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Information: Fundamental positions and their implications for information systems research, education and practice
Abstract
Information is an important concept for the “information age”, the “information society” and the discipline of Information Systems (IS). However, different conceptions of information often make incommensurable assumptions about what information is. This essay introduces a ‘consequential framework’ revealing different assumptions made about the nature of information and the consequences following from these assumptions. According to this consequential framework four stances on the existence of information can be distinguished: (1) A first stance assumes information to exist independently of humans as part of the physical world, for instance, in the structure of the universe or the transmission of signals; (2) a second stance assumes that information exists in signs but in a observer independent way, such as in objective facts about things; (3) a third stance assumes that information exists only in relation to a subject, so that the same document, report or data will convey different information to different individuals; (4) a fourth stance assumes information to exist within a sociocultural setting, as lawyers, doctors or accountants differ in what is information to them. Each of these four stances makes vastly different assumptions about how information can be accessed and used by humans. This has further consequences for how information can be researched and how related concepts, such as data, signs, technology, or social context can be related to the study of information. The consequential framework introduced offers conceptual clarity regarding a central but largely ignored concept for IS and its reference disciplines.
... While essential to many everyday practical business domains, information is also the sine qua non of information systems. Information can be a theoretical glue to help branches of IS relate to each other to form a whole (Boell, 2017). A clear understanding of information benefits both IS research and practice and the wedding of the two (McKinney & Yoos, 2019). ...
... Absent a clear theoretical foundation, information has become an impossibly broad term that covers a multitude of ideas; the term is sloppy, disjointed, and without definition (McKinney & Yoos, 2010) a semantic chameleon ( om, 1975) and taken for granted (Beynon-Davies, 2009). It has various underlying assumptions (Boland, 1987;Checkland & Holwell, 2006) that when made clear are incommensurable (Boell, 2017). While much research over the past 40 years has identified the need for a theory of information home to IS, little research has engaged the topic (Baskerville & Myers, 2002;Boell, 2017;Kohli & Grover, 2008;Lee, 2010). ...
... It has various underlying assumptions (Boland, 1987;Checkland & Holwell, 2006) that when made clear are incommensurable (Boell, 2017). While much research over the past 40 years has identified the need for a theory of information home to IS, little research has engaged the topic (Baskerville & Myers, 2002;Boell, 2017;Kohli & Grover, 2008;Lee, 2010). us, while foundational to future IS research and practice, information is under theorized in IS and has become disjointed with no common theory or definition. ...
This chapter organizes and describes the existing landscape of theories of information. We then suggest what a theory or theories of information could look like to address IS research interest. We do this by looking at concepts frequently related to information. Finally, the chapter identifies possible avenues for future research in IS, in particular by recognizing that information is not a static or singular concept or phenomenon but changing depending on situational, temporal, and cultural contexts, as well as epistemological assumptions and domain of application. As a result, we believe theories of information written by IS scholars will be more generally applicable for use beyond the IS domain and provide analytic distinctions that can make a difference in everyday practice.
... Although "information" is central to IS research, the term is used with various different connotations and authors are often not explicit about their specific understanding of the concept of information and its delineation from other concepts such as " data" and "meaning" (McKinney and Yoos, 2010;Boell, 2017;Mingers and Standing, 2018). Hence, there have repeatedly been calls for and attempts at more thorough engagement with "information" at a conceptual level (Lee, 2004(Lee, , 2010Baskerville, 2010;McKinney and Yoos, 2010;Boell, 2017) and several authors have compared the different conceptualizations of "information" (e.g., Mingers, 1996;Bates, 2006;McKinney and Yoos, 2010;Floridi, 2011), of which the works by Boell and Cecez-Kecmanovic (Boell and Cecez-Kecmanovic, 2015;Boell, 2017) and Mingers and colleagues (Mingers, 2013;Mingers and Willcocks, 2014;Mingers and Standing, 2018) are probably the most recent and comprehensive in the IS field. ...
... Although "information" is central to IS research, the term is used with various different connotations and authors are often not explicit about their specific understanding of the concept of information and its delineation from other concepts such as " data" and "meaning" (McKinney and Yoos, 2010;Boell, 2017;Mingers and Standing, 2018). Hence, there have repeatedly been calls for and attempts at more thorough engagement with "information" at a conceptual level (Lee, 2004(Lee, , 2010Baskerville, 2010;McKinney and Yoos, 2010;Boell, 2017) and several authors have compared the different conceptualizations of "information" (e.g., Mingers, 1996;Bates, 2006;McKinney and Yoos, 2010;Floridi, 2011), of which the works by Boell and Cecez-Kecmanovic (Boell and Cecez-Kecmanovic, 2015;Boell, 2017) and Mingers and colleagues (Mingers, 2013;Mingers and Willcocks, 2014;Mingers and Standing, 2018) are probably the most recent and comprehensive in the IS field. We follow Mingers and Standing in defining information as "the relationship between a token, sign or message and the event(s) that caused it" (Mingers and Standing, 2018, p. 87; emphasis in original). ...
... Although "information" is central to IS research, the term is used with various different connotations and authors are often not explicit about their specific understanding of the concept of information and its delineation from other concepts such as " data" and "meaning" (McKinney and Yoos, 2010;Boell, 2017;Mingers and Standing, 2018). Hence, there have repeatedly been calls for and attempts at more thorough engagement with "information" at a conceptual level (Lee, 2004(Lee, , 2010Baskerville, 2010;McKinney and Yoos, 2010;Boell, 2017) and several authors have compared the different conceptualizations of "information" (e.g., Mingers, 1996;Bates, 2006;McKinney and Yoos, 2010;Floridi, 2011), of which the works by Boell and Cecez-Kecmanovic (Boell and Cecez-Kecmanovic, 2015;Boell, 2017) and Mingers and colleagues (Mingers, 2013;Mingers and Willcocks, 2014;Mingers and Standing, 2018) are probably the most recent and comprehensive in the IS field. We follow Mingers and Standing in defining information as "the relationship between a token, sign or message and the event(s) that caused it" (Mingers and Standing, 2018, p. 87; emphasis in original). ...
Social Information Systems (SocIS) enable many people to interact digitally and collaboratively create and share digital content. Nevertheless, the large and heterogenous SocIS communities make it challenging to ensure information quality (IQ) because members' interpretation and evaluation of content might be very different. As a remedy, many platforms explicitly state normative IQ guidelines. Guidelines can be developed either by the community members themselves or by the platform provider (and imposed on the community). It is unclear, however, which of these two approaches members agree with more strongly and which produces the more satisficatory IQ guidelines. Through an empirical survey study covering 15 different SocIS platforms, we find that members do agree more and are more satisfied when guidelines have been developed by the community. These findings are important for platform providers to improve IQ and retain members, and also inform research on IQ in SocIS.
... But so far, academics have different opinions about DG and IG and disagree on definitions of data and information. For example, information has been defined by some researchers as being both physical, objective, subjective and sociocultural while others define on one hand data being physical and on the other hand information being subjective (Baškarada and Koronios, 2013;Boell, 2017). Likewise, some do not distinguish DG from IG while others do (Khatri and Brown, 2010;Kooper et al., 2011;Olaitan et al., 2016). ...
... But over the years, the DIKW discussions showed many different definitions of data and information. Researchers are still calling for clear definitions of data and information (Aven, 2013;Bawden and Robinson, 2015;Boell, 2017). We conclude from this that researchers heavily disagree on definitions of DG, IG, data and information. ...
... This research is goal oriented, grounded in literature and replicates earlier research. Additionally, LR is suitable for explorative research (Boell, 2017;Paré et al., 2015). The approach is based on several accepted LR methods and only uses literature which meets accepted selection quality criteria. ...
Chaos emerges with the ever growing amounts of data and information within organisations. But it is problematic to manage these valuable assets and also remain accountable and compliant for them because there is no agreement about even their definitions. Our objective is to propose a coherent set of definitions for data governance and information governance within and across organisations in relation with data and information as underlying concepts. As a research method, we explore elements from existing definitions in literature about the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom pyramid and about data governance and information governance. Classification of these elements and coding them in concepts during discussions among peers resulted in a new vocabulary. This forms the basis for formulation and design of an original coherent set of definitions for data, information, meaning, data governance and information governance. This research is grounded, goal oriented and uses multiple accepted literature review methods. But it is limited to the literature found and the IS domain.
... In the next section, we build what we believe to be a more sophisticated and grounded account of how information situations are located within interinstitutional practices evident in domains such as the supply chain. The concept of information is mundane and accepted background to many disciplinary endeavors, but has many different meanings as applied in diverse literature (McKinney & Yoos, 2010;Boell, 2017). To help deconstruct the concept of information we use an ideal-type of information situation to highlight what information sharing is and is not. ...
... One particularly prevalent characterization of information important within recent branches of the physical sciences is to think of information as fundamental "stuff" which helps any physical system maintain organization (Stonier, 1994). This is what Boell (2017) refers to as the physical stance on information. As such, information is faceted as a phenomenon independent of the actor and associated with the state of physical structures (such as S1 and S2) in the environment. ...
... Another important conception of information locates it within the signal which conveys some message. This conception which Boell (2017) refers to as the objective stance on information underlies the information theory of Shannon & Weaver (1949). ...
Information sharing between actors working in different institutions, is proposed by much literature to improve aspects of both intra- and interinstitutional performance. However, it is unclear from the literature what exactly information sharing is and why it is important to institutional performance. This paper seeks to deconstruct the concept of information sharing, particularly within aspects of the supply chain. We shall argue that the central problem with the concept of information sharing is that it relies on a notion of information as stuff that can be manipulated, transmitted, and used in an unproblematic manner between organizations. We wish to question conventional notions of this construct by examining and analyzing a case of information sharing, applicable within an international supply chain, as well as several problems experienced with such sharing. Through deconstructing this case we demonstrate how certain perceived problems in information sharing are better conceptualized as breakdowns in the interinstitutional scaffolding of data structures.
