It is often easier to redesign someswarm technical device than find documentation about itin countless descriptions and patents.

Political leader taking on highthe level of a responsible decision, but not owning the completenessinformation will easily fall into a mess, and the consequences canbe disastrous. Of course, one information insuch a case is not enough; adequate methods of politicalanalysis, but without information they are useless.

As a result, an information crisis sets in, showingwhich is as follows:

the information flow surpasses the limited human capabilities for the perception and processing of information mation;

there is a lot of redundant information(the so-called "information noise"), which formakes it difficult to perceive useful information for the consumer tion;

economic, political and other barriers arisery that hinder the dissemination of information(for example, for reasons of secrecy).

A partial way out of the information crisis is seenin the application of new information technologies. Introducedthe development of modern means and methods of storing, processing and transmitting information many times reduce the barrier of accessto it and the speed of search. Of course, technology alone cannot solve a problem that has economic implications.character (information costs money), and legal (informationtion has an owner), and a number of others. This comp problemlexical and is solved by the efforts of both each country andthe world community as a whole.

Information

The entire history of mankind can be associated with the term Information widely used today. The term " information" comes from the Latin " informatio "- information, clarifications, exposition.

There are many definitions of information that only emphasize the complexity and multidimensionality of this concept.

Information - information that removes uncertainty about the surrounding world.

The federal law "On Information, Informatization and Protection of Information", which was adopted in Russia in 1995, gives the following definitions of the concept of information

Information - information about persons, objects, facts, events, phenomena and processes, regardless of the form of their presentation.

Information exists on media, objects that carry information. Objects of animate and inanimate nature can act as carriers. Carriers are of different types, forms, purposes. The information carrier can be a person, a sheet of paper (hard copy), CDs, DVDs, flash cards, a computer hard disk (electronic media), a wall, sky, trees, etc.

Information exists in two main forms:

Discrete (discontinuous) - in this form information exists on digital media,

· Analog (continuous) - in this form, information about continuous processes (for example, the process of moving from one point in space to another) can exist.

In order for information to exist, a receiver of information, a source and a communication channel between them are needed. Information is transmitted from the source of information to the receiver in the form of messages.

Message - information prepared for transmission.

A message is transmitted over a communication channel by means of a signal.

Signal is a process that carries information.

Types of information (according to the way a person perceives it):

Visual (information about visual images),

Auditory (information perceived by ear),

Tactile (skin sensation),

Kinesthetic (orientation in space),

· Organoleptic (information on taste and smell).

Information properties:

· Objectivity. Information is objective if it does not depend on someone else's opinion, judgment.

· Credibility. Information is reliable if it reflects the true state of affairs. Objective information is always reliable, reliable information may be biased.

· Relevance. Up-to-date information - information received in a timely manner.

· Completeness. Information is complete if it is sufficient for understanding and making decisions. Information on completeness is divided into: complete, incomplete, redundant.

· Accuracy - the accuracy of information is determined by the degree of its proximity to the real state of an object, process, phenomenon, etc.

· Usefulness. The value of the information to the recipient.

Various operations can be performed on information:

Creation / destruction,

· treatment,

Receiving / transferring,

· Collection / storage / accumulation.

Information process - a process associated with the performance of any operations on information.

Data - information prepared for processing or storage on a computer.

In any society, information performs the following main functions:

· Integrative - rallying members of society and social groups into a single whole;

· Communicative - communication and understanding;

· Instrumental - participation in the organization of production and management;

· Cognitive - as a means of reflecting objective reality and transmitting data.

Information society

Information today has turned into a powerful and tangible resource that is even more valuable than natural financial, labor and other resources. Information has become a commodity that can be bought and sold. Information has become a weapon, information wars arise and stop. The cross-border information network Internet is actively developing and entering our life.

The development of mankind was accompanied by an increase in the volume of accumulated knowledge and information, both about the person himself and about the world around him. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the pace of information has increased dramatically. So, if in the 19th century the total amount of human knowledge doubled in 50 years, then by 1950 - every 10 years, by 1970 - every 5 years, and since 1990. - annually. The current situation is often characterized by the expression: "information explosion". Informatics specialists have established a quantitative law of increasing information in society. This law is represented as an exponential function.

Civilization in general and each of us, in particular, are at the stage of forming a society of a new type - an information society. The social system and law as one of the main regulators of this system lag significantly behind the pace of development of the information society.

In accordance with the concept of Z. Brzezinski, D. Bell, O. Toffler, supported by other foreign scientists, the information society is a kind of post-industrial society. Considering social development as a “change of stages”, supporters of this concept of the information society associate its formation with the dominance of the “fourth”, information sector of the economy, following three well-known sectors - agriculture, industry and the service economy. At the same time, they argue that capital and labor, as the basis of an industrial society, give way to information and knowledge in the information society.

