Information ecology includes a much richer set of tools than that employed to date by information engineers and architects. Information ecologists can mobilize not only architectural designs and IT but also information strategy, politics, behaviour, support staff, and work processes to produce better information environments. … They rely on the disciplines of biology, sociology, psychology, economics, political science, and business strategy – to frame their approach to information use.

1. INFORMATION
ECOLOGY
DR. S.GHOSH
NBU

2. KEY DELIVERABLES
• “Know-Why” Questions on Technology
• Conversation on “Technology”
• “Technophilia” vs “Technophobia” [Telephonic Conversation ???]
• Technology as “Tool”, “Text”, “System” and “Ecology”
• Tool-Affordances; Text-Interpretation(Form of Communication, a Carrier of
meaning in different social situations”
• Technology-Mind Alteration

3. KEY DELIVERABLES
• Technology and Technique: Different connotations
“When technique enters into every area of life, including the human, it ceases
to be external to man and becomes his very substance. It is no longer face to
face with man but integrated with him, and it progressively absorbs him. In
this respect, technique is radically different from machine.”
Jacques Ellul
The Technological Society, 1964

4. INFORMATION ECOLOGY: THE MISTICITY
• Information ecology includes a much richer set of tools than that employed
to date by information engineers and architects. Information ecologists can
mobilize not only architectural designs and IT but also information strategy,
politics, behavior, support staff, and work processes to produce better
information environments. … They rely on the disciplines of biology,
sociology, psychology, economics, political science, and business strategy –
to frame their approach to information use.

5. PERIPHERY
• Although there is not yet a core body of knowledge or theory associated with the
field, it is reasonable to categorize two general areas where the term is applied:
• (1) information environments within human organizations(focuses specifically on
information technology and management (IT/IM) with particular attention to
political and cultural aspects of information use within human organizations) and
• (2) information environments that involve the interaction between human and
natural systems(include the study of information processes in both the human
domain and the natural world, with particular attention given to the role of
information in the interaction between the two).

6. DEFINITIONAL UNDERPINNING…
• … the study of the relationship of environmental information (at least physical,
biological, social and cultural environments) to all that comprises collective and
individual processes of knowing and decision making (ideology, values,
expectations, beliefs, symbolism).
• Information ecology is a science which studies the laws governing the influence
of information summary on the formation and functioning of bio-systems,
including that of individuals, human communities and humanity in general and
on the health and psychological, physical and social well-being of the human
being; and which undertakes to develop methodologies to improve the
information environment.
model

7. CHARACTERISTICS OF I.E
• (1) From the viewpoint of subject-object interaction, information alone is not a complete
information process.
• (2) Any completed information process should consist of not only information but also its
products, knowledge (the higher product) and intelligence (the highest product).
• (3) Such information process is also named an information system.
• (4) Different areas have different information systems.
• (5) All the information systems together with their environment constitute the
information ecosystem.
• (6) Information ecology as a methodology is to emphasize the study of the interrelations
among all information systems and their environment.

8. HOLONS, HOLARCHIES, AND INFORMATION
STRUCTURE
• Holon was first developed by Koestler (1967) as a means to accommodate both
reductionistic and holistic dimensions of complex systems. The term literally means
“whole-part” and, more specifically, refers to the relational dependencies among
wholes and parts in complex systems.
• In contrast to spatiotemporal properties used in hierarchy theory, such as
smaller/larger or faster/slower levels in natural systems, the holonic tenets focus on
structural–functional dependencies between holonic levels in terms of higher and
lower relationships in multilevel “holarchical” systems, which can be physical,
biological, ecological, symbolic/linguistic, or any other type of structurally ordered
system.
• Contd…

9. HOLONS, HOLARCHIES, AND INFORMATION
STRUCTURE
• Each holonic level transcends and includes holons on lower levels.
• Lower level holons set the possibilities for the higher level holons; and higher
level holons set the probabilities (constraints) on the lower levels.
• Destroy holons on any particular level, and all the levels above it are destroyed,
but none of the levels below it.
• Each level in a holarchy produces greater depth and less span.

10. GENERAL REFERENCE MODEL : INFORMATION
STRUCTURE

11. CONCEPT OF INFORMATION:
(a) highly disordered system with high entropy and low information and
(b) an ordered system with lower entropy and higher information.

12. HOLONIC RELATIONS AND INFORMATION STRUCTURE

13. MODEL OF INFORMATION ECOLOGY

14. LIBRARY AS AN INFORMATION ECOLOGY
• “A library is an information ecology. It is a place with books, magazines, tapes, films,
and librarians who can help you find and use them. A library may have computers, as
well as story time for a two-year-old and after school study for teens. In a library,
access to information for all clients of the library is a core value. This value shapes
policies around which library is organized, including those relation to technology. A
library is a place where people and technology come together in congenial relations,
guided by the values of the library.”
Nardi, Bonni A and O’Day Vicki L
Information Ecologies: Using Technology with a Heart
MIT Press

15. CONCLUSION
• Managing the synchronicity of information flow across disciplines is an important
part of the overall process. Although it is common to characterize policy and
decision making as fast-paced environments and scientific research as slow
paced, the reality is that the pace in either environment is influenced more by the
rate of change exhibited by the components of the system under study, the
scientific and technological capacity for observing and monitoring change, and
efficacy in responding to change. It is for this reason that information flows at
different rates from primary to tertiary levels and between components within
levels.