... It also captures the notion of insight, which is often cited as an outcome of BDA implementation (Davenport, 2014). Information has been viewed from different stances in IS research (physical, objective, subject-oriented and sociocultural) (Boell, 2017). Consideration of these different stances with respect to BDA and decisionmaking would offer additional contributions to knowledge about the phenomenon. ...
... Consideration of these different stances with respect to BDA and decisionmaking would offer additional contributions to knowledge about the phenomenon. Hence, one of the objectives of this paper is to develop a BDA artefact which includes the social, technical and information elements (Boell, 2017;Lee et al. 2015;Mingers and Standing, 2018;Chatterjee et al. 2021). ...
To improve organisational performance, much attention has been paid to the value that BDA can produce beyond data-driven decision-making. However, there has been less emphasis on decision value (DV) arising from BDA. To compound this, definitions of DV remain fragmented across different views from social, to technical and economic. We aim to develop an empirically grounded theoretical model characterising how BDA is used in organisations to realize DV and to provide a mechanism-based causal explanation of how DV arises from the interplay between BDA (technical subsystem) and decision-making (social subsystem) using a real-world environment. As a result, we propose using retroductive reasoning through Critical Realism (CR) as the overarching philosophy, and Grounded Theory Methodology (GTM) techniques to collect and analyse data. Potential contributions from this research will include the development of a mechanism-based theory explaining how DV arises from the interplay between BDA and decision-making.
... Information and knowledge are two foundational concepts in Information Systems (IS) research, but their conceptualizations and relationship remain vague and vary significantly across studies (Boell, 2017;Mingers & Standing, 2018). Researchers use them interchangeably, and practitioners notice that the unit of analysis for determining information and knowledge is unclear, as different individuals, functions, and departments in an organization may interpret these concepts differently (Braganza, 2004). ...
... Even with Big Data Analytics and AI, the outcomes often are below expectations (Leaf, 2017;Pauleen & Wang, 2017;Strickland, 2019). 1 The above situations reflect a decades-long puzzle for IS researchers: clarifying the information concept. Despite many efforts to theorize information (Boell, 2017;McKinney & Yoos, 2010;Mingers & Standing, 2018;Ramage, 2011), the concept remains vague and has been used interchangeably with other key concepts such as data and knowledge. Although the traditional Data-information-knowledge (DIK) hierarchy posits information as processed data and the basis of knowledge (Ackoff, 1989;Kebede, 2010), critics have found limitations in the hierarchy and proposed alternative views such as a reversed KID (i.e., knowledge-information-data) hierarchy and an interactive model (Kettinger & Li, 2010;Tuomi, 1999;van der Spek & Spijkervet, 1997). ...
Information and knowledge are two foundational concepts in Information Systems (IS) research, but their relationship remains vague, and researchers continue to use them interchangeably in studies. This limits the ability to clearly specify what information is in the systems and how it is used for operations and decisions. We address the issue in the context of computer-aided decision-making. In contrast to the traditional view that information is the input of knowledge, we argue, from the knowledge-based view of information, that information is produced from knowledge and functions as the basis of decisions. Further, cognitive factors such as one’s general knowledge in the task domain and guidance in decision aids influence knowledge and information for decisions. An information-centric framework is developed and tested based on a popular production-planning decision task. The result supports the direct impact of information on decisions and the indirect impact of knowledge via its influence on information. This study is the first to empirically test the relationship between knowledge and information in IS research. It calls for more attention to the information concept and how it is processed in IS.
... Orlikowski and Iacono (2001) argue that IS researchers should theorize the IT-artifact (which partly led to the identity crisis of the IS discipline), but ten years later, the absence of IT in IS research had increased (Akhlaghpour, Wu, Lapointe, and Pinsonneault, 2013). Similarly, despite repeated calls by IS researchers to engage with information as a concept, the engagement on a theoretical and conceptual level has been limited (Boell, 2017). Petter, Carter, Randolph, and Lee (2018) recommend that IS researchers define information in their research and consider how their definition of information might impact their research in explicit and implicit ways. ...
... Petter, Carter, Randolph, and Lee (2018) recommend that IS researchers define information in their research and consider how their definition of information might impact their research in explicit and implicit ways. Data and information can be the same or different phenomena within IS (McKinney Jr and Yoos, 2010;Boell, 2017;Emamjome, Gable, Bandara, and Gable, 2018). Consequently, IS researchers are studying social units that either develop software or somehow use computers to work with data or information but have a deep-rooted history of IT (computers) as an important innovation. ...
... According to Boell (2017), the prevailing communication model in the IS literature is that of an informant sending a message containing the information to an informee (see Figure 4): ...
... According to Boell (2017) there are four basic positions on information in the IS literature: ...
Biomechanical factors are evolutionary developed, neurobiological predispositions, which enables an individual to act in the world. Macrosocial factors are macrosocially relevant practices in a social setting like a community. Biomechanical and macrosocial factors are seen as dialectically constituted in action. This kind of thinking is outlined in a theoretical perspective I call the Activity Domain Theory. This volume is a collection of papers, which try to positioned the Activity Domain Theory on the boundary between information systems, neurobiology, and Integrationism – a new development in the theory of communication emerging from the work of a group of linguists at Oxford during the 1980s
... As informações são sinais transmitidos entre um remetente e um destinatário "Uma unidade para medir a informação [...] pode ser chamada de dígitos binários, ou bits" (Shannon, 1948, p. 380) A Tabela proposta por Boell (2017), ilustra esta correlação nas reflexões propostas sobre a consideração dos objetos de fronteira na relação entre a CI e a Ciência de Dados, sobretudo no que diz respeito às concepções físicas que consideram a informação como algo que existe independentemente dos seres humanos como parte do mundo físico. ...
... Quando citamos anteriormente o fato de que podemos adicionar inteligência artificial e capacidade cognitiva a essas aplicações, significa que, além de simplesmente reproduzir a execução serializada dessas tarefas, podemos ampliar o seu horizonte de execução, respondendo a situações não previstas com capacidade de decidir qual o melhor caminho para execução.Para isso temos que fazer uso de outras tecnologias, além do RPA e mais ainda envolvendo as pessoas agora em uma ação de curadoria para auxiliar a ferramenta a "aprender" todas as possíveis variações em um processo de trabalho, bem como a tomada de decisão mais adequada.No presente trabalho será abordada, na área da Sociologia, da Linguística e da Ciência da Informação, novas teorias que estão surgindo para lidar com esses "objetos" não humanos em uma abordagem disruptiva, principalmente para as ciências sociais, contrariando sua origem primordialmente antropocêntrica, que tomava como pressuposto uma cisão entre aquilo que é humano ou que não é humano. Como lidar, ou melhor, fazer a curadoria da relação entre esses objetos e o ser humano?No âmbito da Ciência da Informação (CI), será considerado como espectro teórico a proposta deBoell (2017), sobre a posição física da informação que associa a definição das fronteiras desta Ciência com os conceitos de informação como fenômeno, conforme o Quadro 1, a seguir: Quadro 1 -A postura física na informação ...
Objetivo: A tecnologia mediadora envolvida nas comunicações possibilitou um significativo incremento da quantidade de interações entre produtores e consumidores de informação, produtos ou serviços. Neste artigo, será apresentada uma proposta para a organização da informação necessária no desenvolvimento de artefatos utilizados na mediação e conhecidos como assistentes virtuais (Chatbots). Esses canais integradores de comunicação serão conceituados como objetos de fronteira e a sua prototipação como atividade sugerida aos profissionais da Ciência da Informação em busca de uma sinergia cada vez maior com a Ciência de Dados.
Método: O artigo se baseia em uma metodologia de natureza exploratória e aplicada com a utilização de um “Estudo de Caso” orientado por uma profunda revisão bibliográfica da teoria dos objetos de fronteira e do estudo das plataformas de inteligência artificial utilizadas para desenvolvimento de chatbots, investigando as ações, métodos e ferramentas para organização da informação.
Resultados: É apresentada uma proposta de método para a organização da informação baseada em uma taxonomia específica para o domínio das interações estabelecidas entre o poder público e os cidadãos. Nesse contexto é estabelecido um conjunto de intenções, entidades e diálogos informacionais que podem justamente prover a habilidade necessária para prototipação do assistente virtual.
Conclusões: Os objetos de fronteira se constituem como uma alternativa apropriada para mediação das práticas sociais utilizadas por diversos tipos de comunidades que precisem trocar informações de forma estruturada. Por meio de uma base de conhecimento previamente modelada na forma de intenções, entidades e diálogos, as necessidades informacionais de diferentes comunidades passam a ser atendidas com a consequente abertura de um campo excepcional para atuação do profissional da Ciência da Informação.
... It seems that for decades and until today there has been a lack of theories, models and frameworks that are actually describing information thoroughly. Nevertheless, Boell discovered that most information models seem to converge on the Sender-Message-Recipient-Principle (Boell, 2017). Thus, this principle was used as the basic condition for selecting sub-concepts within this subsection. ...
... The steps of the approach (1-5) and the open research points (a-m) are as follows: (1) Information should be theorized: Concepts for information are important but have been missing for almost four decades (Boell, 2017, Hassan et al., 2018, Krcmar, 2015, Mithas et al., 2011, Petter et al., 2018and Völz, 2014. Future research should (a) compare and elaborate the identified concepts (R1C -X) further, which could influence all concepts and theories that are building on information (Petter et al., 2018). ...