The information society is a special society, unknown to history. It is difficult to define it, but you can list the main features and characteristics:

Availability of information infrastructure, consisting of cross-border information and telecommunication networks and information resources distributed in them as stocks of knowledge;

New forms and types of activities in TITS or in the virtual space (daily work in networks, purchase and sale of goods and services, communication and communication, recreation and entertainment, medical care, etc.);

The opportunity for everyone to receive complete, accurate and reliable information from TITS almost instantly;

Almost instant communication of each member of society with everyone, everyone with everyone and everyone with everyone (for example, "chats" of interests on the Internet);

Transformation of the activities of the media (media), integration of the media and TITS, the creation of a unified environment for the dissemination of media - multimedia;

Absence of geographical and geopolitical borders of the TITS member states, "collision" and "breaking" of national legislations of countries in these networks, the formation of new international information law and legislation.

A typical example of the information infrastructure of such an information society is the Internet. Today, the Internet is actively filling the information space in all countries and on all continents and is the main and active means of forming an information society.

The volume of information resources is growing exponentially on the Internet.

Japanese scientists argue that in the information society, the computerization process will give people access to reliable sources of information, relieve them of routine work, and provide a high level of automation of information processing in the industrial and social spheres.

The information society is based on the production of information. Other products are becoming more information-intensive, with innovation, design and marketing accounting for most of their value.

In the information society, a person is assigned the role of a creator who possesses not only specific knowledge, but who owns the techniques and technologies of their processing and accumulation. The information society is based on all sorts of systems of computer technology and computer networks, information technology, communications and telecommunications. The employment of members of the information society is mostly associated with the maintenance of information technologies and their use, material production will be entrusted to automated and intelligent devices.

All types of information functioning in society can be called social information.

There are the following types of social information:

Political;

Economic;

Scientific and technical;

Bulk;

Legal;

Statistical;

Emergency situations;

About citizens (personal data);

Computer;

Political information - information about the statics and dynamics of political relations, the political line of the state, the activities of political parties and public associations, the image of politicians, about all elements of the political system of society.

Economic information - a set of information reflecting economic processes and relationships.

Scientific and technical information is documented or publicly announced information about domestic and foreign achievements of science, technology and production.

Mass information means printed, audio, audiovisual and other messages intended for an unlimited number of persons.

Information about citizens (personal data) is information about the facts, events and circumstances of a citizen's life, which makes it possible to identify his identity. The main elements of information about citizens are given name and surname, gender, date and place of birth, place of residence, education and marital status, information about social status, membership in political parties and associations, physical and mental health, financial status, ownership of property, criminal record and etc.

The term computer information was introduced by the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in 1996. Article 272 defines this type of information as information on a computer carrier, in an electronic computer (ECM), in a computer system or in their network.

By access modes, the information can be divided into:

Open (public);

Restricted information (state secrets, confidential information, commercial secrets, professional secrets, official secrets).

State secrets - information protected by the state in the field of its military, foreign policy, economic, intelligence and operational-search activities, the dissemination of which may damage the security of the Russian Federation (Article 2 of the RF Law "On State Secrets" dated July 24, 1993).

Confidential information - documented information, access to which is limited in accordance with the law. The decree of the President of the Russian Federation "On approval of the list of confidential information" dated March 6, 1997 defines the types of confidential information. These include:

Information about the facts, events and circumstances of the private life of a citizen, allowing to identify his personality (personal data), with the exception of information to be disseminated in the media in cases established by federal laws.

Information constituting the secret of the investigation and legal proceedings.

Official information, access to which is limited by state authorities in accordance with the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and federal laws (official secret).

Information related to professional activities, access to which is limited in accordance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation and federal laws (medical, notarial, attorney's secrets, privacy of correspondence, telephone conversations, mailings, telegraph or other messages, and so on).

Information related to commercial activities, access to which is limited in accordance with the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and federal laws (commercial secret).

Information about the essence of the invention, utility model or industrial design prior to the official publication of information about them.

A commercial secret is defined as information that has actual or potential commercial value due to its unknown to third parties, there is no free access to it on a legal basis and the owner of the information takes measures to protect its confidentiality (Federal Law of the Russian Federation "On Commercial Secrets" dated July 9, 2004 .).

The role of the state in the formation of the information society
Concept for the development of the information society of the European Community
American projects to create an information superhighway

The term "information society" has taken a firm place in the lexicon of foreign politicians at various levels. It is with him that many leaders associate the future of their countries. This was most clearly manifested in the activities of the Administration of the President of the United States (national information infrastructure), the Council of Europe (information society), Canada, Great Britain (information highway). Other states of the European Community and Asian countries are not lagging behind in the development of relevant programs and concepts for the development of information and telecommunication technologies (ITT).

