They include memory, computational prowess, high bandwidth data transfer, and high speed data transformation. It affects most fields of science, commerce, engineering, entertainment, and art. Being digital, they share a common structure and language, and are part of a continuum rather than completely separate entities. The most popular means for traversing this continuum is the Internet, particularly the data dissemination structure referred to as the World Wide Web. Being a public space, the Internet is an environment where innovative activity can and does flourish, and the processes invoked are the mechanisms of change in this space .
Computers are powerful, dynamic instruments more than just static recorders of data.
Data changes quickly, and computers give us a window into what things are changing, the speed of change and how that change manifests itself. Since the information environment is both global and local, data does not necessarily need representation through proxy on the Internet. While humans have problems remembering details of large, complex systems, the computer does not. It does this for us. On the other hand, while it can translate data, it cannot interpret it.