What is information?

Really, what is it?

© Tefko Saracevic 1
 As a phenomenon …

Answer:
WE DON’T KNOW!

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 As a concept …
 Well, we understand it intuitively quite well
 We have a number of lexical definitions
 We use it and nobody has to define it for us
 it is a y’know concept
 We easily adapt to various connotations
(differing senses) depending on the context

 But formally, in a scientific sense, we really don’t

know what information is as a phenomenon,
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 As a basic phenomenon
 We don’t know what information is any more
than we know what is
energy
matter
gravity
life
knowledge
 Basic phenomena in physics, biology,
philosophy …we don’t know what they are, BUT:
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 So how do we study
them?
 We study their
manifestations
behavior
(or behaviour if you are British)
effects
 All scholarship, every science does this
 e.g. we don’t know what gravity is, but we have
physical laws that describe its behavior and effects

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 this slide doesn’t have to
do with the lecture topic
but I liked the picture,
so here it is

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 Information treated in
various disciplines
 physics – basic property as
energy, matter
 biology – senses
 neurophysiology – brain processes
 psychology – behavior, perception
 cognitive science – cognition
 telecommunication, computer
science – signals, bits
 philosophy – knowledge

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 Information in
information science
Again: intuitively well understood, but formally not
well stated
 Several viewpoints, models emerged
 Shannon: source-channel-destination
 signals not content – not really applicable
 Cognitive: changes in cognitive structures
 content processing & effects
 Social: context, situation
 information seeking, tasks

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 Shannon's information
theory
 Developed a general model for communication
systems, and a set of theoretical tools for
analyzing such systems, by measuring
information in terms of probabilities (numbers)

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 Shannon … reducing
uncertainty
 Defined information in terms of probabilities
 developed measure of the information we get from
observing the occurrence of an event, BUT ignored
any particular features of the event
 e.g. flipping a fair coin once will give us events h and t
each with probability 1/2, and thus a single flip of a coin
gives us - log2(1/2) = 1 bit (Binary digit) of information
(whether it comes up h or t)
 Information measured in bits is the reduction in
uncertainty in the mind of the receiver
 information (in bits) is the amount of uncertainty a
measure eliminates
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 Shannon’s impact
 Had great impact in treating of
digital information as signals
 e.g maximizing capacities of
channels; coding
 Had disappointing impact
(despite many tries) where
information is connected with
meaning, context, humans,
values
 the ideal to measure information in
human terms is elusive
 but keep trying …

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 Cognitive – basic idea:
K(S) + ΔI = K(S + ΔS) (Brookes)
 Information when operating on a knowledge
structure produces an effect whereby the
knowledge structure is changed
 “Information is differences that make a
difference” (find who said it!)
 Actually, it only states the problem –
 “unoperational” in information systems
 involves cognitive, mental events only
 constructivists rejected it

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 Information
manifestations (Buckland)
 Information as a process
 what someone knows is changed when informed; “the action of
informing” (similar as Brookes)
 refers to cognitive changes + process of doing it
 Information as knowledge
 knowledge communicated about x
 uncertainty removal a special case
 refers to that which is being communicated - intangible
 Information as a thing
 data, documents with quality of imparting information - tangible
 refers to potential information conveyed from objects
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 Information
in information science
Three senses (from narrowest to broadest)
1. Information in terms of decision involving little or no
cognitive processing - Shannon
 signals, bits, straightforward data - computing, telecommunication, economics,

2. Information involving cognitive processing &

understanding - Brookes
 understanding, matching texts

3. Information also as related to context, situation, problem-

at-hand, process – Buckland to some extend
 users, use, tasks
For information science (including information retrieval):
third, broadest interpretation necessary
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 What is in a book?
(for discussion in class)

Cover
page
of a
book:

What
What
isisin
in
it?
it?

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 A
chapte
r in
that
book

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 Here is
also a
cover
page of
a book:

What
What
is
isin
in
it?
it?

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 A
chapte
r in
that
book

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 Adequacy?
 None of the theories about 1452-1519
information are adequate to
cover fully information as a
phenomenon
 Each covers a bit or simply

describes manifestation
 Shannon’s theory is testable,

but reduces “information” to

signals only
 A scientific theory is one that

can be refuted – tested for

confirmation, rejection (Popper)
- they understood this 1564-1642
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 So we went to study
 Human information behavior
 “how people need, seek, manage, give, and use
information in different contexts” (Pettigrew )
 many models, theories, studies on a variety of aspects
 extends to study of web behavior
 Bibliometrics
 “the study, or measurement, of texts and information”
(Norton)
 many studies and formal statements about structure &
patterns of literatures, citations, authors, journals,
texts …
 Bradford’s law, Lotka’s law
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 to be continued …
 We cover these in other lectures and courses
 and two 2005 books cover very nicely the topics of
theories of human information behavior
and
integration of information seeking and
information retrieval in context
 highly recommended

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 p.s. there is code
in other slides
© Tefko Saracevic 24