Digitalizing logistics will trigger many potentials in internal logistics. Lately authors recommend more differentiation between Digitization, Digitalization and Digital Transformation to avoid further confusion by mixing these terms. However, managers still seem to struggle understanding Digitalization and it's potentials. On top, the Digitalization-differentiation does not provide deeper guidelines yet. Using a Literature Review (LR) this paper creates a new theoretical approach in identifying and evaluating digital capabilities in internal logistics. In addition, this paper reveals existing concepts and outlines further research directions for theorizing information, mapping information flows, digitizing information and explains why to connect these research streams.
... Information is fading from our view of IS phenomena even though, in the era of analytics, algorithmic decision making, and "fake news," information is as appropriate to study as it has ever been or as applicable to any IS topics under investigation. Some researchers are advocating that we explicitly include information in IS research (e.g., Boell, 2017;McKinney & Yoos, 2010;Mingers & Standing, 2018); yet, as a discipline, we are squandering an opportunity to understand and leverage information in our work because we are choosing to ignore it. The lack of relative attention paid to the concept of information is both ironic and disgraceful for a discipline named after itinformation systems. ...
... If information has subjective components, it implies that individuals can and will engage with the same information in different ways. The representation view and adaptation view by McKinney and Yoos (2010) and the subject-centered and socio-cultural stances of information by Boell (2017) suggest that how individuals engage with information varies based on what is most salient to the receiver of the information. Even in Mingers and Standing's (2018) theory of information, information that is objective and veridical at one point in time may be non-veridical and labeled as misinformation at another (e.g., a train schedule is correct until a train is running late; once the train is late, the train schedule is now providing misinformation because the information is not accurate). ...
Throughout its history, the information systems (IS) discipline has studied a wide range of phenomena. Many IS researchers support the notion that our interest in the IT artifact - defined as "bundles of material and cultural properties packaged in some socially recognizable form such as hardware and/or software" (Orlikowski & Iacono, 2001, p. 122) - unites the IS discipline. In "Desperately Seeking the 'IT' in IT Research-A Call to Theorizing the IT Artifact," Orlikowski and Iacono (2001) argued that the IS field is "premised on the centrality of information technology in everyday socio-economic life...[yet] the field has not deeply engaged with its core subject matter-the information technology (IT) artifact" (p. 121). In their review of articles that had been published to date in Information Systems Research, nearly 25 percent did not discuss technology and most had simplistic views of technology: The outcome is that much IS research draws on commonplace and received notions of technology, resulting in conceptualizations of IT artifacts as relatively stable, discrete, independent, and fixed. As a consequence, IT artifacts in IS research tend to be taken for granted or assumed to be unproblematic. (Orlikowski & Iacono, 2001, pp. 121-122) Orlikowski and Iacono's (2001) article drew attention to our need to focus on the core of who we are as a discipline. It also created an important turning point. As an unintended consequence of the article, the IS discipline began abandoning its consideration and discussion of information. As a result, IS researchers focused more heavily on technology and the IT artifact, and information became implicit in our research. In this editorial, we expand upon Orlikowski and Iacono (2001) and draw the IS discipline's attention to its abandonment of that other central component in information systems research - information.
... Third, even though mentioned otherwise (Tushman and Nadler, 1978), information is often treated as indistinguishable from data. In other words, these studies adopt a "token view" of information (Boell, 2017), where information is an "undifferentiated commodity of data bits that are processed" (McKinney and Yoos, 2010, p. 331). ...
... Dabei helfen die innovativen Lösungen, zum Beispiel durch die Entwicklung nachhaltiger Geschäftsmodelle [19], die Findung der eigenen Position und Rolle in digitalen Ökosystemen [20] und die Analyse der inhaltlichen Überschneidungen zwischen Digital-und Nachhaltigkeitsmodellen [21,22]. Integrative Arbeiten, die sich der Schnittstelle grü-gen, kann anhand der unterschiedlichen Informationsbegriffe der Wirtschaftsinformatik dargestellt werden [15]. Die gestaltungsorientierte Informatik zielt auf die Entdeckung und Entwicklung von Prinzipien und Artefakten, wie z. ...
Viele Technologie-Unternehmen wollen von der Digitalisierung profitieren, da diese relevante ökonomische, ökologische und auch soziale Potenziale verspricht. Dabei rücken zunehmend die Synergie-Effekte zwischen Digitalisierung und Umweltschutz in den Vordergrund. Dieser Beitrag erläutert, warum es erfolgreicher Innovationen auf jeder Ebene der digitalen Produkt-Architektur bedarf, um eine umfassende grüne digitale Transformation voranzutreiben und warum dabei sowohl direkte als auch indirekte Umweltauswirkungen berücksichtigt werden müssen.
... For example, a car can maintain stable spatial relations between seat and steering wheel, a robot can keep its arm in a fixed position, and an elevator system can keep a car at a fixed position at a chosen story. Alternatively, stability can be provided through symbols and information systems (Boell, 2017;Checkland & Holwell, 1998;Mingers, 1995). Information systems can be characterized as a combination of explicit symbols that represent implicit meaning. ...
Traditionally, the relationship between engineering, social sciences, and the humanities (SSH) has often been, to varying degrees, fraught, imbalanced and/or non-existent. Engineering has oftentimes been guilty of envisaging SSH as either providing a ‘soft’ window dressing or counterbalance to ‘hard’ projects representing ‘real’ progress, or to be used to more effectively ‘communicate’, for example in overcoming public reticence around such projects. The stories, histories, (her)stories, myths, language, text, images, art, provocations and critical insights which emanate from and characterize SSH are in this (dulled and marginalized) context more likely to be conceived as mere frivolous pursuits to help fill and support leisure time or promote cultural pursuits. This, we argue, not just feeds into the disconnect between respective disciplinary approaches, but seriously and dangerously miscomprehends the value (and values) that SSH can and indeed must bring to the table, in particular when facing emerging and emergent contemporary interconnected challenges around (un)sustainability. SSH can also benefit from such authentic and pragmatic engagement with engineering and science, while highlighting the necessary and invaluable contribution it can make to society, and across our universities, in particular in facing contemporary meta-challenges. This chapter draws upon academics and practitioners from both sides of the house in an Irish university context, who have journeyed together upon such pathways. The terrain and nature of some of these journeys are described, including some of the inherent difficulties and challenges. We highlight the need for journeying together with ‘disciplinary humility’, as equal partners, if we hope to make authentic progress. Finally, some historic and contemporary examples of potential points of convergence are proposed.KeywordsTransdisciplinarityEngineering educationSocial sciencesSociologySustainability
... For example, a car can maintain stable spatial relations between seat and steering wheel, a robot can keep its arm in a fixed position, and an elevator system can keep a car at a fixed position at a chosen story. Alternatively, stability can be provided through symbols and information systems (Boell, 2017;Checkland & Holwell, 1998;Mingers, 1995). Information systems can be characterized as a combination of explicit symbols that represent implicit meaning. ...
This chapter presents a multi-contextual framework for engineering knowledge that serves to highlight how engineering knowledge is configured in diverse contexts. We argue that the insights from the sociology of knowledge research and design science research can help us understand the complexity of engineering knowledge production and the diversity of the makers and takers of engineering knowledge. We aim at looking beyond popular notions of evidence-based practice and knowledge transfer, which privilege academia as the main setting for knowledge production. This will, we argue, facilitate a more nuanced understanding of how engineering knowledge is formed and transformed as it is transferred between different contexts. We describe this as configuration and reconfiguration of engineering knowledge in particular contexts.KeywordsEngineering knowledgeEpistemic practicesKnowledge transferTransformationArtifactContextConfigurationReconfiguration
... Boell [54] discusses the Four Stances on Information which encompass the physical, objective, subject-centred and sociocultural perspectives of information depiction. Each stance is underpinned by assumptions regarding information existence in the world, the condition for that existence, data (definition), knowledge (definition), signs, human beings (as creators, interpreters, and appropriators), social context, technology use and relevance to IS research. ...
Social media communication is integral to framing an effective crisis response but is generally impacted by high volumes and an overload of information and misinformation, i.e., infodemic conditions. The social media connection content (i.e., information) and connection type (i.e., communications strategies) that are shared between actors (e.g., emergency response organisations and the public) underpins the development of trusted shared situational awareness for effective crisis management. This study investigates how local public health organisations use Facebook to mitigate COVID-19 misinformation and create effective trusted shared situational awareness. We show how the nature of the event and social media temporal characteristics can create information objective-subjective tensions and create misinformation on public health social media channels. This undermines an agreed and accurate representation of reality that is expected of trusted, shared situational awareness. We conclude that developing communications strategies to manage information objective-subjective tensions becomes especially important during an evolving crisis scenario where situational awareness and knowledge are developed over time and information and advice may change in response to a changing crisis conditions.
... 355). Boell [74] has made an extensive compilation of extant conceptualizations of information in the IS literature, and found four different views: ...
The purpose of this paper is to renew the sociotechnical perspective as an "axis of cohesion" for the IS field. The renewal departs from the first principle "the individual is the social being", which means that the individual is seen as a constituent in sociotechnical theorizing; alongside with the social and technical. This principle provides a basis for rethinking these elements as dialectically related and mutually constituting each other. The individual element is conceptualized in terms of neurobiological predispositions for action grounded in Kant's notion of a-priori categories. The social element is seen as activity systems grounded in Marx's notion of Praxis. The technical element is theorized as materiality apperceived by individuals as relevant in the activity system. Its philosophical grounding is Ilyenkov's notion of the Ideal, which concerns the problem of the allegedly non-material in the natural world. When such a rethinking is applied to the IS field, a foremost finding is that the IS comes forth as a social phenomenon in the minds of individuals as they struggle to make the IT artifact relevant in the activity system. Consequently, the defining question of the IS discipline may be reformulated as "researching how IT artifacts are efficiently metamorphosed into information systems in IT-reliant activity systems". How these findings may turn out in practice is illustrated by the development of a node in the 3 rd generation of mobile systems in the telecom industry. In conclusion, the renewed sociotechnical perspective provides a fresh view of extant IS phenomena, thus advancing the IS field both theoretically and practically.
