Facets and Challenges of the Information Technology Evolution

Abstract

The recent dramatic evolution in information technology (IT) has brought major modifications, new techniques, and new tools to the way information is handled. Examines and questions some clichOs, and addresses a number of resulting new problems and challenges, especially ethical, legal, and educational ones. States that the entire IT revolution has emphasized the need for multidisciplinary approaches, but that one must be cautious with encyclopedic tendencies resulting from the IT evolution and, even within a specific scientific discipline, one must refrain from engulfing enormous amounts of energy and manpower in oversized endeavors having questionable return.