**2. Social informatics—A broad definition**

What we call the information society in the last decades is marked by increased globalization process, both economically as well as geopolitically. The new economy is promoting a new characteristic attribute, knowledge, empowering them to be integrated into the knowledge

Proceedings of the International Conference on Interdisciplinary Studies (ICIS 2016) - Interdisciplinarity and Creativity

Information society emphasizes the amount of information available and accessible. It focuses on technology. Knowledge-based societies are identified as societies that use and apply

Manuel Castells [2] argues that 'dominant functions and processes in the information age are increasingly organized around the concept of networking'. According to Castells [3], 'infor‐ mation society is the new mode of human existence, in which the production, recording,

Reflected by the thesis: 'Knowledge is information with meaning, and information that acts,' the two characteristics of knowledge, Drăgănescu concludes 'Therefore knowledge society is possible only grafted on information society and cannot be separated from it' [4]. The infor‐ mation society provides knowledge to a higher level. The main features of the knowledge society are emphasized. The truth about existence is discovered through scientific knowledge that is extended and deepened through the society. Existing knowledge must be managed as technological and organizational knowledge. Innovation brings new technological knowl‐ edge. The new means, Internet, e-book and using the electronic methods of learning (elearning), facilitates unprecedented spread of knowledge to everyone on the planet. Referring to the developmental effects of educational paradigm, the author points out that among the operating directions of the knowledge society it is necessary that the education system is based

The term informatics is broadly defined as an area covering artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science, information science (processing, management and retrieval of information), social sciences and information technology (research, design, development,

Developed after a serious effort to review the specific indicators and of careful reflecting realities of contemporary society, Report to UNESCO [6] of an international commission on education in the twenty-first century, led by Jacques Delors, addressing sore topics joint to educational systems in modern society, seen through the need to adapt to the society of

**•** Education: a required utopia (a look to the future, tensions that must be overcome, design and build of our common future, lifelong learning—the engine of the society, stages and education connections proper assimilation of reform strategies, expanding international

**•** Perspectives: from the local community towards a global society, from social cohesion to

This shows that education, the society engine, must adapt the new technological advancements

processing and retrieval of information in organized networks play a central role'.

information in various areas of learning and development.

on the knowledge and information society methods (e-learning).

cooperation in the global village).

to the citizens and their needs.

implementation, support or management of computer-based systems) [5].

tomorrow. We present below the most relevant topics addressed for our paper:

democratic participation, from economic growth to human development.

society.

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in the Knowledge Society

Social informatics is an area of research that examines social aspects of computerization. A more formal definition would be 'inter-disciplinary study of the design, use and consequences of information technology in interdependence with institutional and cultural environments' [7]. According to Kling, social informatics is a field that is defined by its content (and funda‐ mental questions on it) rather than by a set of techniques and methods very similar to urban studies or gerontology. Social informatics is a research object with systematic, analytical and critical character, helping to 'develop theories that are relevant to the design, development and operation of information systems, including intranets, electronic forums, virtual libraries and electronic publications' [7].

Grabbing the spotlight is the concept of 'computer information systems as socio-technical systems' [7]. Kling's idea to achieve 'missing link' between human environment and the given attribute of simple tools given to the information technologies, can be considered beneficial to the online environment today.

Complex, interdependent, social and technical systems include the following:


'These are not simply a static list, but are interconnected within a matrix of social and technical dependencies' [7]. So, it has been made the connection between the components of the system. Today, we can see the effects of this mind set adopted by many designers of computer systems, namely, proximity to the human element and its folding needs, along with a security structure of the combined system.

Although there are minor variations that are shown between the different definitions, but most experts agreed that social informatics is an inter-disciplinary field of study and research, diverse, comprehensive and highly dynamic regarding the changes caused by information technology and communications in social life. Another landmark is the harmonization of the society with and through the information and communications technology (ICT).

Social informatics area of investigation is extremely broad, including [8] the following:

	- **•** Computer-mediated communication (C.M.C.)
	- **•** Organizational changes resulting from the use of ICT (work, communication, structures, power relations)
	- **•** The relationship between technology and social change
	- **•** ICT and changes in education (distance learning, e-learning, etc.)
	- **•** Privacy and social control through ICT
	- **•** Project management with ICT support
	- **•** The impact on privacy and individual development
	- **•** Dynamics and trajectory ICT—policies and guidelines
	- **•** Public access to the Internet, etc.

Research information systems have the ability to draw attention to developing new technol‐ ogies. Benamati [9] said that 'changing technologies obliges our discipline to change more quickly than others'. Web 2.0 phenomenon has captured the attention of industry technology and informatics, media and other professions and disciplines.

The Internet is in the fifth stage of its development. First stage, starting from its appearance in the 1960s until the late 1980s, ARPANET [10] has been a well-kept secret, used by government scientists and researchers. The second phase, between 1987 and 1992, has made open the Internet to the public. In the third stage, 1992–1996, began with the realization of the HTTP [11] protocol, on which was created the World Wide Web (WWW) [12] and search engines. The global network has become an information service accessible from 1991 and, as described by Berners-Lee [13] (1991), 'the WWW project combines techniques of finding information and hypertext to create an easy to use global information system, but powerful at the same time'.

In the fourth stage of development, the Internet becomes a place where people are organizing communities that collaborate, cooperate and sometimes compete. Some favourite digital tools and services at this stage include social networking sites, collaborative writing tools, network services, file exchange between customers/users (peer-to-peer) and more. O'Reilly and Daugherty describe this stage in the evolution of the network as a 'Web 2.0', O'Reilly [14], a term introduced and officially registered in 2004. O'Reilly offered a clearer definition of the term thereof as the (2006) [15]: 'revolution in computer industry caused by the move towards using the Internet as a platform, and to understand the rules for success on that new platform. The most important of these rules is this: Build applications that use the network effects to attract more people to use them'.

In the fifth stage since 2010, it begins Web 3.0—that is sometimes used as a synonym for Semantic Web, representing a 'web of data' that enables computers to understand the meaning of information on the WWW that means total dynamic web pages by including vector graphics and the introduction of 'Semantic Web' [16] as a tool of computing systems to observe information in texts and generate new information based on them.

Regarding the Web 3.0,1 we can say that enhances existing network resources on the Internet that can be read by users. This is done by adding extensions, called metadata, to existing documents, allowing data to be processed automatically by computers through the concept of similarity.
