Week Five
Information Management
Lecture Notes:

• In today's lecture we learnt about lots of things that I had never heard of before. It was all about Information Management, and different ways it can be organised.
• We learnt about Atoms vs Bits. Atoms being things like books and papers, which you can be holding in your hand. Bits being things like Digital reproductions, electronic content.
• The Good things about Atoms are: they exist, we can hold it, we know where it is, and they can be difficult to change.
• The bad things about Atoms are: they can be bulky, like an encyclopedia, difficult to edit, and difficult to distribute.
• The good things about Bit's are: very flexible, cheap and easy to edit.
• The bad things about Bit's are: easy to copy and steal, and it's easy to fake, edit and change the information.

Today's lecture was rushed because we had to fit two weeks into one. But I understand the general idea of what my lecturer was trying to say.

Tutorial Activity

I set up my favourites list in my Internet page, on my home computer. I've never used a favourites tab like this before and I am finding it amazing to use. It saves your fingers for having to type web addresses over and over again!

The DNA of Information

Bits and Atoms. What are they? Where do they come from? In regard to the topic at hand, Information Management, Bits and Atoms refer to the different information sources. Bits are electronic content, the 'things' that live in cyber space, where as Atoms, are the content that we can pick up, look at in our hands and flick through, like books for example. There are numerous pro's and con's for both Bits and Atoms, that can easily point out the difference between the two.

With the world turning digital these days, it seems like a lot of the atom based things are being faded out. This isn't totally the case. For example, when I go to work, I still sign in and out on a time card so my employer knows the times I have worked.

As it is discussed in the article, both Bits and Atoms are good, no one is better than the other. It talks about different scenarios where both the Bits and the Atoms have advantages and disadvantages. To give an example, the author of this article was at a conference and some Cd's and DVDs and so on where to be sent to the location were the conference was being held. The atom items didn't arrive on time because they where held up in customs. So, in this situation bit based items would be appropriate, because there is no hold ups, and no customs.

To conclude, bits and atoms have advantages and disadvantages. They are both good for the different ways they can deliver information.