difficult once than to multiply it into thousands of copies.
An important property of the information product -his targeting. Depending on the consumer group, the manufacturer chooses the form and method of manufacturing the future infoprodukt. Thus, the publication of scientific work in the professional community will differ from the method of popularizing the same scientific idea for schoolchildren.
An information product has the property of universality - it may be of value for different applications, used for different purposes in different projects.
The specifics of the information market
The uniqueness of the functioning of informationthe market is that the demand for information products is governed by the specifics of the very concept of “information”. The information product can be really claimed only in the short-term period. In the market of information products and services it is impossible to keep the palm with the same product for several years. To be interesting to the consumer, it is necessary to constantly improve the existing product or create something fundamentally new.
The future of the information society
Сейчас активно идет процесс увеличения доли information product in comparison with the production of material, which means that our information society is evolving rapidly. The value of the material product decreases, but the value of the information product increases. Intellect, knowledge, expertise, and the ability for creative thinking are more in demand. In the modern market of occupations, the share of mental labor is growing. Prerequisites for the further development of the information society can significantly improve the quality of life and reach a new level of civilization development.
Potential threats of a new society
Тем не менее стремительное развитие Information Society carries a number of threats. Possession of valuable information can oppose a small community to the majority, a single user - to the state or the whole system. There is a danger of the formation of the so-called intellectual elite, which has access to the development and valuable sources, and the dependence of the average consumer on it. The threat of lagging developing countries is also quite real, since information resources are unevenly distributed. Unfortunately, progress always brings new challenges. Whether modern society can withstand them with dignity - time will tell.
