The next information revolution is well under way. But it is not happening where information scientists, information executives, and the information industry in general are looking for it. It is not a revolution in technology, machinery, techniques, software, or speed. It is a revolution in concepts.
So far, for 50 years, the information revolution has centered on data—their collection, storage, transmission, analysis, and presentation. It has centered on the “T” in IT. The next information revolution asks, What is the meaning of information, and what is its purpose? And this is leading rapidly to redefining the tasks to be done with the help of information, and with it, to redefining the institutions that do these tasks.
The next information revolution will surely engulf all major institutions of modern society. But it has started, and has gone farthest, in business enterprise, where it has already had profound impacts. It is forcing us to redefine what business enterprise actually is and should be. This largely underlies the new definition of the function of business enterprise as the “creation of value and wealth,” which in turn has triggered the present debate about the “governance of the corporation,” that is, for whom the business enterprise creates value and wealth. Yet, despite its importance and impact, the next information revolution has so far been largely ignored by the information establishment. For it has started in the information system of which—though it is the oldest and still the most widely used one—IT people, as a rule, tend to be both ignorant and contemptuous: Accounting.