To sum up, information becomes critical for most activities not only in business but also in society. Information is seen as the new raw material for productivity because information now involves in the process of any productions in order to maximise productivity. Therefore, information technology has been playing a critical role for managing information which can lead to lower cost, safe time, increase efficiency, and so on. Under concept of network society, Castells also present his some other interesting opinion especially the mode of development which now people are in the informational mode of development. In this mode of development, processing information and generating knowledge become crucial that information has affected to every economic activity. Focusing on industries, it can be said that every industry has been affected by the role of information. Industries need information from customers in order to plan and improve their productions. Industries also need to manage information within organizations as well as between business partners in order to come up with well operation and finally successful business. That is the reason why information technology becomes an important tool for running business. In addition, the automotive industry is shown as a good example that information technology involves in every activity of production across from suppliers, manufacturers, assemblers, dealer, to customers. Many information technologies such as RFID system, internet technology, and ERP system are being used in order to gain higher productivity and competitive advantage. However, this concept is not seen only in business perspective. Information is seen as a raw material for productivity of people’s lives as well. Information has affected society as a whole and becomes a part of social activities. Therefore, in order to gain productivity for business or even for our live, information needs to be well managed and knowledge needs to be well generated for every activity people do.

‘The circuits of electronic impulses is the material foundation of the information age just as the city in the merchant society and the region in the industrial society...information is the key ingredient of our social organisation...it is the beginning of a new existence...marked by the autonomy of culture vis-à-vis the material basis...’. (Castells 1996: p. 412,477-78)

Castells also mentions on the technology that ‘technology is not neutral and we have to struggle about its use and openness’ (Cited by Gronlund 1999). That means that information technology is not always good. Some negative sides are also significant. Apart from those business perspectives above, some other perspective such as privacy and social issue should be proposed. Since customers’ information is needed as the raw material for designing products, forecasting demand, etc, privacy issue becomes an interesting point such as permission of customer or how businesses seek that information. De George (1999) states that the Internet provides functions to track the customers, record customers’ preference, and present what customers are likely to buy. It can be seen that information technology allows organizations automatically record customers’ information without permission. For example, a customer shops in a supermarket and he or she pays for the bill by credit card. What the information system can do is record what items the customer buys, how much usually the customer spend, how often the customer shops here, and so on. This comes up with a question like ‘do customers want business to record their information?’ Furthermore, according to Gronlund (1999), focusing on social issue, Castells mentions that ‘information is the key ingredient of our social’. Castells also thinks about effect of information to culture and language as it is quotes that ‘we do not see reality as ‘it’ is, but as our languages are. And our languages are our media. Our media are our metaphors. Our metaphors create the content of our culture (Cited in Gronlund 1999)’. What this means is information is also seen as a raw material for productivity of our lives.

‘Industrialism is oriented towards material growth, while informationalism is oriented toward the growth of knowledge and experience.’ (Gronlund 1999)

As it is mentioned before, automotive industry is a good example to support the Castells’s concept ‘information as the new raw material for productivity’. It is because automotive industry involves with wide ranges of economic activity such as manufacturing, assembling, distribution, and so on. According to Castells (2000), information as the new raw material for productivity is about good information processing and knowledge generating, thus this section will support this concept based on uses of technology in the automotive industry.

Internet technology

Internet has affected every industry especially automotive industry because it helps the industry maximise productivity by reducing cost and increasing efficiency (Baki et al. 2004). Dealing with customers, website is the most important tool because the website provides lots of features such as pictures, sound, animations, and so on. These features are good for automotive industry to provide information for customers as well as seek some information form customers. Interestingly, online showroom is now getting popular because internet technology allows customers play and design their dream cars. For example, Honda’s website provides the online showroom which customers can choose the model, change colours and trims, etc. The manufacturers can get the information from this function in order to produce the car that most customers want. Moreover the showroom no longer displays only pictures because the animation function allows customer to look around the entire cars which make more fun for customers. Furthermore, business can present any information in depth for customers and customers will easily search for what information they want to know. Dealing between businesses and within organization, internet provides good communication. Castells (2000) mentions that sharing of information for co-operation is significant. Using internet, information is quickly processed and exchanged between parties by the internet. Obviously, there is no doubt that internet technology can help business to manage information as the raw material in order to maximise productivity, increase customers’ satisfaction, and so on.

