Abstract
It is often said that we are entering the Information Society. But hasn't man always been forced to obtain information about what is going on around him just to stay alive? Didn't the members of the hunting pack communicate with each other during concerted actions to kill their quarry?
Being able to use languages was a giant step forward in communication. Vast amounts of information were coded into some sentences, transmitted, and decoded by the receiver. The next invention was writing. It allowed the sharing of information over time and space. The invention of printing machines enabled mass-production of information in a way that really changed the world into the "Gutenberg Galaxy" (McLuhan, 1962).
Electronic communication facilities with the telegraph, telephone, radio, TV, IT, and now the Internet have radically shortened the time required to communicate over the whole world. We have got an Internet Galaxy.
Still - the purpose of all these exciting developments has been to further improve man's inherited abilities to get informed and to communicate with others in order to "get things done, to achieve goals beyond the reach of the individual" (Scott, 1998). Our approach here is to see our world as an Information Galaxy, or a Cyberspace, where human beings process information, communicate and use different tools in order to coordinate their thinking and actions. That is why we believe that the study of information management is important.