The ASCII codes for the word "Wikipedia" represented in binary, the numeral system most commonly used for encoding computer information. American Standard Code for Information Interchange ( ASCII) The binary numeral system, or base-2 number system, is a Numeral system that represents numeric values using two symbols usually 0 and 1.

Information as a concept bears a diversity of meanings, from everyday usage to technical settings. Conveyed concept is a Set phrase that denotes a concept as understood or perceived. Generally speaking, the concept of information is closely related to notions of constraint, communication, control, data, form, instruction, knowledge, meaning, mental stimulus, pattern, perception, and representation. Communication is the process of conveying information from a sender to a receiver with the use of a medium in which the communicated information is understood the same way A control system is a device or set of devices to manage command direct or regulate the behavior of other devices or systems Debt AIDS Trade in Africa (or DATA) is a Multinational non-government organization founded in January 2002 in London by U2 's Knowledge is defined ( Oxford English Dictionary) variously as (i expertise and skills acquired by a person through experience or education the theoretical or practical understanding This article is about meaning as it is studied in the discipline of linguistics Stimulation is the action of various agents ( stimuli) on Muscles Nerves or a sensory end organ by which activity is evoked especially the nervous A pattern, from the French patron, is a theme of recurring events or objects sometimes referred to as elements of a set In Psychology and the Cognitive sciences perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory Information. Knowledge representation is an area in Artificial intelligence that is concerned with how to formally "think" that is how to use a symbol system to represent

Many people speak about the Information Age as the advent of the Knowledge Age or knowledge society, the information society, the Information revolution, and information technologies, and even though informatics, information science and computer science are often in the spotlight, the word "information" is often used without careful consideration of the various meanings it has acquired. Information Age is a term that has been used to refer to the present era Broadly speaking the term Knowledge Society refers to any Society where knowledge is the primary production resource instead of capital and labour An information society is a Society in which the creation distribution diffusion use integration and manipulation of Information is a significant economic The term information revolution (sometimes called also the "information al revolution" describes current economic social and technological trends Information technology ( IT) as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA is "the study design development implementation support Informatics is the science of Information, the practice of Information processing, and the engineering of Information systems. Information science is an interdisciplinary science primarily concerned with the collection classification, manipulation storage retrieval and dissemination Computer science (or computing science) is the study and the Science of the theoretical foundations of Information and Computation and their

Etymology

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest historical meaning of the word information in English was the act of informing, or giving form or shape to the mind, as in education, instruction, or training. The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED) published by the Oxford University Press (OUP is a comprehensive Dictionary of the English English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States A quote from 1387: "Five books come down from heaven for information of mankind. " It was also used for an item of training, e. g. a particular instruction. "Melibee had heard the great skills and reasons of Dame Prudence, and her wise information and techniques. " (1386)

The English word was apparently derived by adding the common "noun of action" ending "-ation" (descended through French from Latin "-tio") to the earlier verb to inform, in the sense of to give form to the mind, to discipline, instruct, teach: "Men so wise should go and inform their kings. " (1330) Inform itself comes (via French) from the Latin verb informare, to give form to, to form an idea of. Furthermore, Latin itself already even contained the word informatio meaning concept or idea, but the extent to which this may have influenced the development of the word information in English is unclear.

As a final note, the ancient Greek word for form was eidos, and this word was famously used in a technical philosophical sense by Plato (and later Aristotle) to denote the ideal identity or essence of something (see Theory of forms). Plato 's Theory of Forms asserts that Forms (or Ideas) and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece Plato 's Theory of Forms asserts that Forms (or Ideas) and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess "Eidos" can also be associated with thought, proposition or even concept. Thought and thinking are mental forms and Processes respectively ("thought" is both In Logic and Philosophy, proposition refers to either (a the content or Meaning of a meaningful Declarative sentence The term "concept" is traced back to 1554–60 ( l conceptum - something conceived but what is today termed "the classical theory of concepts" is the theory of Aristotle

Information as a message

Information is the state of a system of interest. Message is the information materialized.