... Claude Shannontól (Shannon-Weaver, 1986) kezdve Peter J. Denningen (2011) át az információ filozófiáját bevezető Luciano Floridiig (2009) sokan hangoztatják, hogy nincs egységes meghatározás az információra, igen nehéz lenne ilyenhez jutni. A fogalmi gazdagságot tükrözik az olyan áttekintő dolgozatok, mint José María Díaz-Nafría (2010), Sebastian K. Boell (2017), Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic -Wolfgang Hofkirchner (2011), Joseph E. Brenner (2014). Az információhoz kapcsolódó fogalmakról a BITrum gondoz glosszáriumot (URL1). ...
... Conceptualizations of information are often divergent from 'incommensurable assumptions' about the nature and existence of information (Boell, 2017;Greyson & Johnson, 2016;Thellefsen et al., 2018). This makes it difficult to establish a productive discourse around the concept of information as definitions of information in information studies are either absent, taken for granted or disjointed due to irreconcilable differences. ...
We present a model of information that integrates the two competing perspectives of information by emulating the Chinese philosophy of Yin-yang. The model embraces the two key dimensions of information that exist harmoniously: information as 1) objective and veridical representations in the world (information as object), and 2) socially constructed interpretations that are a result of contextual influences (information as subject). We argue that these two facets of information complement one another through two processes, which we denote as forming and informing. While the information literature has historically treated these objective and subjective identities of information as incompatible, we argue that they are mutually relevant and that our understanding of one actually enhances our understanding of the other.
... For example, Wageman (1995) argued that tasks can be accomplished at different levels of autonomy and interdependence, which is mostly associated with their workmate's knowledge and information. As expressed by Chung (1977), both interdependence and autonomy require work planning and working speed, expertise, and knowledge of other colleagues which is only convincible with individual IT competency (Boell, 2017;Wang Yen & Huang, 2011). Specifically, in a higher amount of interdependence, an individual needs to build a close relationship with colleagues to accomplish the task successfully (Wageman & Baker, 1997). ...
This study investigated how employees’ information technology (IT) competency is associated with employee agility via perceived task structure. Most scholar’s emphasis is on the impact of IT competency on individual work performance; however, it seems as if no attention has been given to explore the relationship between IT competency on employee’s agility through perceived task structure. This research offers and tests a new comprehensive model that links the individual’s IT competency with perceived task structure and employee agility. Data was gathered from 167 representatives who used various IT applications for daily work routines in the organization. Findings showed that IT competency is positively related to task interdependence and autonomy. Task autonomy also has significant effect on employee agility, however task interdependence has shown insignificant effect on employee agility. Further, work expertise positively moderate the relationship between IT competency and perceived task structure. Theoretical and managerial implications of study are also discussed in the last section.
... (p. 9) Only recently has the IS field seriously engaged in what 'information' means (Boell, 2017;McKinney and Yoos, 2010;Mingers, 1995Mingers, , 1996 and what 'systems' entail when they are coupled with information (Lee, 2010;Lee et al., 2015). The theorization of these terms should result in concepts and claims that belong to the IS field (Markus and Saunders, 2007) because it is through such meaningful and precise terms that the IS field declares its subject matter to others (Kaplan, 1964). ...
Although there has been a growing understanding of theory in the Information Systems (IS) field in recent years, the process of theorizing is rarely addressed with contributions originating from other disciplines and little effort to coherently synthesize them. Moreover, the field’s view of theorizing has traditionally focused on the context of justification with an emphasis on collection and analysis of data in response to a research question with theory often added as an afterthought. To fill this void, we foreground the context of discovery that emphasizes the creative and often serendipitous articulation of theory by emphasizing this important stage of theorizing as a reflective and highly iterative practice. Specifically, we suggest that IS researchers engage in foundational theorizing practices to form the discourse, problematize the phenomenon of interest and leverage paradigms, and deploy generative theorizing practices through analogies, metaphors, myths, and models to develop the IS discourse. To illustrate the detailed workings of these discursive practices, we draw on key examples from IS theorizing.
... This effort to find a contemporary central artifact for IS assumes greater salience given that the notion of "information"−occurring in the very definition of IS−has either been neglected or inconsistently understood in prior IS research (McKinney Jr & Yoos, 2010;Boell, 2017;Mingers & Standing, 2018;Hassan, 2011). This problem remains despite the assertion of many scholars that information represents the core of the IS field (Nunamaker et al., 2015;Lee et al., 2015;Petter et al., 2018), and that "technologies come and go, but the need for information is persistent and ever increasing" (Nunamaker & Briggs, 2011, p. 2)[emphasis added in bold]. ...
This opinion paper addresses and contributes to the discourse on whether there is a central artifact that captures the essence of the information systems (IS) discipline. It argues that the IS discipline can, and should be, faithfully captured by an IS artifact. We offer a theoretical conception of the IS artifact by drawing upon General Systems Theory (GST). Key concepts of GST are distilled as meta-principles which inform our formulation of the IS artifact. We use the meta-principles of the IS artifact to develop salient assertions that theorize what an "IS" is. To demonstrate the appropriateness of our conception, we illustrate how the assertions we developed are consistent with patterns related to emerging topics in IS research, notably, healthcare and IT, and Fintech. We formulate a research agenda on these emerging topics-based upon the conceptions developed in the paper-to guide future research. We conclude with the contributions and implications of our study, including the relevance for IT-enabled work in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic.
... II is the result of different media devices, organisational negotiations, and norms associated with past media use. II as a medium enables certain perceptions of the world, while excluding others by determining which phenomena are defined as relevant and thus constituting information for the organisation (Boell 2017). Accounting for items at the University of Sydney's Fisher Library ...
The last few decades have seen extensive changes in how organisations rely on Information Technology (IT) to account for key aspects of their operations. Understanding accounting as a process through which organisational reality is shaped, Information infrastructures (II) offers a means for analysing the role of IT in organisational change and how IT over time shapes how organisations account for what they are doing. We investigate changes to organisational II at the University of Sydney's Fisher Library from 1963 to 1975, following the introduction of manual automation systems, the use of mainframe computers, and the introduction of minicomputers into the fabric of the organisation. At Fisher Library, II changed two key functions for which the library is accountable for providing information: (1) what items does the library hold? and (2) where is a specific item when it is not on the shelf? We demonstrate that II becomes visible as a thing when it is of interest to organisational change, whereas over time, II sinks into the organisation, becoming a transparent medium that is nonetheless shaping organisational reality. This study uses Fritz Heider's theory of thing and medium to describe how over time IT changes an organisation's account for key aspects of its operation.
... In effect, they are information to the DSs. In an increasingly automated world, it is increasingly less useful to conflate information with interpretation by people (see views of information in [22,23]). ...
This paper explores the extent to which typical service concepts apply to digital service (DS) and service digitalization. It defines service, service systems, digital, digitalization, digital objects, digital agents, digital service, and service digitalization. Application of those definitions to four real world cases explores how well concepts from the service literature describe DS and service digitalization.
... (p. 9) Only recently has the IS field seriously engaged in what "information" means (Boell, 2017;McKinney and Yoos, 2010;Mingers, 1995; and what "systems" entail when they are coupled with information (Lee, 2010;Lee et al., 2015). The theorization of these terms should result in concepts and claims that belong to the IS field (Markus and Saunders, 2007) because it is through such meaningful and precise terms that the IS field declares its subject matter to others (Kaplan, 1964). ...
Although there has been a growing understanding of theory in the information systems field in recent years, the process of theorizing is rarely addressed with contributions originating from other disciplines and little effort to coherently synthesize them. Moreover, the field’s view of theorizing has traditionally focused on the context of justification with an emphasis on collection and analysis of data in response to a research question with theory often added as an afterthought. To fill this void, we foreground the context of discovery that emphasizes the creative and often serendipitous articulation of theory by emphasizing this important stage of theorizing as a reflective and highly iterative practice. Specifically, we suggest that information systems researchers engage in foundational theorizing practices to form the discourse, problematize the phenomenon of interest and leverage paradigms and deploy generative theorizing practices through analogies, metaphors, myths and models to develop the information systems discourse. To illustrate the detailed workings of these discursive practices, we draw on key examples from information systems theorizing.
... (p. 9) Only recently has the IS field seriously engaged in what 'information' means (Boell, 2017;McKinney and Yoos, 2010;Mingers, 1995Mingers, , 1996 and what 'systems' entail when they are coupled with information (Lee, 2010;Lee et al., 2015). The theorization of these terms should result in concepts and claims that belong to the IS field (Markus and Saunders, 2007) because it is through such meaningful and precise terms that the IS field declares its subject matter to others (Kaplan, 1964). ...
... Information, at least from an IS perspective, always arises at the confluence of the social and the technical (Ess 2009) and imparts dialog, meaning, and utility to sociotechnical interactions (Seddon and Srinivasan 2014). As a flexible concept, information has been understood in many different ways (Boell 2017). For instance, information can be conceptualized as a medium through which the social and the technical interact, as the outcome of the interaction that leads to instrumental and/or humanistic outcomes, as the mediator between the social and technical components, and the outcome, or sometimes even as the agent shaping the social and the technical (Henfridsson and Bygstad 2013). ...
The sociotechnical perspective is often seen as one of the foundational viewpoints-or an "axis of cohesion"-for the Information Systems (IS) discipline, contributing to both its distinctiveness and its ability to coherently expand its boundaries. However, our review of papers in the two leading IS journals from 2000-2016 suggests that IS research has lost sight of the discipline's sociotechnical character that was widely acknowledged at the discipline's inception. This is a problem because an axis of cohesion can be fundamental to a discipline's long-term vitality. In order to address this issue, we offer ways to renew the sociotechnical perspective so that it can continue to serve as a distinctive and coherent foundation for the discipline. Our hope is that the renewed sociotechnical frame for the discipline discussed in the paper holds potential to contribute to the enduring strength of our diverse, distinctive, and yet unified discipline. It also prompts members of the discipline to think more deeply about what it means to be an IS scholar.