Information system

There are so many information systems out there for automotive industry including ERP system, EDI, OO system, etc. These systems are about data-oriented which are used in automotive industry for information processing. They enable the industry to save time, improve reliability, and are ready for changing business environment (McCormack 2005). For example, ERP system is about integrating and processing all data of entire organization into a single system (Wikipedia 2006), and then each department can access the system and use data for their particular purposes. Those data can be different raw material for particular operations. For example, the manufacture department needs information from sale department in order to check that which model and colour is popular and needs to be produced more. Or the manufacture department needs information as customer’s complaint from customer service department so that manufacturer can improve the products in order to satisfy customers.  In addition, as assembly is a part of automotive industry’s activities, RFID technology is also used for maximise productivity. RFID tag will contain information and be attached on each piece for assembling. If number of any piece is reached the minimum of the inventory, the system will automatically order that piece to supplier. Therefore, information system can well manage information, safe time, and finally come up with higher productivity.

In economic perspective, successful organizations will need to be able to efficiently process information and generate knowledge in flexible environment and unpredictable changes (Wit 2006). Castells mentions that information not only acts as input but also output (Flew 2002). For example, in order to produce goods, organization will need to seek information such as customers’ demand, statistic, economic situation, and so on as well as present organization’s information to customers such as products’ information, advertisements, and so on. Obviously, information technologies (IT) can help organizations manage that information because IT can link up different types of activity to work together (Castells 1999). That is the reason why most organizations seriously take information technologies as the important tool in order to gain productivity and competitive advantage. To focus on real uses of technologies under the Castells’ concept, some industries are given as following;

Media industry

Media industry is an industry which information is obviously one of the core raw materials. Traditionally, journalists seek news or other information from the sources of information and present that information to public. However, as the Internet and information technologies offer two-way communication, now people can seek information as well as provide information to the public. The internet technology, such as websites and blogs, enables people to show their opinions or other information on the Internet. As a result, people now are information seekers as well as information providers at the same time. That leads to a difficulty of information control because both organization and public can provide the raw material through the online world.  Therefore, in order to increase productivity for media industry, management of information needs to be taken as a top priority. Presented information of the organization must be trustable.

Airline industry

Airline industry is one of industries that provide services as their products (intangible products). Apart from the core raw material such labour, fuel, airplanes, etc; information has been seen as a new raw material which can increase productivity. Management of information becomes crucial and information technologies have been using by airline industry in various ways. For example, obviously, internet technology and barcode technology are being used. The internet technology is used in form of website which provides many functions for customers such as search flight, online ticket, customer services, online check-in, and so forth. Barcode technology has been used for identification on tickets, luggage, and so on. Doing so can facilitate the operations as well as lead to customers’ satisfactions.

Automotive industry

Automotive industry has been chosen as one of examples because it represents one of industries that produce tangible products. Information has been taken part of all activity across suppliers to customers. Also, automotive industry is an interesting industry which has been using wide ranges of information technology to manage information as the new raw materials such as internet technology, barcode technology, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology, and so forth. The next section will present about the automotive industry in detail.

In general, most industries have taken information as the new raw material for productivity because information is needed for every activity in the industries. That is the reason why uses of information technology widely become critical issue for many organizations. As Castells (1999) states that the significant ability of information technologies is the linkage of production, distribution, and management across any types of activity. Therefore, there is no doubt that information technology enables any kinds of business to well manage information as the raw material for increasing productivity. 