Information is a quality of a message from a sender to one or more receivers. A message in its most general meaning is an object of Communication. A sender was a circuit in a 20th century electromechanical Telephone exchange which sent Telephone numbers and other information to another exchange Information is always about something (size of a parameter, occurrence of an event, etc). Viewed in this manner, information does not have to be accurate. It may be a truth or a lie, or just the sound of a falling tree. Even a disruptive noise used to inhibit the flow of communication and create misunderstanding would in this view be a form of information. However, generally speaking, if the amount of information in the received message increases, the message is more accurate.

This model assumes there is a definite sender and at least one receiver. A sender was a circuit in a 20th century electromechanical Telephone exchange which sent Telephone numbers and other information to another exchange Many refinements of the model assume the existence of a common language understood by the sender and at least one of the receivers. An important variation identifies information as that which would be communicated by a message if it were sent from a sender to a receiver capable of understanding the message. However, in requiring the existence of a definite sender, the "information as a message" model does not attach any significance to the idea that information is something that can be extracted from an environment, e. g. , through observation, reading or measurement.

Information is a term with many meanings depending on context, but is as a rule closely related to such concepts as meaning, knowledge, instruction, communication, representation, and mental stimulus. Simply stated, information is a message received and understood. In terms of data, it can be defined as a collection of facts from which conclusions may be drawn. There are many other aspects of information since it is the knowledge acquired through study or experience or instruction. But overall, information is the result of processing, manipulating and organizing data in a way that adds to the knowledge of the person receiving it.

Communication theory provides a numerical measure of the uncertainty of an outcome. There is much discussion in the academic world of Communication as to what actually constitutes communication For example, we can say that "the signal contained thousands of bits of information". Communication theory tends to use the concept of information entropy, generally attributed to C.E. Shannon (see below). Claude Elwood Shannon (April 30 1916 – February 24 2001 an American Electronic engineer and Mathematician, is "the father of Information

Another form of information is Fisher information, a concept of R.A. Fisher. In Statistics and Information theory, the Fisher information (denoted \mathcal{I}(\theta is the Variance of the score. Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher, FRS ( 17 February 1890 – 29 July 1962) was an English Statistician, Evolutionary This is used in application of statistics to estimation theory and to science in general. Estimation theory is a branch of Statistics and Signal processing that deals with estimating the values of parameters based on measured/empirical data Fisher information is thought of as the amount of information that a message carries about an unobservable parameter. It can be computed from knowledge of the likelihood function defining the system. In Statistics, the likelihood function (often simply the likelihood) is a function of the Parameters of a Statistical model that plays a key role For example, with a normal likelihood function, the Fisher information is the reciprocal of the variance of the law. In the absence of knowledge of the likelihood law, the Fisher information may be computed from normally distributed score data as the reciprocal of their second moment.

Even though information and data are often used interchangeably, they are actually very different. Data is a set of unrelated information, and as such is of no use until it is properly evaluated. Upon evaluation, once there is some significant relation between data, and they show some relevance, then they are converted into information. Now this same data can be used for different purposes. Thus, till the data convey some information, they are not useful.

Measuring information entropy

The view of information as a message came into prominence with the publication in 1948 of an influential paper by Claude Shannon, "A Mathematical Theory of Communication. Claude Elwood Shannon (April 30 1916 – February 24 2001 an American Electronic engineer and Mathematician, is "the father of Information "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" is an influential 1948 article by Mathematician Claude E " This paper provides the foundations of information theory and endows the word information not only with a technical meaning but also a measure. Information theory is a branch of Applied mathematics and Electrical engineering involving the quantification of Information. If the sending device is equally likely to send any one of a set of N messages, then the preferred measure of "the information produced when one message is chosen from the set" is the base two logarithm of N (This measure is called self-information). In Mathematics, the logarithm of a number to a given base is the power or Exponent to which the base must be raised in order to produce In Information theory (elaborated by Claude E Shannon, 1948) self-information is a measure of the information content associated with the outcome In this paper, Shannon continues:

The choice of a logarithmic base corresponds to the choice of a unit for measuring information. Choice consists of the mental process of Thinking involved with the process of judging the merits of multiple options and selecting If the base 2 is used the resulting units may be called binary digits, or more briefly bits, a word suggested by J. W. Tukey. A bit is a binary digit, taking a value of either 0 or 1 Binary digits are a basic unit of Information storage and communication John Wilder Tukey ( June 16, 1915 &ndash July 26, 2000) was an American Statistician. A device with two stable positions, such as a relay or a flip-flop circuit, can store one bit of information. N such devices can store N bits…^[1]