The ongoing large-scale transformations associated with the introduction of ITT in almost all spheres of life should be controlled and directed in the interests of the whole society. This can be done by the state in alliance with all interested parties, primarily the private sector. Russia has lagged behind in this process, but this makes it possible, using the example of other countries, to understand the role of state influence for the purposeful formation of the foundations of the information society.

The information society differs from a society dominated by traditional industry and services in that information, knowledge, information services, and all industries associated with their production (telecommunications, computer, television) grow at a faster pace, are a source of new jobs. become dominant in economic development. In order to quantify this process, it is necessary to have relevant statistics. However, there are serious difficulties here, since the statistical system is inertial and introduces new measurement indicators with an inevitable delay.

For these reasons, the economic impact of the information sector is difficult to measure. From a statistical point of view, the main industries involved in the processing and dissemination of information - telecommunications, broadcasting and computing - have traditionally been analyzed separately. This creates difficulties for national and international statistics to assess the situation in this area. There are no relevant indicators in statistical reports to the information society. Another challenge lies in defining what the information industry actually is. Should it include services and equipment manufacturing, non-electronic information creation, postal services?

There is experience of some countries in more effective statistical measurement of the information industry. For example, Canada has proposed a new classification under the heading Information Technology and Telecommunications (ITT) that integrates telecommunications, broadcasting and computer services. The contribution of ITT industries to the Canadian economy in 1993 was estimated at 4.7% of GNP. If we add the production of computer and telecommunications equipment, then the figure rises to 6%. However, the overall contribution of the "information economy" is higher, as the measurements only cover value added and do not include information services provided by non-ITT companies.

The estimates of the global information sector by the International Telecommunications Union suggest that it is growing faster than the economy as a whole. Moreover, it is not affected by economic downturns. It includes the production of telecommunications and computer services and equipment, software, radio and television broadcasting and equipment, audiovisual entertainment.

The information sector is a dynamic and rapidly growing industry that generates new jobs. The employment impact of ITT varies by technology, market structure, and industry specifics. On the one hand, technological advances often lead to job losses as equipment becomes more "intelligent" and requires fewer workers. For example, in the field of traditional telephony, employment has declined by 6% annually since 1982, and even more in America (23%). The privatization of telecommunications operators also results in job cuts in order to reduce production costs, and intense competition between operators also plays a role.

On the other hand, new technologies create jobs. For example, in the US, the cable television industry employs over 100,000 people. Similar processes are taking place with cellular communications, the introduction of fiber-optic communications, the development of new software products and information services.

There is an assumption that the low cost of communications has a beneficial effect on other areas of the business, as it expands communications, removes spatial restrictions on doing business and reduces the need for personnel. This assumption is difficult to test because there is no evidence to support a direct link between the cost of communications and employment. At the same time, the development of new information services, such as purchasing goods using interactive TV or computer networks, can lead to a decrease in employment in traditional industries. We are going through a historical period of very rapid technological change, which raises two main questions. The first is related to the problem of employment: will people be able to adapt to these changes, will information and telecommunication technologies create new jobs or destroy existing ones? The second question relates to democracy and equality: Will the complexity and high cost of modern technology increase the gap between industrialized and less developed countries, younger and older generations, those who know how to handle them and who do not know them?

The spread of ITT is characterized by the pervasive nature and speed of implementation in all sectors - in industry, services, public administration, education, etc. They also have an impact on the everyday life of people. Due to such a large-scale impact, one would expect high rates of economic growth. However, in reality, the impact of ITT depends on their social acceptability, on the structural and institutional changes that must be made to fully realize the potential of ITT: business reorganization, rethinking the relationship between the state and the private sector, a new type of work organization, new regulatory mechanisms. However, these and other institutional transformations are lagging far behind the pace of technological progress.

The most significant threat of the transition period to the information society is the division of people into those who have information, who know how to handle IT and who do not have such skills. As long as ITT will remain at the disposal of a small social group, the existing mechanism of society's functioning remains a threat. New ITTs:

• expand the rights of citizens by providing instant access to a variety of information;
• increase the ability of people to participate in political decision-making and follow the actions of governments;
• provide an opportunity to actively produce information, and not just consume it;
• provide a means of protecting the privacy and anonymity of personal messages and communications.

However, these potential opportunities and benefits of ITT will not become a reality on their own. The potential for citizens to directly influence governments raises the question of transforming existing democratic structures. It becomes possible to implement "reference democracy" with the help of ITT. At the same time, there is growing government interference in encryption, which can threaten the privacy of citizens. The right of people to encrypt their messages should not be compromised by government control over encryption keys.

The price for convenience, speed of transferring and receiving information, various information services - loss of anonymity. All steps along the information highway can be traced and entered into ever-growing databases. The commercial sector is also showing a strong interest in monitoring online activity, as it provides the ability to create detailed portraits of consumer behavior. The compilation by commercial or financial organizations of information about how and when people buy is a serious potential threat.