In addition, as Castell (1999) states that the world is now connected as a network, so information and communication flows become crucial. Most industries are also connected and become international. For example, basing on the increase of e-commerce, airline industry is now connected with tourism industry, financial industry, and so forth. What will happen if information is not seen as the raw material? What are the impacts if industries do not implement the technology? The answer for these questions is only that the business is difficult to survive in this new economy. It is because currently any units of society in the world or anybody need flexibility, convenience, low cost, etc. Those needs can be provided by the information technology. That is the reason why information technology has been taking part of all activity in people’s live.

‘In the industrial mode of development, the main source of productivity lies in the introduction of new energy sources, and in the ability to decentralize the use of energy through the production and circulation processes. In the new, informational mode of development, the source of productivity lies in the technology of knowledge generation, information processing, and symbol communication.’ (Castells 1996, p.17; cited in Flew 2002, p.68)

In order to come up with clear understanding, some key words will firstly be defined.  According to Wikipedia (2006), information is seen in many terms including data, knowledge, communication, perception, and so on. Raw material is defined as everything which is used in production to produce finished goods for consumption.  Productivity can be concluded as a process of continuous improvement in production (National Productivity and Competitiveness Council 2006).  In general, the relationship between these three keywords can be defined as production of goods use information as a raw material in order to increase productivity. Castells (1999) states that information and knowledge is new raw materials for economic activity which leads to increase productivity.

In addition, Castells (1996) also introduced the change of mode of development from industrial mode to informational mode. In informational mode of development, information processing and technology become the source of productivity. Critically, Castells (2000) mentions that informational mode of development is not only about managing information but also generating knowledge for all kind of activity. Wit (2006) also agrees with Castells’ concept that production has also changed; labour process now depends on use of ICTs and globally networks connected across countries. Gronlund (1999) concludes this Castells’ concept as information becomes directly productive forces and critical raw materials that productions and services are less important than the managing of information’.

Why is this concept acceptable? It is because the form of information is now mostly transformed to be digital form or called light-weight data. For example, according to fast growing of internet as a new medium, the Internet technology changes any information such text, sound, images, etc to be digital form as a single 0-1 binary code (Flew 2002). Therefore, people can quickly send information across the world via the Internet. Flew (2002) states that the digital form of information leads to productivity in all area of economic activity which relies on communication technologies such production, distribution, and use of information. Flew (2002) also shows some positive factors of the digitalization such as ability to reduce cost of processing information and ability to customised the consumers’ demands. More advantages of light-weight data and information will be presented in the next section. In this section, it can be concluded that in the new economy information is critically seen as raw materials and leads to better productivity because ICT enables people to manage information and generate knowledge in various forms.  

Before we begin, firstly let’s look around where you are. Do you think everything is all about information? My answer is ‘yes’! It is because everything contains some information. For example, a box of milk contains brand, expiry date, nutrition information, and so on. Even ourselves, we need to have our own ID card which shows name, surname, address, date of birth, etc in order to identify ourselves. It cannot be denied that information now is vital. Castells, who is a sociologist, introduced five concepts of ‘the information technology paradigm’ or ‘the networked society’ include; 1) information becomes the raw material in the new economy; 2) ICTs have affected to all activity; 3) all social processes and organizational forms are applied in the logic of networking; 4) flexibility is demanded in the new economy; 5) the convergence of all media and technologies are growing (Flew 2002). These concepts become well-known and provable along with growing of technologies. This paper is going to discuss on the first concept which is ‘light-weight data or information as the new raw material for productivity’. The paper is divided into 4 episodes. Firstly, it will provide some opinions on this concept. Secondly, some examples of industries and uses of technologies in information era will be presented. Next, the paper will particularly focus on airline industry in order to support this concept. Lastly, some other perspectives on this concept will be critically argued in general.

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the second weblog of mine. My first blog is a kind of personal blog via MSN messenger which is all about nonsensical stories.

This weblog, I intend to make it more formal and want to share some experiences and idea with others.

Currently, I am about to show some of Castells' concepts of 'the networked society'.

If you guys know about this stuff, you are very welcome to show your opinions. 

See ya very soon