A complementary way of measuring information is provided by algorithmic information theory. Algorithmic information theory is a subfield of Information theory and Computer science that concerns itself with the relationship between computation In brief, this measures the information content of a list of symbols based on how predictable they are, or more specifically how easy it is to compute the list through a program: the information content of a sequence is the number of bits of the shortest program that computes it. Computer programs (also software programs, or just programs) are instructions for a Computer. The sequence below would have a very low algorithmic information measurement since it is a very predictable pattern, and as the pattern continues the measurement would not change. Shannon information would give the same information measurement for each symbol, since they are statistically random, and each new symbol would increase the measurement. A numeric sequence is said to be statistically random when it contains no recognizable patterns or regularities sequences such as the results of an ideal die roll, or the digits

123456789101112131415161718192021

It is important to recognize the limitations of traditional information theory and algorithmic information theory from the perspective of human meaning. For example, when referring to the meaning content of a message Shannon noted “Frequently the messages have meaning… these semantic aspects of communication are irrelevant to the engineering problem. The significant aspect is that the actual message is one selected from a set of possible messages” (emphasis in original).

In information theory signals are part of a process, not a substance; they do something, they do not contain any specific meaning. Combining algorithmic information theory and information theory we can conclude that the most random signal contains the most information as it can be interpreted in any way and cannot be compressed.

Michael Reddy noted that "'signals' of the mathematical theory are 'patterns that can be exchanged'. The word theory has many distinct meanings in different fields of Knowledge, depending on their methodologies and the context of discussion. There is no message contained in the signal, the signals convey the ability to select from a set of possible messages. " In information theory "the system must be designed to operate for each possible selection, not just the one which will actually be chosen since this is unknown at the time of design".

Information as a pattern

Information is any represented pattern. A pattern, from the French patron, is a theme of recurring events or objects sometimes referred to as elements of a set This view assumes neither accuracy nor directly communicating parties, but instead assumes a separation between an object and its representation. Consider the following example: economic statistics represent an economy, however inaccurately. Economic statistics is a branch of Applied statistics focusing on the collection processing compilation and dissemination of statistics concerning the Economy of Economics is the social science that studies the production distribution, and consumption of goods and services. What are commonly referred to as data in computing, statistics, and other fields, are forms of information in this sense. Computing is usually defined like the activity of using and developing Computer technology Computer hardware and software. Statistics is a mathematical science pertaining to the collection analysis interpretation or explanation and presentation of Data. The electro-magnetic patterns in a computer network and connected devices are related to something other than the pattern itself, such as text characters to be displayed and keyboard input. Electromagnetism is the Physics of the Electromagnetic field: a field which exerts a Force on particles that possess the property of A computer network is a group of interconnected Computers. Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics In Computer hardware, a peripheral device is any device attached to a computer in order to expand its functionality (basically input and output devices together are known For other uses see Character. In Computer and machine-based Telecommunications terminology a character is a unit of In Computing, a keyboard is an Input device partially modelled after the typewriter keyboard which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys Signals, signs, and symbols are also in this category. In the fields of communications, Signal processing, and in Electrical engineering more generally a signal is any time-varying or spatial-varying quantity There are many models of the linguistic sign (see also Sign (semiotics) The musical instrument is spelled Cymbal. A symbol is something --- such as an object, Picture, written word a sound a piece On the other hand, according to semiotics, data is symbols with certain syntax and information is data with a certain semantic. Semiotics, semiotic studies, or semiology is the study of sign processes (semiosis or signification and communication signs and Symbols both Painting and drawing contain information to the extent that they represent something such as an assortment of objects on a table, a profile, or a landscape. Painting (pān'tīng in Art, is the practice of applying Color to a Surface (support base such as e Drawing is a Visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land including physical elements such as Landforms living elements of flora and fauna abstract elements such as lighting In other words, when a pattern of something is transposed to a pattern of something else, the latter is information. This would be the case whether or not there was anyone to perceive it.