Due to the special sensitivity to the collection of personal information, the documents of the European Community (Building the European Information Society for Us All. First Reflections of the High Level Group of Experts. Interim Report, January 1996) offer the following recommendations:

• collection and storage of identifiable information should be minimal;
• the decision to open or close information must be left to the people themselves;
• when designing information systems, it is necessary to take into account the need to protect personal information;
• citizens should have access to the latest technologies to protect personal secrets;
• the protection of personal information and privacy should become a central point of policy ensuring the right to anonymity of citizens in information systems.

Citizens must have access to technology and software to protect their privacy, messages and communications. The means to achieve these goals are digital signature and encryption. Encryption methods will only be improved if their development is a private matter. The government advantage in this area will provide the government with the keys to each database. There is a need to establish regulations that govern how encryption is used. The authorities' right to view and monitor information should be strictly limited by the framework of the law, modified in accordance with the new requirements. The right to use encryption should be protected by the establishment of independent public trust centers that are regulated independently of commercial structures and are not part of the government apparatus. Trust centers should be responsible for software verification, key management, maintenance of key lists and their certification.

However, it must be borne in mind that the constant technological improvement of encryption systems, including the ability to "hide" one message in another, will lead to the creation of practically perfect encryption systems in the near future. In this case, government agencies responsible for public safety must find other ways to detect communications between criminals.

Technological change can deepen existing geographic and social differences. On the other hand, people's lives can be improved through better access to information and communication services.

Intensive introduction of ITT into government bodies makes it possible to:

• bring them closer to citizens, improve and expand services, population;
• improve internal efficiency and reduce public sector costs;
• stimulate the creation of new information equipment, products and services by the private sector through adequate public policy.

  The introduction of ITT into government bodies is a complex process due to a number of factors: the vertical structure of the administration, which must be replaced by a horizontal one, insufficient understanding on the part of employees (intensive training programs are required), lack of databases made for public access, ambiguity with the legal status access to public information.

  The following principles should be applied in relation to access to public information:

• information should be open to everyone;
• basic information should be free. Reasonable price should be charged if additional processing is required, bearing in mind the cost of preparation and transmission of information, plus a small profit;
• Continuity: Information must be provided continuously and must be of the same quality.

As a rule, the reason for failures in the implementation of ITT implementation projects both at the enterprise and state levels is the inability to combine technological innovations with organizational ones.

The role of the state in the formation of the information society

The rapid development of ITT, the convergence of computer systems, communications of various types, the entertainment industry, the production of consumer electronics lead to the need to reconsider the ideas about the information industry, its role and place in society. Many countries are now adopting new laws, restructuring the activities of state bodies responsible for the formation and implementation of information and telecommunications policies.

The state information policy means the regulatory activities of state bodies aimed at the development of the information sphere of society, which covers not only telecommunications, information systems or the media, but the entire set of industries and relations associated with the creation, storage, processing, demonstration, transmission of information in all its forms - business, entertainment, scientific and educational, news, etc. Such an expansive interpretation of information policy seems to be justified today, since the digitalization of information and the latest telecommunications and computer technologies are intensively blurring the barriers between various sectors of the information industry.

A comprehensive consideration of the processes taking place in the information sphere of society, modern methods of its state regulation is very relevant for Russia, since in this area the state has not fully defined itself. The existing attempts to write concepts of the information space only partially solve the problem, since the space itself is formed not so much by the state as by the market and new commercial structures. The history of the Russian computer market confirms this. Analysis of the foreign practice of regulating the information sphere of society allows us to single out a number of areas, which include:

• encouraging competition, combating monopoly (control over the concentration of ownership in the media, issuing permits for mergers of companies, decisions on the disintegration of large monopoly companies);
• ensuring the right and technical capabilities to access information and information resources for the entire population;
• observance of freedom of speech;
• protection of the interests of national minorities, the younger generation in the information sphere;
• protection of national cultural heritage, language, opposition to the cultural expansion of other countries;
• ensuring information security;
• protection of intellectual property, combating piracy;
• the fight against computer and high-tech crimes;
• control over the use of information and telecommunication technologies in government agencies;
• censorship in global computer networks.

The most significant trends in the foreign information industry in recent years include the revision of the previously established rules for its regulation: deregulation of the telecommunications market, which allows cable, telephone, cellular, satellite and other companies to compete in each other's markets; weakening of control over the concentration of ownership in various media. As a result, there is both vertical and horizontal integration of information markets and means of its transmission.

The development of the information industry and new information relations in Russia is largely stimulated by the global processes in this area - the deregulation of the telecommunications market, the privatization of state telecom operators, the creation of new information conglomerates, including information delivery vehicles (cable and telephone networks, satellites, computer systems, etc.) and content producers - television and film studios, publishing houses, news agencies.

