How Information Theory Changed the World - A Brief Review of the History of the Information Theory Society

A remarkable paper by Claude Shannon published in 1948, that introduced the modern and meaningful way of thinking about communication of information, had a formidable impact on technology and on the emergence of the information era. At the same time it spawned the Information Theory Society of the IEEE that has carried the torch of Shannon's ideas and continues to push the frontiers of the fundamental foundations of general communication theory and technology. This paper reviews briefly this unique and illustrious trajectory of this society.