What is Information?• Information Pyramid

– Symbols, data, information, knowledge– Data only become information when they are processed– Information and information record (or document/medium/carrier)– Information is integrated into knowledge

• Definition– Information related terminologies

• Examples: information service, information technology, etc..– Definitions

• Merriam-Webster and Britannica

• Examples– “Information is data that have been organized and communicated”—by Marc

Porat– “a record of resolved uncertainty”—Richard Derr– “Information denotes any stimulus that alters cognitive structure in the recevier”—

William Paisley

Definitions of Information• Disciplines:

– Communication: information as object– Mathematic: information as knowledge– Computer science: information as technology– Physics: information as waves– Psychology: information as stimulus– Law: information as privacy– Economic: information as commodity (money)– Information science: resource?

• Perspectives:– Technical perspective: medium, data, structure, security– Application perspective: resource, interaction between users– Communication perspective: exist only in communication– Social perspective: property, culture, privacy

• Information Characteristics– Good/bad, correct/incorrect– Complete/incomplete, perfect/imperfect– Others?( important/unimportant ?)

Information as process

)2()1()()( KKIRMSMS

b

a

A loop: adjust channel to change any disparities between sender and receiverB loop: feedback that tries to change the message sent M(S)

S: sourceM(S): message sentM(R): message receivedI: informationK(1): knowledge 1K(2): knowledge 2

Adapapted from Vickery, Brian and Alina Vickery, Information Science in Theory and Pratice, 42, Rev. ed. London: Bowker-Saur, 1992

Issues related

• The channel may distort or lose information– Technical problems– Social/psychological interference– Ideological/political intervention– Others? (information organization/indexing/presentation/?)

• Feedback– Time – Positive/negative– Explicit/tacit

Challenges in the information communication process

• Technical level– Effectiveness, efficiency, integrity, safety, etc.

• Semantic level– Content misunderstanding between information sender and receiver (e.g. different culture,

ages, background)

• Influential/pragmatic level– Reaction of the receiver– Results or effects of the message

• Presentation level – Information organization

– Information presentation