At the moment, there is a wave of mergers of the largest information companies in the world into large associations abroad, which will control the market for creating and distributing mass information in the next century. These transformations are the response of leading information companies to the opportunities created by new technologies and changes in the regulatory system of the information industry. Since this process is extremely dynamic, Russia has only a year or two to take its rightful place in the system of international information relations.

Preserving competition, fighting the monopoly of individual manufacturers or firms providing services is the cornerstone of state regulation. In the field of telecommunications, the mergers of various companies at the national and interstate levels necessarily take place with the permission of the relevant authorities, in the United States it is the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice, which determine whether the merger of two or more companies will lead to the emergence of a monopoly that will eliminate competition and, as a result, with over time will reduce the quality and variety of services provided to the business world and the population, will lead to higher prices. All large American companies, such as AT&T, Microsoft, IBM, television companies, which are now looking for partners in their own and foreign markets, are under the scrutiny of these bodies.

There are extensive gaps in Russian information legislation - laws on the right to information, on the protection of personal data, on television have not been adopted. The laws on the protection of copyright and related rights, on the mass media, on participation in international information exchange require amendments. However, new ones are added to the old unsolved problems. On the agenda is the regulation of the already begun process of concentration of ownership of the domestic mass media, the merger of newspapers, their merger with TV channels, news agencies, and financial groups. There are no documents regulating the procedure for the formation and maintenance of departmental information resources, access to them for citizens. The rules for the acquisition and operation of information and telecommunication technologies in government agencies have not been established, which leads to uncontrolled and irresponsible spending of significant amounts, computer and information systems do not make the expected contribution to improving the efficiency of government agencies. It is necessary to develop your "own" Internet based on Russian information. The development of regulatory documents governing the sale of information resources created by government agencies is highly relevant. Resources that cannot be denationalized, such as statistical information, should be clearly listed. Finally, it is necessary to determine what is the place and role of Russia in international programs, such as the Global Information Infrastructure.

The development of these documents requires an interdisciplinary and interdepartmental approach. In principle, there are enough specialists in the country to prepare a document in which, in the genre of "white paper", the state would define its priorities and main directions in the field of information policy, form the tasks for building a Russian information infrastructure in the near future.

Concept for the development of the information society of the European Community

Since 1994, the European Community has set the task of building the information society among the highest priorities. Significant success has been achieved in the implementation of the Action Plan (Europe and the global information society. Recommendations to the European Council, May 1994), which defined the strategy for moving Europe towards the information society:

• liberalization of the telecommunications sector has been successfully launched;
• efforts have been made to ensure the social orientation of the information society, to support regional initiatives to achieve coordinated development;
• a plan of action in the field of education was formulated;
• supported the European content industry, which is expected to create an additional 1 million jobs over the next 10 years;
• scientific development programs have been successfully implemented;
• The European Commission has become an important tool for developing common rules that are necessary for the transition to a global information society.

Taking into account what has already been achieved, new tasks are set for European countries:

1. Improve the business environment through effective and coordinated liberalization of telecommunications, create the necessary conditions for the introduction of e-commerce.

2. A transition to lifelong learning is needed. The initiative "Education in the Information Society" is working in this direction.

3. The significant implications of the information society for a particular individual have prompted a discussion aimed at placing people at the center of the transformations taking place. As a result of the discussion, the Green Paper "Living and Working in the Information Society: People First. European Comission, Belgium, 1996" was released. It deals with the creation of new jobs, the protection of the rights and freedoms of citizens, above all the inviolability of personal life.

4. Today it is clear the importance of global cooperation, the establishment of rules for the creation of an information society. They affect intellectual property rights, data protection and privacy, distribution of harmful and illegal content, taxation issues, information security, the use of frequencies, standards. To establish common rules in these areas, multilateral agreements within the World Trade Organization are required. (Europe at the Forefront of the Global Information Society: Rolling Action Plan ". Communication from the European Comission to the Council, the Europeean Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee, and the Committee of the Regions, 1996.)

The European Commission in February 1995 established a Forum to discuss common problems of the formation of the information society. Its 128 members represent users of new technologies, various social groups, content and service providers, network operators, government and international institutions.

The purpose of the Forum is to trace the process of the formation of the information society in six areas:

• impact on the economy and employment;
• basic social and democratic values ​​in the "virtual community";
• impact on public, government services;
• education, retraining, training in the information society;
• cultural dimension and the future of the media;
• sustainable development, technology and infrastructure.

It is emphasized that if Europe is unable to quickly and effectively adapt, it will face not only a loss of competitiveness in the face of the United States and Asian economies, but also an increase in social exclusion within European countries. The problems of information society development are presented in a complex form in the First Annual Report of the Forum "Networks for People and Communities". (Networks for People and their Communities. Making the Most of the Information Society in the European Union. First Annual Report to rhe European Commission from the Information Society Forum. June 1996.).