But if information can be defined merely as a pattern, does that mean that neither utility nor meaning are necessary components of information? Arguably a distinction must be made between raw unprocessed data and information which possesses utility, value or some quantum of meaning. In Economics, utility is a measure of the relative satisfaction from or desirability of Consumption of various Goods and services. The economic value of a good or service has puzzled economists since the beginning of the discipline On this view, information may indeed be characterized as a pattern; but this is a necessary condition, not a sufficient one.

An individual entry in a telephone book, which follows a specific pattern formed by name, address and telephone number, does not become "informative" in some sense unless and until it possesses some degree of utility, value or meaning. For example, someone might look up a girlfriend's number, might order a take away etc. The vast majority of numbers will never be construed as "information" in any meaningful sense. The gap between data and information is only closed by a behavioral bridge whereby some value, utility or meaning is added to transform mere data or pattern into information.

When one constructs a representation of an object, one can selectively extract from the object (sampling) or use a system of signs to replace (encoding), or both. System (from Latin systēma, in turn from Greek systēma is a set of interacting or interdependent Entities, real or abstract ENCODE (the ENC yclopedia O f D NA E lements is a public research consortium launched by the US National Human Genome Research Institute ( NHGRI The sampling and encoding result in representation. An example of the former is a "sample" of a product; an example of the latter is "verbal description" of a product. Both contain information of the product, however inaccurate. When one interprets representation, one can predict a broader pattern from a limited number of observations (inference) or understand the relation between patterns of two different things (decoding). Decoding is the reverse of Encoding, which is the process of transforming information from one format into another One example of the former is to sip a soup to know if it is spoiled; an example of the latter is examining footprints to determine the animal and its condition. Soup is a Food that is made by combining ingredients such as Meat and Vegetables in stock or hot/boiling Water, until the flavor In both cases, information sources are not constructed or presented by some "sender" of information. Regardless, information is dependent upon, but usually unrelated to and separate from, the medium or media used to express it. In other words, the position of a theoretical series of bits, or even the output once interpreted by a computer or similar device, is unimportant, except when someone or something is present to interpret the information. A computer is a Machine that manipulates data according to a list of instructions. Therefore, a quantity of information is totally distinct from its medium.

Information as sensory input

Often information is viewed as a type of input to an organism or designed device. Input is the term denoting either an entrance or changes which are inserted into a System and which activate/modify a Process. Inputs are of two kinds. Some inputs are important to the function of the organism (for example, food) or device (energy) by themselves. In Physics and other Sciences energy (from the Greek grc ἐνέργεια - Energeia, "activity operation" from grc ἐνεργός In his book Sensory Ecology, Dusenbery called these causal inputs. Other inputs (information) are important only because they are associated with causal inputs and can be used to predict the occurrence of a causal input at a later time (and perhaps another place). Some information is important because of association with other information but eventually there must be a connection to a causal input. In practice, information is usually carried by weak stimuli that must be detected by specialized sensory systems and amplified by energy inputs before they can be functional to the organism or device. For example, light is often a causal input to plants but provides information to animals. The colored light reflected from a flower is too weak to do much photosynthetic work but the visual system of the bee detects it and the bee's nervous system uses the information to guide the bee to the flower, where the bee often finds nectar or pollen, which are causal inputs, serving a nutritional function.

Information is any type of sensory input. When an organism with a nervous system receives an input, it transforms the input into an electrical signal. The nervous system is a Network of specialized cells that communicate information about an animal's surroundings and itself This is regarded information by some. The idea of representation is still relevant, but in a slightly different manner. That is, while abstract painting does not represent anything concretely, when the viewer sees the painting, it is nevertheless transformed into electrical signals that create a representation of the painting. Abstract art uses a Visual language of form color and line to create a composition which exists independently of visual references to the world Defined this way, information does not have to be related to truth, communication, or representation of an object. Entertainment in general is not intended to be informative. See also Entertainment (disambiguation and The Entertainer (disambiguation Entertainment is an activity designed to give people Music, the performing arts, amusement parks, works of fiction and so on are thus forms of information in this sense, but they are not necessarily forms of information according to some definitions given above. Music is an Art form in which the medium is Sound organized in Time. The performing arts are those forms of Art which differ from the Plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own Body, Face and presence Theme park is the generic term for a collection of rides and other Entertainment attractions assembled for the purpose of entertaining a large group Fiction is the telling of stories which are not real More specifically fiction is an imaginative form of Narrative, one of the four basic Rhetorical modes. Consider another example: food supplies both nutrition and taste for those who eat it. If information is equated to sensory input, then nutrition is not information but taste is.