... (p. 9) Only recently has the IS field seriously engaged in what "information" means (Boell, 2017;McKinney and Yoos, 2010;Mingers, 1995; and what "systems" entail when they are coupled with information (Lee, 2010;Lee et al., 2015). The theorization of these terms should result in concepts and claims that belong to the IS field (Markus and Saunders, 2007) because it is through such meaningful and precise terms that the IS field declares its subject matter to others (Kaplan, 1964). ...
Although there has been a growing understanding of theory in the Information Systems (IS) field in recent years, the process of theorizing is rarely addressed with contributions originating from other disciplines and little effort to coherently synthesize them. Moreover, the field's view of theorizing has traditionally focused on the context of justification with an emphasis on collection and analysis of data in response to a research question with theory often added as an afterthought. To fill this void, we foreground the context of discovery that emphasizes the creative and often serendipitous articulation of theory by emphasizing this important stage of theorizing as a reflective and highly iterative practice. Specifically, we suggest that IS researchers engage in foundational theorizing practices to form the discourse, problematize the phenomenon of interest and leverage paradigms, and deploy generative theorizing practices through analogies, metaphors, myths, and models to develop the IS discourse. To illustrate the detailed workings of these discursive practices, we draw on key examples from IS theorizing.
... A abordagem sociocultural enfatiza a sociedade e a cultura como requisitas para a informação se tornar significativa e relevante, justificando sua própria existência (BOELL, 2017). ...
Descreve o contexto, criação e a trajetória dos cursos de pós-graduação da atual Faculdade de Ciência da Informação da Universidade de Brasília. Na gênese e histórico da criação de seu Mestrado em Biblioteconomia e Documentação, detém-se nas principais linhas de pesquisa que orientaram o desenvolvimento de suas dissertações, com destaque para alguns trabalhos. Em sua evolução, descreve a criação do Doutorado e a integração das várias áreas que tem como objeto de estudo a informação, como a Biblioteconomia, Arquivologia e Museologia, colocadas sob um mesmo guarda-chuva de pós-graduação em Ciência da Informação. Analisa quantitativamente o período de 2006 a 2018, com visualizações sobre temáticas de pesquisa e defesas realizadas em seu mestrado e doutorado. Conclui pela necessidade de se integrar e antecipar de forma contínua e adequada às novas necessidades informacionais de usuários e organizações, face às mudanças tecnológicas e culturais da sociedade.
... In this regard, the interdisciplinary area of Information Systems (IS) [11] appears to be a promising domain to a supportive socio-technical framework for integrating "hardware, software, data, people, and procedures" [12]. IS cuts across almost all sectors including tourism [13], economics, natural sciences, computer science, communications [14] and complex systems such as climate change [15]. Its core describes the exchange of information and availability of service/s based on user requirement/s. ...
Community-based Adaptation Programs (CAPs) that involve the participation of communities are being actively promoted in mountainous areas. These areas are climate sensitive and are often heavily influenced by landslides, floods, and drought. This research indicates that designers of adaptation programs seek to develop and implement CAPs based on international viewpoint and their obligations, but not community requirements. Such CAPs create uneven access to information resources for communities and do not implicitly reduce community vulnerability. In response, the research proposes the establishment of an Information System (IS) to support delivery of reliable climate adaptation services to mountain communities. This research uses Nepal as a case study that experiences a lack of effective adaptation programs due to its varied topography, prevalent climate-related disasters, and barriers in capacity building and institutional development. The results of the analyses indicate that the national level focuses on preparing adaptation action plans, whilst district levels and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) focus on facilitating adaptation implementation for community and individuals. Additionally, the results reveal that an IS can enhance the design and implementation of CAP. Finally, the results are used to articulate prioritized services for an IS to assist communities who are in the greatest need of climate service delivery.
... What is technology? As a field, we are still working on the answers to these questions (Boell, 2017;Lee, 2010;McKinney & Yoos, 2010;Mingers, 1995;Mingers & Standing, 2017). Answers to these questions on the philosophy of information (Floridi, 2002(Floridi, , 2011 and technology (Feenberg, 1991(Feenberg, , 2010bIhde, 1990Ihde, , 1993 are being provided by scholars outside of IS. ...
... Information system was the third major academic discipline (after natural sciences and communication science) that chose information theory as a general model of information exchange [4] and applied it to research topics such as database and business analytics, etc. ...
... There are many conceptions of information (e.g., Stamper 1973;Weber 1997;McKinney and Yoos 2010;Boell 2017). RT makes four assumptions related to conveying information that all relate to the notion of 'meaning.' ...
Representation theory (RT) is one of few long-standing, native theories in the Information Systems discipline. Over the past 30 years, RT has spawned a wide program of research, primarily on modeling of information systems but also on other phenomena such as data quality, system alignment, security, and effective system use. Nonetheless, descriptions of RT are splintered across many papers over many years. RT has also attracted repeated criticisms about assumptions, tests, and results. As a result, the nature of RT, its merits (or lack thereof), and how best to progress it, are unclear. Motivated by these issues, this paper provides a muchneeded overview of RT. It further offers an evaluation of RT and explains how research on RT can improve, using a novel framework for evaluating theoretical programs. Our analysis shows that RT's merits (or lack thereof) remain inconclusive because prior research has not proceeded systematically enough. In this light, we explain and illustrate how research can proceed more systematically.
Encounters with welfare state bureaucracy are often burdensome and might even result in administrative exclusion and non‐take up. With the growing scholarly interest in administrative burden experiences, a particular focus has been on learning costs, with evidence suggesting that difficulty obtaining reliable and useful information is one of their most fundamental aspects. We still lack a systematic conceptualization of bureaucratic information and its various dimensions. In this non‐representative exploratory study, we draw on interviews with 15 Israeli social benefit claimants to delve deeper into the nature of the information required in encounters with welfare state bureaucracy. Using thematic analysis, we identify five dimensions of such information: primary information on the existence of the benefit, as opposed to secondary procedural information on the claiming process; universal, wide‐ranging available information, in contrast to personalized information; one‐ versus two‐directional information transfer; covert, informal and dynamic, as opposed to overt, publicly available information; and finally, online versus offline information. We suggest that this exploratory conceptual framework can serve as a starting point for future studies to develop deeper understanding of the information citizens need in their encounters with welfare state bureaucracy.
The adoption and implementation of Conversational AI applications such as AI chatbots in the workplace is rapidly growing. The success of integrating AI chatbots into organisations critically depends on employees’ use since AI technology evolves through machine learning and analysis of use data. Since trust is a key aspect that determines technology continuous use, this research questions: How employees experience trust in Conversational AI and how it impacts its continuous use? To answer the research question, we conducted qualitative inductive research using rich empirical data from a large international organisation. The findings highlight that employees developed three forms of trust, namely, emotional, cognitive and organisational trust. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.
Purpose
This article introduces a model of knowledge creation in consciousness, the creation of explicit knowledge in six forms and its register and organisation in documents.
Design/methodology/approach
Assuming the premise of three realms of reference to knowledge and two forms of reference to entities, this article, through a phenomenological perspective, deduces a model of the creation of knowledge in consciousness and the creation of explicit knowledge in six forms and its register in documents.
Findings
Two basic types of knowledge are introduced: situated knowledge and theoretical/normative knowledge. Considering three realms of reference of knowledge – the space–time realm, subjectivity realm and linguistic realm – six general types of knowledge are deduced. Finally, three layers of knowledge organisation are presented: classification and mapping documents, theoretical/normative documents and documents of situations.
Practical implications
This article can contribute to the development of more efficient forms of creation of explicit knowledge, its register in documents and the development of more efficient knowledge organisation and management systems.
Originality/value
Relying on established perspectives of the realms where subjectivity is immersed, this article discusses how knowledge is created in consciousness and registered in documents. It also presents a novel perspective of types of knowledge through the combination of dimensions, realms of reference and forms of reference to entities.
Public concern about ‘fake news’ skyrocketed following the 2016 US presidential election and the Brexit referendum, and has only intensified since then. A burgeoning body of research on the topic is emerging, and conceptual clarity is vital for this research to converge into a cumulative body of knowledge; the purpose of this article is to underline and address some of the conceptual clutter and ambiguities around the concept of fake news and situate it within its social context. To do so, we first discuss the problems with current terminology and conceptualisation, and then draw on recent developments on the ontology of digital objects and their attributes to shift the focus from fake news to false messages, a type of syntactic digital objects comprised of content and structure and characterised by attributes of editability, openness, interactivity, and distributedness. Then we expand this concept further by placing it within a network of actors and digital objects. Our analysis uncovers several areas of research that have been overlooked in the study of fake news.
