This document discusses different theoretical frameworks for understanding the concept of "information". It summarizes Buckland's matrix that categorizes information into tangible/intangible and entity/process. The document then examines various perspectives on understanding information as a thing, process, and knowledge. It outlines quantitative and qualitative models of information as process, and discusses views of information as knowledge.

1. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK INFORMATION AS…

2. or, Something WIKID This Way Comes…. Betsy Van der Veer Martens School of Library and Information Studies University of Oklahoma

3. FISH IN AN OCEAN OF INFORMATION?

4. INFORMATION, PLEASE ! Enquiring Martians Want to Know: Does “information” exist outside the minds of these humans? What are the connections between “information” and the reality it may represent? How can humans (as “fish” in these deep waters) possibly expect to determine any of this themselves?

5. INFORMATION AS? “ Information 1: The pattern of organization of matter and energy.” “ Information 2: Some pattern of organization of matter and energy given meaning by a living being.” (Marcia Bates, 2005)

6. INFORMATION AS? “ What we mean by information — the elementary unit of information — is a difference which makes a difference.” (Gregory Bateson, 1971)

7. INFORMATION AS? “ Any stimulus that alters cognitive structure in the receiver.” (Bill Paisley, 1969)

8. INFORMATION AS? The general definition of information (GDI): σ is an instance of information, understood as semantic content, if and only if: (GDI.1) σ consists of one or more data (GDI.2) the data in σ are well-formed (GDI.3) the well-formed data in σ are meaningful .

9. DO FISH NEED A NET? Information theorist Michael Buckland’s matrix from page 3 of his “Information as Thing” (1991) as our organizing framework: Information-as-process Information-as-thing Information-as-knowledge

10. BUCKLAND’S INFORMATION MATRIX TANGIBLE INTANGIBLE Information processing Information as process PROCESS Information as thing Information as knowledge ENTITY

11. BUCKLAND’S INFORMATION MATRIX TANGIBLE INTANGIBLE Information Processing Information as Process PROCESS Information as thing Information as knowledge ENTITY

12. INFORMATION AS THING (1) the virtue (and vice!) of being information-as-thing is situational (anything can be seen as evidence of something) (2) determining that anything is likely to be useful information depends on a compounding of subjective judgments (Buckland, 1991)

13. INFORMATION AS THING “ Information appears to us in a material form … and can be described in a language of physical things. As material objects, [information] can then be collected, organized, and retrieved for use.” (Raber, 2003)

14. INFORMATION AS THING: THE RAW or THE COOKED? All organized representation and retrieval of “information as thing” also involves some kind of processing (cooking, in Claude L évi-Strauss’s terms), which leads to the next cell of Buckland’s matrix (“information processing”) which is what we do professionally.

15. AND NOW WE’RE COOKING WITH MARCIA BATES! “ Information is given meaning and integrated with other contents of understanding.” (Bates, 2005)

16. BUCKLAND’S INFORMATION MATRIX TANGIBLE INTANGIBLE Information Processing Information as Process PROCESS Information as thing Information as knowledge ENTITY

17. INFORMATION PROCESSING “ A datum is a string of elementary symbols such as integers or letters. It is the value of an attribute. It need not have meaning to everyone.” (Meadow, 1992)

18. INFORMATION PROCESSING Representing and retrieving information can be facilitated by thinking of the information as data “ types,” such as: Primary data Secondary data Metadata Operational data Derivative data

19. INFORMATION PROCESSING The term, “information processing” also facilitates thinking about the activities involved in representing and retrieving information: Information classification (catalogs, indices, ontologies, folksonomies) Information retrieval (recall, precision, relevance, pertinence) Informetrics (citation analysis, bibliometrics) Intellectual property (patent analysis, open sourcing)

20. INFORMATION PROCESSING So, one way we might make an easy transition from “information processing” in this cell to the next cell (“information as process”) is to realize that in this cell people are generally processing information for other people (cooking and serving up “information as thing”), while in the adjoining cell, it’s generally about people processing information for themselves (in the qualitative approach) or about attempting to capture the transmission process itself (in the quantitative approach).

21. BUCKLAND’S INFORMATION MATRIX TANGIBLE INTANGIBLE Information processing Information as process PROCESS Information as thing Information as knowledge ENTITY

22. INFORMATION AS PROCESS Information as process has two major approaches: Focus on the message process (these are mostly quantitative models) Focus on the meaning process (these are mostly qualitative models)

23. INFORMATION AS PROCESS Some well-known quantitative models of “information as process”: Shannon and Weaver Fred Dretske Brian Vickery

24. INFORMATION AS PROCESS Shannon and Weaver’s Probabilistic model of information transmission Transmitter NOISE CHANNEL Receiver Destination Message sent

25. INFORMATION AS PROCESS Fred Dretske’s Semantic model of information transmission Transmitter LOGIC CHANNEL Receiver decodes meaning Destination Meaningful message

26. INFORMATION AS PROCESS S M(S) M(R) I+K(1) K(2) Brian Vickery’s Information Transfer model

27. INFORMATION AS PROCESS Models using a qualitative approach: Taylor’s model of question negotiation Dervin’s sense-making Holsapple’s KVI

28. INFORMATION AS PROCESS Robert Taylor’s question-formation model: Q 1 visceral need Q 2 conscious need Q 3 formalized need Q 4 compromised need

29. INFORMATION AS PROCESS Communication theorist Brenda Dervin: Information One (the world) Information Two (ideas people have about the world) Information Three (how people make sense of things when they encounter the differences between One and Two)

30. INFORMATION AS PROCESS More on Dervin’s Sensemaking : (How people see gaps in the road ahead): Decision stop Barrier stop Spin-out stop Wash-out stop Problematic stop Perceptual embeddedness Situational embeddedness Social embeddedness

31. INFORMATION AS PROCESS The KVI Perspective from Clyde Holsapple

32. INFORMATION AS PROCESS “ The cognitive state of awareness (as being informed) given representation in physical form (data). This physical representation facilitates the process of knowing.” (Debons et al ., 1988)

33. BUCKLAND’S INFORMATION MATRIX TANGIBLE INTANGIBLE Information processing Information as process PROCESS Information as thing Information as knowledge ENTITY

34. INFORMATION AS KNOWLEDGE Karl Popper: The Three Worlds World 1 (world of physical reality) World 2 (world as we perceive it) World 3 (world of ideas)

35. INFORMATION AS KNOWLEDGE Fritz Machlup: The Economics of Information

36. DIKW Hierarchy Wisdom Intelligence Knowledge Information Data

37. DIKW Hierarchy?

38. Or is it WIKID? “ Where is the life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” — T.S. Eliot, chorus from “The Rock”

39. Or is it WIKID?

40. KM/LIS 5033 Students Respond….