Information as an influence which leads to a transformation

Information is any type of pattern that influences the formation or transformation of other patterns. In this sense, there is no need for a conscious mind to perceive, much less appreciate, the pattern. Consider, for example, DNA. Deoxyribonucleic acid ( DNA) is a Nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known The sequence of nucleotides is a pattern that influences the formation and development of an organism without any need for a conscious mind. Nucleotides are Organic compounds that consist of three joined structures a nitrogenous base a Sugar, and a Phosphate group Systems theory at times seems to refer to information in this sense, assuming information does not necessarily involve any conscious mind, and patterns circulating (due to feedback) in the system can be called information. Systems theory is an Interdisciplinary field of Science and the study of the nature of Complex systems in Nature, Society, and Feedback is a circular causal Process whereby some proportion of a system's output is returned (fed back to the Input. In other words, it can be said that information in this sense is something potentially perceived as representation, though not created or presented for that purpose.

When Marshall McLuhan speaks of media and their effects on human cultures, he refers to the structure of artifacts that in turn shape our behaviors and mindsets. In Communication, media (Singular Medium) are the storage and transmission tools used to store and deliver Information A cultural artifact is a human-made object which gives information about the Culture of its creator and users Also, pheromones are often said to be "information" in this sense. A pheromone (from Greek φέρω phero "to bear" + ‘ορμόνη " Hormone " is a Chemical that triggers a natural

(See also Gregory Bateson. Gregory Bateson ( 9 May 1904 – 4 July 1980) was a British anthropologist, social scientist, linguist )

Information as a property in physics

Main article: Physical information

In 2003, J. In Physics, physical information refers generally to the Information that is contained in a Physical system. D. Bekenstein claimed there is a growing trend in physics to define the physical world as being made of information itself (and thus information is defined in this way). Physics (Greek Physis - φύσις in everyday terms is the Science of Matter and its motion. Information has a well defined meaning in physics. Examples of this include the phenomenon of quantum entanglement where particles can interact without reference to their separation or the speed of light. Quantum entanglement is a quantum mechanical Phenomenon in which the Quantum states of two or more objects are linked together so that one object Information itself cannot travel faster than light even if the information is transmitted indirectly. This could lead to the fact that all attempts at physically observing a particle with an "entangled" relationship to another are slowed down, even though the particles are not connected in any other way other than by the information they carry.

Another link is demonstrated by the Maxwell's demon thought experiment. Maxwell's demon was an 1867 Thought experiment by the Scottish Physicist James Clerk Maxwell, meant to raise questions about the possibility In this experiment, a direct relationship between information and another physical property, entropy, is demonstrated. In Thermodynamics (a branch of Physics) entropy, symbolized by S, is a measure of the unavailability of a system ’s Energy A consequence is that it is impossible to destroy information without increasing the entropy of a system; in practical terms this often means generating heat. Another, more philosophical, outcome is that information could be thought of as interchangeable with energy. In Physics and other Sciences energy (from the Greek grc ἐνέργεια - Energeia, "activity operation" from grc ἐνεργός Thus, in the study of logic gates, the theoretical lower bound of thermal energy released by an AND gate is higher than for the NOT gate (because information is destroyed in an AND gate and simply converted in a NOT gate). A logic gate performs a logical operation on one or more logic inputs and produces a single logic output Physical information is of particular importance in the theory of quantum computers. A quantum computer is a device for Computation that makes direct use of distinctively Quantum mechanical Phenomena, such as superposition

Information as records

Records are a specialized form of information. Essentially, records are information produced consciously or as by-products of business activities or transactions and retained because of their value. Primarily their value is as evidence of the activities of the organization but they may also be retained for their informational value. Sound records management ensures that the integrity of records is preserved for as long as they are required. Records management, or RM is the practice of identifying classifying archiving preserving and destroying records

The international standard on records management, ISO 15489, defines records as "information created, received, and maintained as evidence and information by an organization or person, in pursuance of legal obligations or in the transaction of business". The International Committee on Archives (ICA) Committee on electronic records defined a record as, "a specific piece of recorded information generated, collected or received in the initiation, conduct or completion of an activity and that comprises sufficient content, context and structure to provide proof or evidence of that activity".

