INFM600-FA14 Module 1 lecture

1. INFM-600: Information Environments
Day 1: Introduction, Syllabus & Answering the Question—
What is Information?
Dr. Jessica Vitak | Module 1 1

2. Class Overview
INFM-600 is a core class
• What’s that mean?
What should you expect to get out of the class (macro level)?
How is the class going to be structured (micro level)?
What resources will you have available throughout the semester?
• iSchool: Student Services Office (Room 4110; open 8:30-4:30)
• Library: Guide for Grad Students, Skills Guide, Librarian Subject
Specialists (currently no “information studies” specialist, but specialists in
a lot of areas, including data management)
• English Editing for International Graduate Students (EEIGS)
• Canvas 2

3. 3
600 603
Information
Technology
User Analysis
Organizations
Management
605 612

4. How did we get here?
The rise of the Information Society
Information society: When the gathering, organizing,
production, and distribution of information becomes the
predominant economic activity.
• U.S. as information society (% of total economy):
 1900: 10% 1950: 30% Today: > 50%
 20% growth predicted in information sector in this decade
• Industrial Revolution of 19th century fueled information growth
(see Beniger’s The Control Revolution and interactive infographic)
Braman’s (1993) Developmental Stages of the Information
Society:
1. Electrification of communication
2. Convergence of technologies
3. Harmonization of information systems
Evolution of “networked society”
4

5. • Growth in information supplied to public by media: (source)
• 1960: 98 minutes available per minute consumed
• 2005: 20,000 minutes available per minute consumed
• 2014: ?
5

6. How much information was
generated online every minute
6
(data from various sites in 2011 & 2012)

7. Potential outcomes of all this information
Information Overload: one has so much information that it
becomes difficult to set priorities or make decisions
7

8. Potential outcomes of all this information
Information Overload: one has so much information that it
becomes difficult to set priorities or make decisions
• The Tyranny of Choice (Economist)
“Free choice is the basis on which markets work, driving
competition and generating economic growth. It is the
cornerstone of liberal democracy. The 20th century bears the
scars of too many failed experiments in which people had no
choice. But amid all the dizzying possibilities, a nagging question
lurks: is so much extra choice unambiguously a good thing?”
• “stress of information acquisition”
Managing Information:
• In organizations
• In your life
8

9. What is information?
Is the better question, what isn’t information?
Buckland (1991):
• Information as process
• Information as knowledge
• Information as thing
9

10. Types of Information
Data
Text and documents
Objects
Events
Buckland (1991) notes that “everything is, or might as well be,
information” (p. 356).
10

11. Information is Situational
Information that is important today may not be
important tomorrow
Information that is important to you may not be
important to someone else
Determining whether something qualifies as
information requires some degree of consensus
Consensus can change over time
11

12. What is information, anyway?
12
Data
Definition: Simple
observations of states
of the world
 Easily structured
 Easily captured on
machines
 Often quantified
 Easily transferred
Information Knowledge
Increasing complexity / Increasing human involvement
See Davenport (1997) Information Ecology, page 9

13. 13
011101110110010101101100011000110
110111101101101011001010010000001
110100011011110010000001101001011
011100110011001101111011100100110
110101100001011101000110100101101
111011011100010000001100101011011
100111011001101001011100100110111
101101110011011010110010101101110
0111010001110011

14. Data, Information & Knowledge
14
Data
Definition: Simple
observations of states
of the world
 Easily structured
 Easily captured on
machines
 Often quantified
 Easily transferred
Information
Definition: Data endowed
with relevance and
purpose
 Requires unit of analysis
 Need consensus on
meaning
 Human mediation
necessary
 Harder to transfer
See Davenport (1997) Information Ecology, page 9
Knowledge
Increasing complexity / Increasing human involvement

15. 15

16. Data, Information & Knowledge
16
Data
Definition: Simple
observations of states
of the world
 Easily structured
 Easily captured on
machines
 Often quantified
 Easily transferred
Information
Definition: Data endowed
with relevance and
purpose
 Requires unit of analysis
 Need consensus on
meaning
 Human mediation
necessary
 Harder to transfer
See Davenport (1997) Information Ecology, page 9
Knowledge
Definition: Valuable
information from the human
mind; includes reflection,
synthesis, context
 Hard to structure
 Difficult to capture on
machines
 Often tacit
 Most difficult to transfer
Increasing complexity / Increasing human involvement