Digital Information Ecosystems

Introduction

We come from a world in which the press had a clearly identified place and role. Print editions, teams of journalists, an economic model based on the sale of the newspaper and advertising space and, above all, an essential position on the information market: that of an offer of facts and analyses that was only rivaled by other media (other press titles, radio, television).

The arrival of what we still sometimes call the new information and communication technologies (NICTs), some 20 years ago, changes everything – or almost everything. We like to talk about revolution, an expression that is used in all kinds of ways and yet corresponds to the speed and violence of change. The change modifies the acronym that has now become NBIC (nanotechnologies, biotechnologies, computer science and cognitive sciences), in order to illustrate the heuristic mix of new or renewed disciplines that open up the major change that is artificial intelligence (AI).

It all started slowly, without the press really realizing and caring. A few rare newspapers offered a site to respond to the Internet of the early 2000s. The site was most often poorly made in terms of access when compared to paper format: clumsily duplicated, long to download, without ergonomics designed to facilitate reading or search for information. No one really believed in it and paper format kept its appeal.

Then, very quickly, access to digital networks became easier. Flow rates increased exponentially, as did data storage ...