Records may be retained because of their business value, as part of the corporate memory of the organization or to meet legal, fiscal or accountability requirements imposed on the organization. Corporate Memory (CM can be defined as the total body of Data, Information and Knowledge required to deliver the strategic aims and objectives of an organization Willis (2005) expressed the view that sound management of business records and information delivered "…six key requirements for good corporate governance…transparency; accountability; due process; compliance; meeting statutory and common law requirements; and security of personal and corporate information. Corporate governance is the set of Processes customs Policies, laws and institutions affecting the way a Corporation is directed administered or controlled "

Information and semiotics

Beynon-Davies ^[2] explains the multi-faceted concept of information in terms of that of signs and sign-systems. Signs themselves can be considered in terms of four inter-dependent levels, layers or branches of semiotics: pragmatics, semantics, syntactics and empirics. Semiotics, semiotic studies, or semiology is the study of sign processes (semiosis or signification and communication signs and Symbols both These four layers serve to connect the social world on the one hand with the physical or technical world on the other.

Pragmatics is concerned with the purpose of communication. Pragmatics is the study of the ability of Natural language speakers to communicate more than that which is explicitly stated Pragmatics links the issue of signs with that of intention. The focus of pragmatics is on the intentions of human agents underlying communicative behaviour. In other words, intentions link language to action.

Semantics is concerned with the meaning of a message conveyed in a communicative act. Semantics is the study of meaning in communication The word derives from Greek σημαντικός ( semantikos) "significant" from Semantics considers the content of communication. Semantics is the study of the meaning of signs - the association between signs and behaviour. Semantics can be considered as the study of the link between symbols and their referents or concepts; particularly the way in which signs relate to human behaviour.

Syntactics is concerned with the formalism used to represent a message. Syntactics as an area studies the form of communication in terms of the logic and grammar of sign systems. Syntactics is devoted to the study of the form rather than the content of signs and sign-systems.

Empirics is the study of the signals used to carry a message; the physical characteristics of the medium of communication. Empirics is devoted to the study of communication channels and their characteristics, e. g. , sound, light, electronic transmission etc.

Communication normally exists within the context of some social situation. The social situation sets the context for the intentions conveyed (pragmatics) and the form in which communication takes place. In a communicative situation intentions are expressed through messages which comprise collections of inter-related signs taken from a language which is mutually understood by the agents involved in the communication. Mutual understanding implies that agents involved understand the chosen language in terms of its agreed syntax (syntactics) and semantics. The sender codes the message in the language and sends the message as signals along some communication channel (empirics). The chosen communication channel will have inherent properties which determine outcomes such as the speed with which communication can take place and over what distance.

References

Further reading

• Bekenstein, Jacob D. (2003, August). Information in the holographic universe. The holographic principle is a physical property of Quantum gravity theories proposed by Gerard 't Hooft and Leonard Susskind, which resolves the Scientific American.
• Luciano Floridi, (2005). Luciano Floridi (Laurea Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza, MPhil 'Is Information Meaningful Data?', Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 70 (2), pp. 351 - 370. Available online at Oxford University
• Luciano Floridi, (2005). Luciano Floridi (Laurea Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza, MPhil 'Semantic Conceptions of Information', The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2005 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed. ). Available online at Stanford University

