The Book Of
Informatics
0.1 Introducing informatics
- · Informatics is the art and science of information.
- · Information involves data and knowledge.
- · Eg: Map – idea of place, form of info designed for a purpose, useful when know to use it
- · Informatics is about forms of information, their origin and transformation, meaning and use.
0.1.1 Describing informatics
- · Informatics is about information
- · Informatics as the art and science of information.
- · Involve processes of information handling, usually supported by technology.
- · made up word, invented at the beginning of the era of computing to describe the new kinds of professional work being done.
- · French publication : the application of computers to store and process information
- · American company : the science of information handling
- · informatics was academically seen as combining computer science and information science
- · University of Edinburgh: Informatics is developing its own fundamental concepts of communication, knowledge, data, interaction and information, and relating them to such phenomena as computation, thought and language.
- · Informatics involves both social and technical aspects: both the ‘soft’ and the ‘hard’. This is why informatics is considered both art and science
- · Academic field: information systems, computing science, information technology, information science
- · Other academic fields: digital media, management science, epistemics, operations research, human-computer interaction, cybernetics, cognitive modelling and communication
- · A simple definition of informatics by Saul Gorn: ‘Informatics is computer science plus information science’
- · Other fields of ideas: business informatics, health informatics, bioinformatics, legal informatics, art informatics, social informatics
0.1.2 Major types of informatics
- · Business informatics: Accounting, economics, management, marketing, tourism, leisure – all these disciplines entail decision-making, planning, communication and knowledge work.
- · Media informatics: Designing games, animations and interactive websites are some, film-making, urban design and planning, managing cultural heritage and tourist-oriented displays
- · Social informatics: emphasizes the social aspects of information technologies and their use. community groups, political activity, language and cultural preservation and sharing, language studies, social change and equity
- · Health informatics: nursing, allied health, alternative health and medical practice supported by information technologies and systems. Eg: Electronic patient records, clinical decision-making, remote controlled surgery
- · Environmental informatics: Monitoring weather patterns, the spread of weeds or exotic species, depletion of fish stocks, salinity, water levels
- · Informatics itself: informatics can be applied in almost any area, it also encompasses its own traditions, practices, writings and forms of specific knowledge. Eg: information systems, computing science and philosophy, information and communication technology, knowledge management, and library and information science.
0.1.3
Why is informatics important?
- · Intelligent decision-making can now be done on a more informed basis, faster, more efficiently and on a larger scale.
- · New applications become possible, such as specifically targeted marketing or production.
- · Knowledge worker is the term given to anyone who deals with information and its handling as a major aspect of their professional life
- · End-users are another term for those who work with computer applications, typically spreadsheets, databases and word processing packages.
Why study informatics?
- · because you want to work
- · because you don’t want to work
- · because you think it is fun
- · because you don’t think it is fun
- · because you think it is useful
- · because you don’t think it is useful.
- · A study of informatics prepares you for just about any professional work available now or likely in the future, and gives you skills relevant to creative and advanced aspects of other fields.
0.2 Theory and practice in
informatics
- Informatics is therefore as much about:
- • people as about numbers
- • messy political problems situations as about logical puzzles
- • social acceptance as about technology development
- • use as design
- Informatics concepts questions:
- • How can I know for sure?
- • What is important to remember from this experience?
- • What decision should I make in this situation?
- • What is this ‘I’ asking ‘What is this I?’?
- • What can an individual do faced with world problems?
- • What public transport service standards should there be?
- • How do we cure cancer or AIDS?
- • How do I express to others what I mean so they will understand?
- • What is the best course of action for our family/group/nation/planet?
- • How should I organise my personal stuff?
- • How do you solve a problem like Maria?
- • How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?
- • What is to be done?
- Asking questions
- • Asking good questions can uncover good information
- • To be able to do this, and to assess the answers, than to be told someone else’s answers to remember.
- Frames
- • Frames are cognitive models that shape how information is perceived, categorised and associated with a system of ideas.
- A way of seeing is a way of not seeing:
- • Focusing on one object (or aspect of a situation) can mean neglecting another.
- The post modem skills array:
- • Posing essential questions
- • Identifying subsidiary questions
- • Opening one’s mind
- • Suggesting and testing hypotheses
- • Building and testing models
- • Planning a cyberspace voyage
- • Learning on the run
- • Screening and compacting garbage
- • Sorting and sifting data
- • Analysing data
- • Seeing and finding what’s missing
- • Exploiting serendipity
- • Navigating in the dark
- • Navigating in the mud
- • Scanning from the crow’s nest
- • Changing course
- • Incubation
- • Recognising anomaly
0.2.1 Information and thinking
- • The evidence from your senses and from your past experience taken together confirm this as another example of a known pattern - no new information
- • Having compared new data with old knowledge, your information leads you to conclude, - you have decided - not with complete certainty, but an informed decision has been made.
