Information Management

ACADEMIC FOCUS ©2017 ARMA International, www.arma.org

A Conceptual Framework for

UNDERSTANDING INFORMATION
Marc Kosciejew, Ph.D.

I
nformation science and the The Information
information professions are Communication Chain
specifically concerned with the The principles and practices
information communication of information management are
chain, including its creation, genera- ing of information is often confused inherently enmeshed with many
tion, production, collection, organi- or incomplete. These are significant kinds and formats of information. As
zation, management, interpretation, gaps that should be bridged to help David Bawden and Lyn Robinson
analysis, storage, retrieval, dissemi- develop some common ground in write in Introduction to Information
nation, transmission, transformation, understanding this “thing” called Science, the discipline and practices of
and use. information. information “can best be understood
But what is information? What This article is meant to bridge as a field of study [and work], with
does it look like? What is it com- those gaps by focusing on what human recorded information as its
posed of? Where, how, and why does makes something “information.” It concern, focusing on the components
it exist? What is the basis of the in- refers often to Michael Buckland’s of the [information] communication
formation science discipline and the framework – information as process, chain.”
professions based on information? knowledge, and thing – to help explain While other and related disci-
Even those who are studying, the phenomenon of information. plines and professions may deal with
working with, or otherwise using The goal is to help equip informa- some aspects of this complex chain,
information have different defini- tion professionals to better explain it is the information science disci-
tions of it; further, their understand- their focus and work. pline and the information professions

40 September/October 2017
(such as information management)
that are interested in and work with Information: A Flexible, Polysemantic Concept
this chain in its entirety.
This interest in the entire infor- Information is an 47 in the ambiguous concept. It:
mation communication chain poses • Can be in many forms and have many applications, meanings, and uses
three fundamental questions that • Can be defined in diverse ways, depending on the approach, perspec-
information scholars and profession- tive, and criteria adopted
als seek to answer: • Has competing, contested, and complementary definitions employed
1. What are the characteristics, in different contexts (e.g., everyday human experience; sociocultural
components, and features of interactions; institutional governance and operations; and statistical,
information? This is about systems, and technical analyses)
information’s materiality. • Can be different types with different definitions (e.g., semantic, syn-
2. How and why do individuals tactic, structural, factual, mathematical, physical, biological, cultural,
organize, manage, locate, economic, ethical)
retrieve, understand, and use • Can be objective or subjective, depending on the context, the approach
information? This is about followed, the definition adopted, and the kind in use
information’s sociocultural • Can be considered and treated as a material, physical, concrete sub-
dimensions. stance or understood as an abstract property or metaphor
3. How is information present- • Can be seen as a naturally occurring phenomenon whose existence is
ed, formatted, and displayed, not (necessarily) the result of human action or a human-made artifact
and how can it be designed • Can be a part of nature or reality whose identity does not depend on
to maximize efficiency and its being identified or used for human activities, or it can be part of a
efficacy? The is about infor- sociocultural construct used for human activities
mation’s design. Can be without meaning and not depending on human interpretation or
Though the answers to these use, or it can be something whose meanings are constructed, interpreted,
three questions provide some un- or applied by some kind of interpreter (e.g., human, machine, algorithm)
derstanding of the “things” that are Information’s content is also multifaceted. In “What is Information? A
considered or treated as information, Multidimensional Concern,” Dias Nafria argues for separating information
they do not on their own adequately concepts according to each one’s properties.
answer the question “What is infor- The first property is the syntactical content of information (how it is
mation?” expressed) where “messages that…[comply] with all syntactic require-
ments” are treated as informative even if “false, incorrect, useless, [or]
A Framework for redundant.”
Common Ground The second property is the semantic content of information (what it
Can or should there be a univer- represents and what its truth value is) “whereby the signals or symbols
sal definition or understanding of in- considered by the MTC [Claude Shannon’s classic Mathematical Theory
formation? Claude Shannon, one of of Communication] are necessarily referred to something.”
the founders of information theory The third property is the pragmatic content of information (its utility
and author of Mathematical Theory of value) “whereby information is [considered] the foundation for action,
Communication, did not believe in or whether by intentional actors, living beings or automatic systems.”
appeal to universality. He wrote: Information’s flexible and polysemantic nature thus permits pluralistic
The word ‘information’ has interpretations and uses. Warren Weaver, a pioneer of information theory
been given different mean- and computer science, provides a tripartite analysis of the main problems
ings by various writers in the this raises. First is the technical problem, which concerns the quantifi-
general field of information cation of information. Second is the semantic problem, which concerns
theory. It is likely that at least meaning and truth. And, third is the influential problem, which concerns
a number of these will prove the impact and effectiveness of information on human behavior.
sufficiently useful in certain It is debatable if these three problems can or should be reconciled
applications to deserve further or taken together to simultaneously approach each angle. As Buckland
study and permanent recog- argues in Information and Society, “any simple assertion in the form
nition. [But] it is hardly to be ‘Information is…’ has little meaning and encourages confusion unless it
expected that a single concept is made clear which of the meanings is intended.” Context will determine
of information would satisfac- which one is ultimately pursued.
torily account for the numer- In “Information as Thing,” published in Journal of the American Soci-
ous possible applications of ety for Information Science, Michael Buckland provides a clearer frame-
this general field. work for understanding information, as this article explains.

