Information (holders, storage and access) GapFill

Information is everywhere! Think every building and even outside. When you’re driving down the road, you will see  cyclistsbollardsroad signsroundabouts telling you which way to go. Even old information is still important to us and we can store it in special buildings called  punch cardsarchivesofficeswarehouses – for example, we keep official records and government information safe within them.

There are lots of different ‘holders’ of information, and they each hold slightly different types (with some overlap). For example:

•  Individual citizens Businesses GovernmentsEducational institutions collect information throughout their lives through life events, education and through reading books.
•  Educational institutionsCharitiesBusinessesIndividual citizens produce reports and patent any ideas that they own (‘intellectual property’), usually created by employees or bought from other companies.
•  Individual citizensEducational institutionsBusinessesGovernments accumulate lots of information about the courses they teach and their students’ projects, and fill libraries with books, journals and theses.
•  GovernmentsIndividual citizensBusinessesEducational institutions hold information about the people living in the country, produce lots of reports and legislation, and hold information about the finances of their country.
•  Individual citizens Businesses CharitiesEducational institutions and community organisations gather lots of information about the projects they work on, lists of volunteers and donors, etc.
•  Healthcare providersBusinessesEducational institutionsIndividual citizens must keep detailed medical histories of all of their patients, as well as information about treatments and procedures, and extensive documentation covering guidelines and legislation.

 We also store information in the following places:

•  Developing countriesRural areasHomesDeveloped countries often have vast centralised stores of information with lots of big businesses and easy access to electronic communications.
•  Developing countriesUrban areasDeveloped countriesRural areas, such as some African and Asian countries, are slowly improving – in terms of access to electronic information, as well as the wealth and health of their citizens.
•  Developing countriesUrban areasDeveloped countriesRural areas have very high concentrations of homes and businesses, and government buildings, so are large producers of and stores of information.
•  Developed countriesDeveloping countriesUrban areasRural areas are often sparsely populated, meaning that they have fewer sources of and stores of information compared to cities.
•  Urban areasHomesDeveloping countriesDeveloped countries store the information that we personally hold.
•  Developed countriesDeveloping countriesUrban areasWorkplaces store and generate commercial and corporate information, as well as the personal information about their staff.

 But, there is a global  problemdistancepandemicdivide between developed and developing countries – for example, people living in developing countries have less access to fixed Internet than those in developed countries, and governments are more likely to rely on paper, causing inefficiencies.