The goals of another initiative are to accelerate the entry of schools into the information society by providing them with new means of communication, to encourage widespread dissemination of multimedia in teaching practice, to create a critical mass of users, services for the production of multimedia products and services, to strengthen European education with the means inherent in the information society, expanding cultural and linguistic diversity (Learning in the Information Society. Action Plan for European education initiative (1996-1998).

To achieve these goals, it is proposed to promote the interconnection of regional and national school networks at the Community level, to stimulate the development and dissemination of educational European material, to provide training and retraining for teachers, to inform about the educational opportunities provided by audiovisual equipment and multimedia products.

The task is to prevent a situation where children of only privileged strata of society can count on multimedia education.

Most European countries have adopted relevant initiatives. For example, since 1995, the following projects will be introduced: in Great Britain "Superhighways in Education - The Way Forward", in the USA - "Challenge of Technological Literacy", in Germany - "Schools in the Net".

American projects to create an information superhighway

In 1993, the US government issued a report with plans for the development of a national information infrastructure (NII) (Agenda for Action). To study the problems associated with the construction of research institutes, the Information Infrastructure Task Force was created.

9 guidelines were proposed:

• encouraging private investment;
• the concept of universal access;
• assistance in technological innovation;
• providing interactive access;
• protection of privacy, security and reliability of networks;
• improved radio spectrum management;
• protection of intellectual property rights;
• coordination of government efforts;
• providing access to government information. (Information Superhighway: An Overview of Technology Challenges, Report to the USA Congress, 1995).

The US government has made the development of research institutes and the global information infrastructure (GII) a priority of its policy.

As the main source of capital and experts, the private sector must, in response to market demands, determine which technologies to develop, set standards, and develop new services and products. The state, for its part, can facilitate these processes by adopting appropriate laws and administrative regulation. Governments can also provide leadership in these areas by supporting the testing of new technologies, facilitating technology transfer to the private sector, by creating and developing applications that support government operations and disseminate government information. The state is recommended to act in the following directions (The Global Information Infrastructure: Agenda for Cooperation. R. Brown, L. Irving, A. Prabhakar, S. Katzen. 1995):

1. Encouraging private investment:

• remove barriers to private investment, adhere to policies that promote investment initiatives in the telecommunications and information markets;
• applicable laws and regulations must be accessible, reasonable and non-discriminatory;
• interaction with international financial institutions, in particular the World Bank and regional development banks to attract private and public capital.

  2. It was noted that competition leads to positive results: networks are constantly introducing new technologies, users have more choice of services and lower prices, service providers are more attentive to the needs of customers, low prices stimulate the use of telecommunications. However, in the field of conventional telephony, both competition and foreign investment are traditionally limited. However, competition is still growing in many markets, especially in countries such as Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Increasingly, countries with a monopoly in the communications market are wondering if they can compete in the international market. Recommended government action:

• increased competition at the local, national and international levels;
• assessment of measures to liberalize the market and competition in other countries;
• constant work to remove barriers to the development of competition;
• encouraging new entrants to the market by combating anti-competitive behavior by firms that dominate the markets.

3. Achieving the goals of the global information market requires the government to act to ensure that all information service providers have access to equipment, networks and network services in a non-discriminatory manner and at a low cost. By providing access to networks, the state ensures competition and, as a result, the number of information services available to consumers is significantly increased.

In collaboration with the private sector, governments can improve network accessibility and provide a wide range of different services. At the same time, the process of establishing uniform standards should be open and take place with the participation of large groups of interested manufacturers.

4. Optimal administrative and legislative regulation should:

• determine the goals and objectives to be regulated by law, including ensuring competition;
• be flexible enough to allow the introduction of new services and technologies without introducing additional amendments to the legislation;
• delegate broad powers to a regulatory body independent of the national operator;
• establish an open process for stakeholder participation in writing regulatory rules;
• guide the creation of free market access based on non-discriminatory principles.

Regardless of the regulatory model, the rules should clearly spell out the rights of old and new operators. New entrants must be protected from market dominant operators hindering free competition.

Canadian experience in building an information highway

In 1994, the Ministry of Industry released the report "Building a more innovative economy", which discussed the ways in which the state uses information technology to achieve economic and social goals. In the development of the ideas laid down in the report, two programs were implemented: the Canadian Network for the Development of Research, Industry and Education (the goal is the introduction of high-speed networks) and SchoolNet, one of the world's leading educational networks.

An action plan has been developed, involving more than 30 government agencies (Building the Information Society: Moving Canada into the 21st Century. Ministry of Supply and Services, Canada, 1996). It is proposed to make the transition to the information society and the knowledge economy with the help of the Canadian Information Highway. Achieving this goal requires coordinated action by the state, the private sector and public institutions. 4 goals are set:
• Build the Canadian Information Highway by creating an environment for competition and regulation that is in the public interest, fosters innovation, investment, and the development of new services;
• increase Canadian content, develop national dialogue, create new jobs, give a new impetus to economic development;
• to realize economic and social benefits for all Canadians, which will allow them to personally participate in the formation of the information society;
• to make the state more accessible and responsible.