September/October 2017 41
ACADEMIC FOCUS
Perhaps a universal definition or Information-as-thing involves changes a knowledge state using some
understanding is not possible or even information’s materiality, usually thing. Put differently, when engaging
desirable. Nevertheless, Buckland’s associated with documents. In- with information in the form of an
information framework provides a formation becomes a synonym for object, usually a document, one is in
way to find common ground among document. It is manifested in and the process of changing a knowledge
many divergent perspectives, includ- exists, or is contained, within some state (one’s own or another’s), and
ing those described in the sidebar kind of material object such as bits, that information becomes a part of
“Information: A Flexible, Polyse- bytes, books, or other physical media. knowledge.
mantic Concept” – if not in defini- Information-as-thing applies to all
tion, then in an approach. kinds of tangible objects, particularly Information Illuminated
Information is central to the
Especially in information-intensive environments, information science discipline, infor-
mation professionals’ work practices,
actors of all kinds – such as humans, machines, and ultimately the world we live
in. Buckland’s framework of infor-
and algorithms – are concerned and deal with mation as process, knowledge, and
thing provides a clear direction in
documents, or information-as-things. which to approach this concept and
those that are considered and used as consequently to more fully inform
Information: Process, documents. work with and refine concentrations
Knowledge, Thing Indeed, information-as-thing of information.
In “Information as Thing,” which is central to many activities and Approaching information with
was published in Journal of the Amer- undertakings. Especially in infor- this framework helps illuminate what
ican Society for Information Science mation-intensive environments, it is that is being created, generated,
in June 1991, Buckland provides actors of all kinds – such as humans, produced, collected, organized, man-
arguably one of the clearest, most machines, and algorithms – are con- aged, interpreted, analyzed, stored,
foundational approaches on which to cerned and deal with documents, or retrieved, disseminated, transmit-
better understand information and information-as-things. ted, transformed, and used. Indeed,
to expand other such approaches. It Buckland notes that this ap- it helps illuminate the very thing
therefore serves as a useful tool, pro- proach is particularly relevant for – according to Buckland, informa-
viding both a point of departure for information science because both the tion-as-thing – that is so central to
further analyses of information and discipline and its professions deal information professionals’ focus and
a convergence point where divergent directly with information in the form practical work. E
paths can meet. This framework of documents. He states that “the
distinguishes three main components means provided, what is handled and
or uses of information: as process, as operated upon, what is stored and
knowledge, and as thing. retrieved, is physical information.”
Information-as-process involves Information systems, for example,
the alteration of an individual’s are directly concerned with informa-
knowledge state. It is the process of tion in this sense: libraries collect and
becoming informed. When people manage books and other information About the Author: Marc Kosciejew,
are informed, what they know is resources; computer-based infor- Ph.D., is head of department and
changed. Information is thus an act mation systems generate, manage, lecturer in library, information, and
of informing: the action of telling, and handle digital data; museums archives sciences in the University of
or of being told, something. This pro- deal with diverse kinds of objects; Malta’s faculty of media and knowl-
cess, in other words, is the communi- and records and information centers edge sciences. He has been published
cation of knowledge. steward information in its myriad in scholarly and professional jour-
Information-as-knowledge involves forms and formats. What is creat- nals, contributed to leading national
equating the information with the ed, handled, organized, managed, newspapers, lectured in Europe and
knowledge it imparts. Information provided, accessed, retrieved, stored, North America, conducted research
and knowledge are, in many instanc- preserved, and used is a type of in Africa and Asia, and presented at
es, closely related. The information information-as-thing. conferences worldwide. He is also the
that is communicated is consumed, When considering, explaining, recipient of ARMA International’s
perceived, and understood by individ- and using any kind of information, 2014 Britt Literary Award for his ar-
uals as knowledge, which simultane- a person should understand that, re- ticle on personal data rights. He can
ously changes their knowledge state. gardless of its kind, it is a process that be contacted at [email protected].

42 September/October 2017