Purpose. The research is devoted to the analysis of the urgent problem of the information society: the overload of a person with information and, as a result, the impossibility of adequate formation and development of the personality; as well as the problem of "digitization" of human existence and the formation of a new reality of dataism. Theoretical basis. A lot of modern scientific works are devoted to the analysis of the information society, its problems and features. The information society is a logical continuation of the scientific and technological revolution, which led to the rapid growth of scientific knowledge and the technology development. In the 20th century, technologies have touched the sphere of knowledge and information, as a result of which the formation and development of the information society, or "knowledge society", takes place. Information becomes the main resource in it, and, one way or another, a person’s life is inextricably connected with the information space. With the information society formation, the problem of information search and processing becomes one of the most urgent. It turns out that despite the abundance and availability of information, it is very difficult to determine its relevance. A lot of effort is spent on developing information retrieval algorithms. Another problem is related to the person’s inability to process large amounts of data. This situation begins to influence not only the education process and professional activity, but also the formation of a person’s personality. A person is "lost" in the information space and gradually loses his/her "I". Algorithms for data analysis come to the rescue, but gradually, instead of giving a person material for thought, they begin to make decisions on their own, and therefore, live life instead of a person. With the advent of Big Data processing algorithms, a new ideological paradigm appears – dataism, which predicts the merger of a person with the general data flow. Originality. The authors make assumptions that the dataistic future is "natural". A lot of works, including in the framework of philosophy, are focused on the problem of "dissolving" a person in the information space and finding ways to overcome it. But, in our opinion, this process is a completely logical continuation of human evolution. Conclusions. Existence of a person as a data flow is not a problem and a threat, but a new dimension of his/her being, and, therefore, requires a careful study and formulation of the main principles of this form of existence.
The purpose of this chapter is to explore the IS field from a position where the individual is considered on par with the social and material in IS theorizing. The exploration is based on the foundational assumption that the individual and the social mutually constitute each other. The social realm is seen as a communal infrastructure, comprised of individual, neurobiological factors and communal, institutionalized factors. These factors enable and constrain individual actions, which in turn modify these factors; a process we refer to as communalization. In such a perspective, information is seen as constituted by the individual from integrating previous experiences and sensations emanating from the environment into an actionable percept. Communalization renders the IT artifact into a community-relevant Information System, comprised of individual factors and the artifact. Consequently, information, the IT artifact, and ISs are seen as dialectically related phenomena—one cannot be understood without the others. The practical relevance of the approach is demonstrated by the communalization of an IT artifact in the telecom industry. We discuss how mainstream IS research areas such as communication, sociomateriality, digitalization, and the essence of the IS discipline, can be advanced towards the dialectical position. In conclusion, we claim that a dialectical perspective opens up new avenues for advancing IS theorizing.
We propose a difference theory of information that extends Gregory Bateson’s definition that information is any difference that makes a difference. Information arises from conception of difference, criteria, and meta criteria. Individuals perceive differences and conceive information from those differences. A first difference is a perceived difference that leads to a second difference – a changing mind. The difference theory provides a theoretical foundation for distinguishing the terms data and information. Additionally, it describes how individuals inform in uncertainty by applying and sometimes recursively applying criteria levels. We apply the difference theory to IS practice and research contexts.
This paper focuses on a possible fundamental nature and character of
information. It develops arguments on the primacy of information in the context
of its relationship with space, time and energy, self, memes and genes. For
investigating these relationships seven tentative postulates have been made which
merit further deliberation. Information-split phenomenon may be the connection
between science confined to locality and science of nonlocal domain.
The article deals first with the problems of defining information. It is concluded that it is a misunderstanding to take a term and then to look for a definition. Rather a different way ought to be taken: to find the phenomenon first and then assign a name to it. The view that information is the same thing as a structure is considered. Then the processes by which information is created are analyzed. The definition that information is detected difference is closely scrutinized and it is found that information can also be detected sameness. It is argued that information is relative to the observer and for the very reason of the way it is created it is subjective. That extends only to information acquired. The existence of subjective information, however, does not prove information cannot exist objectively.
Critical information theory is an endeavour that focuses ontologically on the analysis of information in the context of domination, asymmetrical power relations, exploitation, oppression, and control by employing epistemologically all theoretical and/or empirical means necessary for doing so in order to contribute at the praxeological level to the establishment of a participatory, co-operative society. Three foundational aspects of a critical theory of information are discussed in this paper: the relation of immanence and transcendence, the relation of base and superstructure, and ideology critique.
The logical figure of immanent transcendence is based on the dialectic of essence and existence and poses a viable counterpart to positivistic and postmodern definitions of critique. As an example for the logic of immanent transcendence to critical information theory, a contradiction of the Internet economy is discussed.
The debate on redistribution and recognition between critical theorists Nancy Fraser and Axel Honneth gives the opportunity to renew the discussion of the relationship of base and superstructure in critical social theory. Critical information theory needs to be aware of economic, political, and cultural demands that it needs to make in struggles for ending domination and oppression, and of the unifying role that the economy and class play in these demands and struggles. Objective and subjective information concepts are based on the underlying worldview of reification. Reification endangers human existence. Information as process and relation enables political and ethical alternatives that have radical implications for society.
The Special Issue of Sociomaterialty of IS & Organizing presents articles on sociomateriality and question the extent to which they reflect the distinct nature of sociomaterial entanglements. Melissa Mazmanian, Marisa Cohn, and Paul Dourish provide a new perspective, which they call dynamic reconfiguration, for studying sociomateriality in information systems and organizing. This perspective offers a language with which to appreciate the dynamic nature by which technologies and social structures reconfigure each other. The second article, by James Gaskin, Nicholas Berente, Kalle Lyytinen, and Youngjin Yoo, invites us to consider raising our sights away from a focus on the idiosyncrasies of local practices to the kind of general theorizing that is advocated by Giddens. Scott and Orlikowski explore the notion of entanglement of meaning and materiality in the practices of evaluation and ranking in the hospitality industry. Based on a two-year field study, they conduct an in-depth examination of anonymity as performed by mystery guests in the UK-based AA evaluation system, and online by actual guests on the TripAdvisor website.
The quality and success of scholarly work depends in large measure on the quality of the literature review process. This paper advances conceptual understanding of the literature review process and extends earlier guidelines on literature reviews. It proposes a hermeneutic framework that integrates the analysis and interpretation of literature and the search for literature. This hermeneutic framework describes the literature review process as fundamentally a process of developing understanding that is iterative in nature. Using the hermeneutic circle it describes the literature review process as being constituted by literature searching, classifying and mapping, critical assessment, and argument development. The hermeneutic approach emphasizes continuous engagement with and gradual development of a body of literature during which increased understanding and insights are developed. The paper contributes to better understanding of the literature review process and provides guidelines to assist researchers in conducting high quality reviews. Approaches for efficient searching are included in an Appendix.
Design science research (DSR) has staked its rightful ground as an important and legitimate Information Systems (IS) research paradigm. We contend that DSR has yet to attain its full potential impact on the development and use of information systems due to gaps in the understanding and application of DSR concepts and methods. This essay aims to help researchers (1) appreciate the levels of artifact abstractions that may be DSR contributions, (2) identify appropriate ways of consuming and producing knowledge when they are preparing journal articles or other scholarly works, (3) understand and position the knowledge contributions of their research projects, and (4) structure a DSR article so that it emphasizes significant contributions to the knowledge base. Our focal contribution is the DSR knowledge contribution framework with two dimensions based on the existing state of knowledge in both the problem and solution domains for the research opportunity under study. In addition, we propose a DSR communication schema with similarities to more conventional publication patterns, but which substitutes the description of the DSR artifact in place of a traditional results section. We evaluate the DSR contribution framework and the DSR communication schema via examinations of DSR exemplar publications.
The phrase 'social theory and philosophy for information systems' invites an examination of following terms: social, theory, philos- ophy, information, systems, information systems, philosophy for information systems, and social theory for information systems. I shall refrain (no doubt to the relief of the reader) from providing the definition and scholarly treatment that each and every one of these terms deserves. Instead, I will pursue just a few issues where my intention is to suggest an imagination that is helpful to thinking about philosophy, social theory and information systems. Much as C. Wright Mills (1959) sought to instill in his readers a sense of what he called 'the sociological imagination', I will attempt to suggest to the reader a means of thinking about phi- losophy, social theory and information systems that, in a way, is more important than whatever the content of such thinking might be. The content of such thinking can and should change from philosophy to philosophy, from social theory to social theory and from information system to information system. However, once a person captures a particular imagination for raising and address- ing questions about philosophy, social theory and information systems, the content of such thinking becomes nothing more than an ephemeral instantiation of a longer-lasting and more significant form of knowledge. It is this form of knowledge that motivates this chapter. I will draw on my own experiences in becoming a scholar to help evoke such an imagination and also to help explain what the terms 'philosophy', 'social theory' and 'information systems'
The author points out the inadequacy of the fashionable view of information in the EDP community which regards it as a kind of mystical fluid. He introduces the idea of a sign as a suitable primitive on which to base a science of information and shows how signs can be classified and their properties can be studied. He indicates that 'information' has many different meanings, each one being a precisely defined property of signs. He claims that semiotics stands to the social sciences as physics now stands to the natural sciences. Finally, the author indicates valuable sources of ideas and the problems of exploiting them.
The term informatics is used as an umbrella term to stand for the overlapping disciplinary areas of information systems, information management and information technology. The current paper is part of a series which documents an overarching attempt to develop a clearer and more sophisticated systematics for the area. It examines one of the foundation concepts of informatics – that of information – and aims to provide a definition for this concept based upon ideas from semiotics and communication theory. For this purpose we introduce the concept of a sign-system and consider the role such a system plays in human communication. We also highlight the fundamental difference between a communication system and an information system. To help ground our discussion and provide a necessary distance from the present-day concern with digital computing and communication networks we engage with the historiography of information. We consider the use of information in Neolithic times and describe the case of clay tokens in Ancient Sumeria as one of the earliest examples of information representation and manipulation. Examination of this case allows us to propose a number of universal features of information and ‘information technology’.
This text provides an overview of the complex history of the concept of information in the Greek-Latin as well as in the Medieval and Modern traditions. It connects the Latin etymology of the term informatio with the Greek concepts of eidos/idea and morphé and shows how the objective meaning of information ("giving form to something") becomes obsolete in modernity where only the communicational meaning ("telling something (new) to someone") remains. Information theories in the 20th Century are related to the development of technical systems of message transmission. They give rise to a renaissance of the objective notion of information but under a different framework as the one of the classic pre-modern philosophy. Establishing a connection between the concepts of information and message several options are presented leading to a concept of information based on a theory of messages.
