with information technology on the threshold of the network age

the third civilization wave is characterized by the development of information society. in future, a high information availability and knowledge are conceived as prominent accelerators of economy. under the third wave, the community of computer experts understands the network age. the attribute ‘network’ expresses current trends, i.e. e-business, virtual organizations, virtual teams, etc. better than the attribute ‘information’. the year 2000 is often designed as the start of the network age. this paper shows some interested features of the current state of information technology (it) that have consequences for the society in the network age. it explains some quantitative aspects of the information explosion (how much information there is in the world) and shows one its possible consequence, the so-called digital immortality. increasing significance of the practice-oriented research as well as the number of information system problems requiring a long-term research are also mentioned. we also discuss new features of the it profession and achievements in the vision of the so-called intellectual networks.