  Canada has one of the most advanced telecommunications and broadcasting systems. It is the result of coordinated action to bridge the distances and geographic conditions that divide Canadians.

  Government work began in 1994 when the Information Highway Advisory Board was established to prepare proposals to the government. The council's activities are focused on 3 goals: creating jobs through innovation and investment, strengthening Canada's sovereignty and cultural identity, and ensuring universal access at affordable prices. The work of the council is based on 5 principles: interaction and interconnection of networks, cooperation in the development of the public and private sectors, protection of privacy, network security, and lifelong learning. The main directions of the council's activities were determined:

• interconnected and interacting networks;
• cooperation between public and private sectors, government and private business;
• privacy protection and network security;
• competition in the production of equipment, products and services;
• lifelong learning.

In September 1995, the Council released its final report, Connecting, Community, Content: Challenging the Information Highway, which contained more than 300 concrete proposals for government action. (Connection, Community, Content: The Challenge of the Information Highway. Final Report of the Information Highway Advisory Council).

The authors of the report see the government's task as creating a competitive environment in which Canadian firms would create national wealth. The federal government must ensure that the Information Highway creates jobs, promotes economic growth in every sector of the economy. Where market forces are unable to provide or create the preconditions for equal access, the government should act. A national strategy is proposed for providing access to basic services by legislating access to information for all Canadians.

In the new information economy, success will be determined by the market, not the state. Consequently, the main role of the state should be reduced to setting the rules, as well as acting as an example, a model. The government agencies themselves must also go through a reengineering phase.

The Canadian government pays special attention to its culture and the digitalization of cultural heritage. This refers to the support of our own production of mass media. The desire to preserve its cultural identity, supporting its own media, allowed Canada to turn into a major exporter of cinema and video products in a few years, lagging behind its positions in the American market.

The strategy of access to services and content is proposed to be built on the basis of 4 principles: universal, affordable and equal access, consumer orientation and a variety of information, competence and participation of citizens, open and interactive networks. The Council recommends that the government, as it liberalizes telecommunications regulations, strives to remove obsolete and unnecessary barriers to competition and to introduce protections against anti-competitive practices. In addition, the state itself must become a leader in the implementation and use of electronic information and communication systems, which will allow all Canadians to be able to communicate and interact with government departments and agencies electronically.

The role of the state is to balance competition and regulation, the freedom to use encryption to protect privacy and personal communications, and the need to protect the public interest from terrorists, freedom of speech and expression, and the protection of minors' morals and interests. This balance should be established and revised by the state itself, since market forces cannot do this. This also includes education, telemedicine, the idea of ​​universal access to networked services and information, and access to government information. Recommendations to the state are of interest:

1. The federal government must recognize the urgent need to tackle regulations and remove barriers to competition.

2. Backbones and new infrastructure must be built by the private sector, and the risk and rewards must fall on the shareholders.

3. The backbone must be “promoted” across the country in accordance with market requirements.

4. Development of the information highway should be "technologically neutral". This means that the state should not support one of the technologies.

5. The role of the state must be seen in the context of the role of the private sector, which invests and bears financial risk. Its policies should be aimed at creating jobs and national wealth, stimulating competition and research and development. Its goal is to participate in the development of standards, ensure interoperability, stimulate competition, accelerate the creation of new technologies and protect consumers. nine

The information (post-industrial) era began around the middle of the 20th century with the emergence of foci of post-industrialism in industrialized countries. They quickly turned into regions of post-industrialism. The post-industrial society is becoming the leading one in the world. International organizations of a post-industrial type appear, and the UN becomes an organ of the post-industrial era. The basic systems of the information society are also changing.

Technological basis This society is made up of information technology, the automation of production processes based on computers and cybernetics, the globalization of information and technological relations. The basis of informatism is formed by mental work, spiritual capital and knowledge (theoretical and applied), information technology, computer technology.

Demosocial system the information society is characterized by:, the emergence of a mass of migrants and national diasporas, the growth of megacities, a society of mass consumption, mass culture, pollution of the environment, a significant number of the middle class, a population explosion, confirming the fears of Malthus.

The economic system are characterized by: automation and computerization of production processes; growth in the number and power of transnational companies (TNCs); private, collective and state property; domination services(medicine, education, leisure, etc.); production, exchange and consumption of knowledge (information); transformation of science into a direct productive force of society, and technical specialists (experts, consultants) - into a leading professional group; domination of finance capital.

Political system information societies are characterized by: a strong democratic legal social state; developed civil society (parliamentary democracy, free media, etc.); taking into account the interests of different social classes; the political culture of the middle class; the growing influence of international political organizations.