- Common activities in informatics:
- • recognized a pattern (eg: a chessboard design)
- • applied prior knowledge (the categories light and dark)
- • observed relevant contextual information (the shadow affects shades)
- • compared knowledge sources (prior theory and data ‘out there’)
- • Made a decision (used information to conclude between two options).
- Common ideas in informatics:
- • context surrounds decision making
- • social and political pressures may affect opinion
- • information can be implicit in the way a choice is framed
- • problems can be solved by an agreed method
- • categories, such as light and dark, can change with context
- • Previously accepted ideas can be changed.
0.2.2 Tools to help practical
problem solving
- · Information is managed in all these and tools to help all of these activities have been developed.
- · Tools may be helpful ways of thinking, or embodied in a technology.
- · Tools are normally designed to have specific functions and uses, but are often adapted for use in new situations.
- · Tools for knowledge work, extending the capacity of the human mind to work with information.
- · The mental abilities of storing, retrieving, recognizing patterns, predicting and so on are enhanced and supported by relevant tools and technologies.
- · When we think, when we design, when we work with ‘mental stuff ’, a range of activities and themes are involved.
- · These same essential themes (discovery, communicating, sharing, deciding) apply in different cultures and in different eras.
- When we think, or answer questions, a number of processes are involved, such as:
- • defining the question or problem
- • finding and noting information relevant to possible answers
- • recognizing a pattern
- • Evaluating the answers.
0.2.3 Designing information
- • Informatics is a design discipline, where human activity, technology and systems are mutually shaped and their activities are redesigned
- • In informatics generally, information is designed, produced, communicated and used.
- • Information products, one way or another, are the stuff of modern life, and in many organizations information is the product, the intelligent processing that adds value to the business, such as accounting, marketing or other information centered functions.
- • Information products include documents, web pages, reports, signage systems, forms, transport timetables, presentations, food labels, plans and articles.
- • Usability is one of several aspects to consider when we think about what makes a communication informative, and these are important when designing information products in any area. For example:
- Is it new or surprising?
- • Telling people what they already know makes no practical difference.
- Is it reliable?
- • Can we trust articles by private citizens on the Internet to inform our policy?
- Is it accurate?
- • Are you sure that carpet will fit the space exactly?
- Is it relevant?
- • Do we really need to know Australian Football League round 10 scores from 2004?
- Is it timely?
- • This information about the horse racing odds is for last week’s races!
- Is it useable?
- • This huge table of numbers does not tell me at a glance how the company is travelling!
- Other considerations (which may not always apply) can also be added, such as:
- Is it complete?
- • Is any of the data missing?
- Is it simple?
- • Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler (Einstein).
- Is it economical (and efficient to produce)?
- • The cost to produce information should not exceed the benefit it returns.
- Is it flexible (and thus useable for various purposes)?
- • Such as a multipurpose joke for all occasions, or a spreadsheet you can rearrange to answer different questions.
- Is it verifiable?
- • Can it be independently checked, preferably from more than one reliable source?
- Is it accessible?
- • Can the right people get it when they need to?
- Is it secure?
- • Can the wrong people not get it when we don’t want them to?
- Information design is
- • the defining, planning and shaping of the contents of a message and the environments in which it is presented with the intention of achieving particular objectives in relation to the needs of users
0.2 Information
systems
- • Information systems are usually combinations of people, processes and technology that perform some useful function
- • Information systems do not have to involve IT – low-tech or no-tech tools can achieve the same purposes
- • Information system that requires technology can give them much more power and speed than low-tech alternatives.
- • typical motivation for designing an information system is to meet an identified requirement
- • Information systems comprise not just information technologies, but address their use and impact in human contexts. This understanding affects the design, adoption and value of ICT, and their place in government, commerce and society.
- • New possibilities in informatics are continually emerging, new ways of accessing information, music or entertainment, new ways of sharing knowledge and resources, new ways of communicating and making friends, new ways of doing business
- Several information systems activities:
- • having the barcode on something you bought scanned in a shop
- • using a multiride electronic transport ticket
- • checking a book out of the library
- • enrolling for classes over the Internet
- • chatting online
- • reading text messages
- • paying rent online.
- An information system may take:
- • a set of marks and transform it to help decide a student’s final grade
- • sets of football scores and produce a table
- • annual sales figures and produce a graphic of good and bad performers
- • a new recruit, a set of business rules and quiz-generating software, and produce a trained employee.
0.4 Summary
- • Informatics is the art and science of information.
- • Informatics studies all the aspects of information: how it gets produced, how it gets processed, how it gets changed, how it gets used.
- • Informatics is relevant to all modern professions, as well as to leisure and play.
- • Informatics is the central discipline of our time, yet its themes have been around throughout all human history.
- • Informatics spans the traditional information disciplines (such as information systems, computing, and information science) and underpins others (media, business, design and scientific).
- • Informatics is the discipline that addresses how we live with information.
- • Informatics is also an applied discipline, where techniques from the information disciplines are used in the practical service of others.