How should we understand why firms exist? A prevailing view has been that they serve to keep in check the transaction costs arising from the self-interested motivations of individuals. We develop in this article the argument that what firms do better than markets is the sharing and transfer of the knowledge of individuals and groups within an organization. This knowledge consists of information (e.g., who knows what) and of know-how (e.g., how to organize a research team). What is central to our argument is that knowledge is held by individuals, but is also expressed in regularities by which members cooperate in a social community (i.e., group, organization, or network). If knowledge is only held at the individual level, then firms could change simply by employee turnover. Because we know that hiring new workers is not equivalent to changing the skills of a firm, an analysis of what firms can do must understand knowledge as embedded in the organizing principles by which people cooperate within organizations.
Based on this discussion, a paradox is identified: efforts by a firm to grow by the replication of its technology enhances the potential for imitation. By considering how firms can deter imitation by innovation, we develop a more dynamic view of how firms create new knowledge. We build up this dynamic perspective by suggesting that firms learn new skills by recombining their current capabilities. Because new ways of cooperating cannot be easily acquired, growth occurs by building on the social relationships that currently exist in a firm. What a firm has done before tends to predict what it can do in the future. In this sense, the cumulative knowledge of the firm provides options to expand in new but uncertain markets in the future.
We discuss at length the example of the make/buy decision and propose several testable hypotheses regarding the boundaries of the firm, without appealing to the notion of “opportunism.”
This paper aims to deduce the fundamental phenomena of information science, starting from two premises: that information science is a problem-oriented discipline concerned with the effective transfer of desired information from human generator to human user, and that the single notion common to all concepts of information now extant is that of change of structure.
From these premises, a spectrum of information concepts is derived, and a partition of that spectrum particular to the purposes of information science is described. From this partition, the terms text and information (both in information science) are defined, and the fundamental phenomena of information science are deduced: the text and its structure, the structure of the recipient and changes in that structure, and the structure of the sender and the structuring of the text.
These phenomena are seen as the basic components of the mechanisms of the channel, which have been the traditional area of interest to information science. Some implications of this approach for research in information science are discussed in this paper.
And, finally, the question of the ethics of theoretical research in information science is raised, and a restrictive condition is proposed.
An information system consists of, at least, a PERSON of a certain PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPE who faces a PROBLEM within some ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT for which he needs EVIDENCE to arrive at a solution, where the evidence is made available through some MODE OF PRESENTATION. This defines the key variables comprising a Management Information System (MIS). It is argued that most research and development to date on MIS has assumed only one underlying psychological type, one class of problem types, one or two methods of generating evidence, and, finally, one mode of presentation. Other states are suggested for all these key variables. The result is the outline of a systematic research program on MIS.
This paper discusses terms which are of mutual importance to the fields of information science and computer science. Specifically we discuss the notions of information and knowledge: their interrelationships as well as their differences, and the concept of value-adding. Concrete examples are used in the discussion.
The article focuses on the development of a theory. A discussion is presented about steps involved in developing a theory, such as seeing which factors logically should be considered as part of the explanation of the social or individual phenomena of interest. The authors assert that authors developing theories are considering these factors, they should err in favor of including too many factors, recognizing that over time their ideas will be refined. The article presents information about the importance of sensitivity to the competing virtues of parsimony and comprehensiveness.
In this paper, I explore the question of whether the field is progressing well. In doing so, I base my opinion on anchors from four independent studies that I have conducted over the years. These studies treat the field in different ways: as an aggregator of terms, a complex adaptive system, part of a knowledge market, and an evolving biological system. The four perspectives offer different ways of framing the question of progress. I describe these perspectives and make the case based on the conclusions formed from logic and data that the field has indeed progressed splendidly. I argue that the field is maturing and making a contribution, and we should be proud of what we have accomplished. However, through each perspective, I also identify some vicious circles to avoid if we are to continue to progress. The portrait is one of optimism and hope, along with the need for sound stewardship going forward.
Information theory is the mathematical treatment of the concepts, parameters, and rules governing the transmission of messages through communication systems. It was founded by Claude Shannon toward the middle of the twentieth century and has evolved into a vigorous branch at the interface between mathematics and communication theory, fostering the enrichment of other scientific fields, such as biology, behavioral science, neuroscience, and statistical mechanics. The techniques used in information theory are probabilistic in nature, and some view information theory as a branch of probability theory. In a given set of possible events, the information of a message describing one of these events quantifies the symbols needed to encode the event in an optimal way. ‘Optimal’ means that the obtained code word will determine the event unambiguously, isolating it from all others in the set, and will have minimal length, that is, it will consist of a minimal number of symbols. Information theory also provides methodologies to separate real information from noise and to determine the channel capacity required for optimal transmission conditioned on the transmission rate.
Review and framework articles, which are commonly used to synthesize the research literature on a topic area can be important tools for advancing the state of knowledge in a field of inquiry. However, the appraisal of, and the distinction between, survey review and framework articles are often difficult because of the common focus on analyzing a substantial volume of literature. As more review and framework articles are produced with the concomitant increase in outlets for publication, such as MISQ Review and JAIS, it seems this is an opportune time for a reflexive pause regarding what are appropriate criteria for authors and reviewers to have in assessing such articles and recognizing their salient features. By assessing a representative sample of North American journals and IS researchers currently working in U.S. institutions, we present a set of criteria for the assessment of survey review and framework articles and identify the most salient features of these types of articles. Our findings suggest that, among other things, a "good" framework article should offer a clear guideline (indicating possible problems that can be examined within the stated framework), consist of a parsimonious set of elements, and have a clearly defined boundary. On the other hand, a good review article should advance the field as a result of consolidating prior research, identify and propose testable hypotheses, and focus on simplifying past results. We also found that both framework and review articles can be characterized according to their stated objective, comprehensiveness, relationship to research boundaries, temporal focus, and content focus. As our effort focuses primarily on our colleagues working in U.S. institutions, we invite our colleagues from other regions and academic traditions to make similar assessments of work from their perspectives.
The conventional wisdom amongst information systems (IS) researchers is that information systems is an applied discipline drawing upon other, more fundamental, reference disciplines. These reference disciplines are seen as having foundational value for IS. We believe that it is time to question the conventional wisdom. We agree that many disciplines are relevant for IS researchers, but we suggest a re-think of the idea of .reference disciplines. for IS. In a sense, IS has come of age. Perhaps the time has come for IS to become a reference discipline for others.
A reliability generalization study (a meta-analysis of reliability coefficients) was conducted on three widely studied information systems constructs from the technology acceptance model (TAM): perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and behavioral intentions. This form of meta-analysis summarizes the reliability coeffi- cients of the scores on a specified scale across studies and identifies the study characteristics that influence the reliability of these scores. Reliability is a critical issue in conducting empirical research as the reliability of the scores on well-established scales can vary with study characteristics, attenuating effect sizes. In con- ducting this study, an extensive literature search was conducted, with 380 articles reviewed and coded to perform reliability generalization. Study characteristics, including technology, sample, and measurement characteristics, for these articles were recorded along with effect size data for the relationships among these variables. After controlling for number of items, sample size, and sampling error, differences in reliability coefficients were found with several study characteristics for the three technology acceptance constructs. The reliability coefficients of PEOU and PU were lower in hedonic contexts than in utilitarian contexts, and were higher when the originally validated scales were used as compared to when other items were substituted. Only 27 percent of the studies that provided the measurement items used the original PEOU items, while 39 percent used the original PU items. Scales that were administered in English had higher reliability coefficients for PU and BI, with a marginal effect for PEOU. Reliability differences were also found for other study charac- teristics, including reliability type, subject experience, and gender composition. While average reliability coefficients were high, the results show that, on average, relationships among these constructs are attenuated by 12 percent with maximum attenuation in the range of 35 to 43 percent. Implications for technology accep- tance research are discussed and suggestions for addressing variation in reliability coefficients across studies are provided.
A constant shifting between two main tenets of the information behavior (IB) field—centrality of the user and the essential role of context—has become a differentiation point for contemporary approaches in the field, but it also poses a major difficulty in tracing information practices. On one side, the user-centered paradigm asks researchers to focus on the individual; on the other, emerging context-centered approaches move the position of context into the foreground of information studies. Although there have been attempts to create “in between” approaches to achieve a compromise between these two positions, they have merely generated more positions between the two poles in a continuum between approaches focusing on the individual and those focusing on context. Such positioning not only creates an endless debate about the research focus of information studies but also limits such studies to a set of factors, a priori defined by the researcher. This article argues that IB research could benefit from actor-network theory, which could give the actors a space to perform their own positioning.
Evaluations of prior scholarship play a crucial role in the literature review (LR) of a research article by showing how the boundary of an area of inquiry can be further advanced by the writer’s work. Yet, many inexperienced writers find evaluating others’ work a major challenge. Although the task has received some attention in research and writing manuals, advice given tends to be rather general, often with little distinction made of practices followed in different paradigms. This gap could have resulted from the scarcity of empirical work in this regard. Motivated by both these gaps, this study examines how researchers in two paradigms evaluate others’ work in LRs. LRs of 80 articles were collected from four journals of Information Systems. Forty of the articles were drawn from two journals that follow a strong behavioural science research paradigm while the other 40 were from two journals that show a strong design science research paradigm. Evaluations in the LRs were analyzed based on a conceptual framework developed from the CARS model (Swales, 1990) and the work on academic evaluations in and and Hunston and Thompson (2000). The analysis aims to characterize and compare (a) the major types of evaluation acts performed by writers in the two research domains, (b) the entities that they evaluate and (c) the value parameters they employ. Results show marked cross-domain differences in the three areas. This article will discuss how the findings and the integrated conceptual framework can inform teaching of evaluations in LRs.
