IEE Electronics Division: Chairman´s address. The information society ¿ the wonder that would be?

The information revolution is promised to bring about social and economic changes rivalling those following the industrial revolution of two centuries ago. Three factors which are the prime determinants of changes are the advance of technology providing the `push¿ the increasing demands of the commercial world generating the `pull¿ and the pressures of society which will, increasingly, modulate the speed of change. The markets for information systems are developing fast. However, there have been excessively optimistic predictions about the advent of the so-called `office of the future¿, which are not being realised. This has led to disappointment in some quarters. The reality is that market-application-led uses of the new information systems are advancing fast, whereas technology-driven innovations, like Prestel, have produced disappointing results. The paper concentrates on two new system concepts which are based on close study of applications; one relates to the office and one to the home. Each contains the key elements which will recur progressively in all information handling systems in the future: (a)the integration of previously separate products into a coherent system (b)the ability of one workstation to perform more than one task (c)the convergence of data processing, text and image handling, and telecommunications towards a common course. The paper then examines some of the implications for employment in the next decade in consequence of systems of this kind which inevitably will pervade our society.