See also

External links

• Semantic Conceptions of Information Review by Luciano Floridi for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Principia Cybernetica entry on negentropy
• Fisher Information, a New Paradigm for Science: Introduction, Uncertainty principles, Wave equations, Ideas of Escher, Kant, Plato and Wheeler. This essay is continually revised in the light of ongoing research. Informatics is the science of Information, the practice of Information processing, and the engineering of Information systems. Information architecture ( IA) is the art of expressing a Model or Concept of Information used in activities that require explicit details An information broker is a person or business that researches information for clients Information and Communications Technology - or technologies ( ICT) is an umbrella term that includes all technologies for the manipulation and communication of Information In Mathematics and especially in Statistical inference, information geometry is the study of Probability and information by way of The information superhighway was a popular term used through the 1990s to refer to digital communication systems The information ladder is a diagram created by Education professor Norman Longworth to describe the stages in human Learning. Information mapping is a technique of dividing and labeling Information for easy comprehension use and recall Information overload refers to excess amounts of information being provided making the processing and absorbing tasks very difficult for the individual because we cannot see the validity Information processing is the change (processing of Information in any manner detectable by an observer. An information processor or information processing system, as its name suggests is a System (be it Electrical, Mechanical or Biological The term information revolution (sometimes called also the "information al revolution" describes current economic social and technological trends Sensitive information is Information or Knowledge that might result in loss of an advantage or level of security if revealed ( disclosed) to others Information science is an interdisciplinary science primarily concerned with the collection classification, manipulation storage retrieval and dissemination The term information system (IS sometimes refers to a System of persons Data records and activities that process the data and Information in an organization Information technology ( IT) as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA is "the study design development implementation support Information theory is a branch of Applied mathematics and Electrical engineering involving the quantification of Information. Infosphere is a term used since the 1990s to speculate about the common Evolution of the Internet, Society and Culture. --> Abstraction is the process or result of generalization by reducing the information Algorithmic information theory is a subfield of Information theory and Computer science that concerns itself with the relationship between computation In general usage complexity often tends to be used to characterize something with many parts in intricate arrangement This article describes complex system as a type of system For other meanings see Complex systems. Complex adaptive systems are special cases of Complex systems They are complex in that they are diverse and made up of multiple interconnected elements and adaptive Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the Structure of Complex systems especially Communication processes control mechanisms and Feedback Exformation is a term meaning explicitly discarded information. In Statistics and Information theory, the Fisher information (denoted \mathcal{I}(\theta is the Variance of the score. Free Information Infrastructure is a term used primarily in Europe mirroring the official US term National Information Infrastructure, introduced in early Freedom of information (or information freedom) may refer to the accessibility of government-held information ( Freedom of information legislation Infornography is a Portmanteau word formed by the combination of the words " Information " and " Pornography " Library science is an Interdisciplinary Science incorporating the Humanities, Law and Applied science to study topics related to A data storage device is a device for recording (storing information (data Metadata ( meta data, or sometimes metainformation) is "data about data" of any sort in any media Observation is either an activity of a living being (such as a Human) which senses and assimilates the Knowledge of a Phenomenon, or the recording of data The philosophy of information (PI is the area of research that studies conceptual issues arising at the intersection of Computer science, Information technology, In Physics, physical information refers generally to the Information that is contained in a Physical system. A prediction is a statement or claim that a particular Event will occur in the Future in more certain terms than a forecast. The propaganda model is a Theory advanced by Edward S Herman and Noam Chomsky that alleges systemic Biases in the Mass media and seeks Relevance is a term used to describe how pertinent connected or applicable something is to a given matter In Signal detection theory, a receiver operating characteristic ( ROC) or simply ROC curve, is a graphical plot of the sensitivity Satisficing (a Portmanteau of "satisfy" and "suffice" is a Decision-making strategy which attempts to meet criteria for adequacy rather than In Information theory, the Shannon–Hartley theorem is an application of the Noisy channel coding theorem to the archetypal case of a continuous-time analog communications Claude Elwood Shannon (April 30 1916 – February 24 2001 an American Electronic engineer and Mathematician, is "the father of Information Ralph Vinton Lyon Hartley ( November 30, 1888 – May 1, 1970) was an Electronics researcher Systems theory is an Interdisciplinary field of Science and the study of the nature of Complex systems in Nature, Society, and Luciano Floridi (Laurea Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza, MPhil The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP is a freely-accessible Online encyclopedia of Philosophy maintained by Stanford University.
• How Much Information? 2003 an attempt to estimate how much new information is created each year (study was produced by faculty and students at the School of Information Management and Systems at the University of California at Berkeley. The UC Berkeley School of Information or iSchool is a graduate school offering both a professional master's degree as well as a research-oriented PhD The University of California Berkeley (also referred to as Cal, Berkeley and UC Berkeley) is a major research university located in Berkeley )