Two paradigms characterize much of the research in the Information Systems discipline: behavioral science and design science. The behavioral-science paradigm seeks to develop and verify theories that explain or predict human or organizational behavior. The design-science paradigm seeks to extend the boundaries of human and organizational capabilities by creating new and innovative artifacts. Both paradigms are foundational to the IS discipline, positioned as it is at the confluence of people, organizations, and technology. Our objective is to describe the performance of design-science research in Information Systems via a concise conceptual framework and clear guidelines for understanding, executing, and evaluating the research. In the design-science paradigm, knowledge and understanding of a problem domain and its solution are achieved in the building and application of the designed artifact. Three recent exemplars in the research literature are used to demonstrate the application of these guidelines. We conclude with an analysis of the challenges of performing high-quality design-science research in the context of the broader IS community.
This article addresses the question “what is information?” by comparing the meaning of the term “information” and epistemological assumptions of three theories in library and information science: the “Shannon-Weaver model,” Brookes’ interpretation of Popper's World 3, and the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom model. It shows that the term “information” in these theories refers to empirical entities or events and is conceptualized as having causal powers upon human minds. It is argued that the epistemological assumptions have led to the negligence of the cultural and social aspects of the constitution of information (i.e., how something is considered to be and not to be information) and the unquestioned nature of science in research methodologies.
The overall objectives of this review and synthesis are to study the basics of information-theoretic methods in econometrics, to examine the connecting theme among these methods, and to provide a more detailed summary and synthesis of the sub-class of methods that treat the observed sample moments as stochastic. Within the above objectives, this review focuses on studying the inter-connection between information theory, estimation, and inference. To achieve these objectives, it provides a detailed survey of information-theoretic concepts and quantities used within econometrics. It also illustrates
Future developments of computer systems will be handicapped not by the limitations of hardware, but by our lack of understanding of the human reasoning processes. The development of three-dimensional chips, cryogenic superconducting, or optical systems — and in due course, biological computers — presages the emergence of generations of super information processors whose power will dwarf the present generation of devices as they, in turn, have dwarfed the capacity of the computers of the pre-transistor age. The effective application of such powerful future computers will be limited by the lack of an adequate theoretical basis for the processing of information. Gordon Scarrott has championed the need for a ‘science of information’ which should investigate the ‘natural properties of information such as function, structure, dynamic behaviour and statistical features…’ Such an effort should ‘… lead to a conceptual framework to guide systems design.’
It is first argued that a niche for information science, unclaimed by any other discipline, can be found by admitting the near-autonomy of Popper's World III - the world of objective knowledge. The task of information science can then be defined as the exploration of this world of objective knowledge which is an extension of, but is distinct from, the world of documentation and librarianship. The Popperian ontology then has to be extended to admit the concept of information and its relation to subjective and objective know ledge. The spaces of Popper's three worlds are then con sidered. It is argued that cognitive and physical spaces are not identical and that this lack of identity creates problems for the proper quantification of information phenomena.
A theory of information is developed in which the informational content of a signal (structure, event) can be specified. This content is expressed by a sentence describing the condition at a source on which the properties of a signal depend in some lawful way. Information, as so defined, though perfectly objective, has the kind of semantic property (intentionality) that seems to be needed for an analysis of cognition. Perceptual knowledge is an information-dependent internal state with a content corresponding to the information producing it. This picture of knowledge captures most of what makes knowledge an important cpistcmological notion. It also avoids many of the problems infecting traditional justificational accounts of knowledge (knowledge as [justified, true belief’). Our information pickup systems are characterized in terms of the way they encode incoming information (perception) for further cognitive processing. Our perceptual experience is distinguished from our perceptual beliefs by the different way sensory information is encoded in these internal structures. Our ropositional attitudes – those (unlike knowledge) having a content that can be either true or false (e.g., belief) – are described in terms of the way internal (presumably neural) structures acquire during learning a certain information-carrying role. The content of these structures (whether true or false) is identified with the kind of information they were developed to carry
This paper considers the models of decision making which are used within the field of information systems. It argues that although decision making is of great relevance to the study of information systems insufficient attention has been given to the models by which IS professionals understand the process. Hard systems thinking has made a great contribution to IS in providing rational models of decision making, the work of H. A. Simon having been particularly influential; but the simplistic way in which such work is presented in IS texts ignores the role of social and political factors in decision making and imposes constraints in the complex social situations in which real world decision making occurs. An important contribution which the soft strand of systems thinking may make to IS is to provide a richer understanding of the nature of decision making through Vickers' concept of appreciation. The resultant ‘appreciative model’ of decision making emphasises the importance of the decision makers' perception of the organization and its situation in the interpretation of data, provides the basis for making a clear distinction between ‘data’ and ‘information’, and has implications for the ways in which computerized information systems are developed.
Bell System Technical Journal, also pp. 623-656 (October)
Information systems must be used effectively to obtain maximum benefits from them. However, despite a great deal of research on when and why systems are used, very little research has examined what effective system use involves and what drives it. To move from use to effective use requires understanding an information system’s nature and purpose, which in turn requires a theory of information systems. We draw on representation theory, which states that an information system is made up of several structures that serve to represent some part of the world that a user and other stakeholders must understand. From this theory, we derive a high-level framework of how effective use and performance evolve, as well as specific models of the nature and drivers of effective use. The models are designed to explain the effective use of any information system and offer unique insights that would not be offered by traditional views, which tend to consider information systems to be just another tool. We explain how our theory extends existing research, provides a rich platform for research on effective use, and how it contributes back to the theory of information systems from which it was derived.
Compares W. Weaver's (1949) exposition of information theory with C. Shannon's (1949) original theory on the maximization of the efficiency of electromechanical signal transmission. It is argued that Weaver's paper should be read, not as an explanation of Shannon's theory, but rather as a speculative discussion of how Shannon's theory might be extended into a general theory of human communication. After presenting a case for separating Shannon's statement of his theory from Weaver's exposition, some recent criticisms for the use of information theory in the study of human communication are reviewed. The problem of applying Shannon's 23 theorems to human communication is examined from a theoretical perspective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Information is fundamental to the discipline of information systems, yet there is little agreement about even this basic concept. Traditionally, information has been seen as ‘processed data,’ while more recently soft, interpretive approaches have taken information to be ‘data plus meaning.’ This paper provides a coherent and consistent analysis of data, information, meaning and their interrelations. It is particularly concerned with the semantic and pragmatic dimensions of information, and integrates the work of Maturana and Habermas into a framework provided by Dretske's theory of semantic information. The results show that meaning is generated from the information carried by signs. Information is objective, but inaccessible to humans, who exist exclusively in a world of meaning. Meaning is intersubjective — that is, based on shared agreement and understanding — rather than purely subjective. Information, and information processing systems, exist within the wider context of meaning or sense-making and the IS discipline needs take account of this.
Summary The semantic field associated with the term ‘classification’, three main intellectual and/or practical operations, and three different products, can be identified — there being no one-to-one correspondence between operations and products. Through intensional classification, the extension of a concept at a given level of generality is subdivided into two or more narrower extensions corresponding to as many concepts at lower level of generality; this subdivision is obtained by stating that an aspect of the intension of each of the latter concepts is a different partial articulation of the corresponding aspect of the intension of the higher concept. Through extensional classification, the objects or events of a given set are grouped into two or more subsets according to the perceived similarities of their states on one or (more frequently) several properties; subsets may be successively grouped into subsets of wider extension and higher hierarchical level. Through classing, objects or events are assigned to classes or types which have been previously defined, usually by an intensional classification, but possibly by an extensional one operating on a different set. When only one fundamentum divisionis is considered, a classification scheme is produced — usually by an intensional classification. The extensions of each class must be mutually exclusive, and jointly exhaustive. Classes need not be at the same level of generality, and may be ordered. When several fundamenta are jointly considered, a typology is produced. This may be done through either intensional or extensional classification. The underlying category space may be “reduced” or reconstructed through “substruction”. When several fundamenta are considered in succession through a series of intensional classifications, a taxonomy is produced. Specific concepts/terms (such as taxon, rank, clade) are needed to deal with taxonomies. In the final chapter it is argued that the role of classification has been improperly assessed by several different quarters: in particular by those who credit it with ontological capacities and tasks; by those who see classificatory procedures as an old-fashioned activity to be abandoned in favour of more “scientific” measurement; and by those who blame the retarded development of an “explanatory” social science on the undue attention paid to classification by many of the founding fathers of sociology and cognate disciplines. 1. CLASSIFICATION AS AN OPERATION The term ‘classification’ (hereafter simply ‘cl.’) is indifferently used for several different operations and for several different products of such operations. It is also used for those sectors of botany and zoology where classification (as an operation) is most frequently resorted to. By analyzing the formal definitions and implicit acceptations of the term ‘cl.’as an operation, three main families of meanings of that term may be clearly recognized: (a) cl. as an intellectual operation whereby the extension of a concept at a given level of generality is subdivided into several (two or more) narrower extensions corresponding to as
It is argued here that the discipline of information systems does not have a clear and substantive conceptualization of its most fundamental category, namely, information itself. As a first stage in addressing the problem, this paper evaluates a wide range of theories or concepts of information in order to assess their suitability as a basis for information systems. Particular importance is placed on the extent to which they deal with the semantic and pragmatic dimensions of information and its relation to meaning. It is concluded that Dretske's analysis of knowledge and information provides the most suitable basis for further development.
The article surveys the development of a scientific conceptualization of information during and in the decade following World War II. It examines the roots of information science in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century mathematical logic, physics, psychology, and electrical engineering, and then focuses on how Warren McCulloch, Walter Pitts, Claude Shannon, Alan Turing, John von Neumann, and Norbert Wiener combined these diverse studies into a coherent discipline. © 1985 by the American Federation of Information Processing Societies, Inc.