For spiritual system industrial society is characterized by: the transformation of science into the leading form of social consciousness; flourishing of the system of general, secondary and higher education; weakening of the influence of world religions; the development of art and the emergence of its new directions; postmodern thinking; growing influence of mass culture; dominance of television, etc.

Public subjectivity characterized by the strengthening of the role of the spiritual and the weakening of the unconscious, the growth of the value-rational, the spread of solidarity principles, the co-evolution of liberal, social democratic, conservative, communist and religious ideologies.

In the information age, countries with different types of societies (formations and civilizations) coexist: liberal-capitalist, Soviet, social-democratic, etc. new world society, formation and civilization of earthlings. All this is accompanied by a deepening environmental crisis.

The urban population is becoming predominant. Man is forced out of material production; it is replaced by automata. Scientific and technological progress is accelerating, the structure of employment of the population is changing. The personnel of information enterprises require a new management style: creative, intellectual, moral. The motives of work are improving: workers prefer lower wages, but work in accordance with their interests, which makes it possible to make decisions for themselves. More and more people combine family, work, self-education and sports in their lives.

The institutional structure of the information society so far includes six types of enterprises: economic (banks, stock exchanges, savings banks, etc.), social (pension, medical, sports, etc.), scientific, production (industry, construction, agriculture , transport), voluntary (Orana environment, assistance to the elderly, etc.), households. Universities, research centers, academic institutes become the main institutions (institutions) of post-industrial societies.

The information society is based on TNCs. The development of the world under the influence of TNC "corresponds to the natural tendencies of universal evolutionism - the mechanisms of self-organization that determined the development of all living things."

The previously backward countries of Asia followed the path of liberal-capitalist and then bourgeois-socialist societies. For example, from 1950 to 1990, South Korea's GDP grew 120 times. The world socialist system began to lose out in scientific, technical, economic and demosocial confrontation with social democratic societies. New technologies, samples of goods, improving the lives of ordinary people showed the weakness of Soviet society (formation and civilization). In 1991, the world socialist system and the USSR collapsed. The countries of the Soviet bloc were not ready for the post-industrial era.

As a result of the collapse of the socialist system, the world equilibrium of countries with different types of societies was disturbed. There has been a separation of developed ("golden billion"), developing and undeveloped countries. A hierarchical pyramid of countries emerged: post-industrial capitalism (USA), bourgeois socialism ("old" European democracies), bourgeois-socialist orientation (Eastern Europe), Soviet socialism (Cuba, North Korea), state capitalism (Russia and some other CIS countries); colonial capitalism (many African countries).

Expansion intensified American civilization in the field of worldview, institutions, lifestyle. She meets fierce resistance in other civilizations: Islamic, Buddhist, Orthodox. The Islamic civilization included countries with different social formations - from post-industrial (Saudi Arabia) to primitive communal (Afghanistan). Civilizational confrontation sometimes turns out to be more important than formational uniformity.

The present world is a hierarchy of all technological and civilizational types of societies: agrarian, industrial, informational. Information societies play a leading role in relation to industrial ones, and the latter - in relation to agrarian ones. The base of this pyramid is narrowing, and the central - industrial - part is expanding. This corresponds to the stratification pyramid in the developed countries of the world. It is obvious that for the growing humanity, the transition of the majority of agrarian societies to industrial, and the latter to informational ones, is fraught with an ecological catastrophe: the natural environment does not withstand the technogenic load. There is a need to slow down the technological transition and manage globalization.

In the context of globalization, deepening environmental crisis, post-industrialization, it is necessary to abandon profitability and power as defining values, and hence from the economic greed and political ambition of entire classes and peoples of developed countries. To do this, it is necessary to mitigate the demosocial gap, the domination of some countries over others in terms of property, political, national and other characteristics. The problem of creating an ecological society for earthlings has risen to its full height. In this regard, N. Moiseev, like other scientists, do not exclude the emergence of a new international totalitarianism, a kind of post-industrial Middle Ages.

September 11, 2001 was, apparently, evidence that the neoliberal society (formation and civilization) of the United States is causing indignation in the world. The worldview of individualism, the superiority of the strong and the rich, the exploitation of the world, double standards, the movement towards environmental disaster have received opposition from Islamic fundamentalism. It became clear that in order to make the world safe, it must be made more just. Only in this way can developed countries get rid of terrorists who are stepping up to more and more dangerous types of weapons.

The world is faced with the need to radically change international relations in the context of the ongoing scientific and technological revolution, the approaching environmental catastrophe, and flagrant social inequality between countries. To solve these problems, the UN and its institutions need to return to the fight against the aggressive aspirations of the "advanced" countries. Relations between countries from different historical eras should be redefined in the direction of greater equality and justice. The West needs to share more with other countries, not exploit them; it is required to impose stricter restrictions on the sale of weapons from developed countries to other countries and thereby end the arms race; you need to finally start creating world democratic state, civil society, economy and spirituality.