This is the blog of Andrew Dillon, dean of the iSchool at UT. Herein is a series of occasional thoughts and comments about education, research and the general state of affairs in the broad information studies arena. The Architecture of Information covers it all, from education of new information professionals to the state of the art in information studies, it’s BIG IA.
This is not where I put my research papers but it is where I record what I am thinking about and what is capturing my attention. Your comments are welcome but I reserve the right to ignore, delete, and generally display a lack of tolerance for the insulting, the inane and the ignorant.
Why a Third Force?
The information field represents a third force that is vital to our future well being. Sure we need technological advances and we need to understand how to leverage economic benefit from all the data that is out there, but as we now enter the first century in which more than half the world resides in an urban environment, the emerging socio-technical world in which we all reside needs to be understood as more than a computing and business environment. Without this other perspective we will not attend fully to important matters of policy and governance, design and interaction, curation and accuracy, and education and enhancement in our lives. The trouble with most discussions of information is they are tied so closely to a narrow view of technology that it is easy to lose sight of how enveloped we are becoming in new practices, behaviours and experiences. Yet it is these very human and cultural aspects which will prove vital to our ability to shape the kind of world in which we wish to live. I employed the term ‘third force’ in recent talks to emphasize how important it is for those of us in the information field to engage actively when the other forces of dominate discussions of how the future will be. I am not beating up on the business or technological agenda of others, I accept them as necessary. But I do object to discussions of information and our world being dominated by business and technological interests. If technology meeting the free market is all we need, why do I have to pay for bundled cable rather than the channels I actually watch? Why do libraries have to purchase journals they never use to get access to a few the scholars they support really read? Why are DVDs regionalized for playback? Why must I upgrade my software and hardware on a manufacturer’s cycle rather than my genuine need? Why are my 10 year old floppy disks gathering dust but my 50 year old vinyl records still sounding joyous? Why is educational software so bad, and gaming software so violent? Why must I limit the use of my own words once I agree to have them published in a scholarly journal? Why is most policy on information infrastructure so out of touch with our professional and personal lives? Who will steward our cultural resources when there is no obvious profit margin to be gained? And don’t forget all the other questions about access to information, the right to read what you want, the accuracy of information and so forth. The answers to these questions might point you in a new direction for thinking about our world and how we want it to be. May the third force be with you!
Information: A New Discipline for Accelerating Discovery
We live in an era characterized by information technologies powerful and cheap enough to be used anywhere and anytime. Massive amounts of data, once physically bound to a location, are now shared, freed from time and space constraints on use. The mechanisms of scholarly communication are being challenged by open access, self-publishing peer networks. The emerging cyber infrastructure will enable new forms of collaborative research and data analysis that cross disciplinary divides. Education is no longer tied to a classroom. Communities are no longer tied geographically. Resources are no longer only physical.
All disciplines are affected and it is resulting in the blurring and crossing of subject boundaries. This is not the same old story of progress – history offers us few lessons when the changes enabled by technologies of information are so all-powerful. This is a new Gutenberg era and like that earlier period, it will change the world quickly, permanently, and in ways that that we do not easily anticipate.
There is a vital lesson to grasp about these changes. Data is stored, but information is experienced. How we design, manage, and share information will affect the experiences of all members of our society. I believe the ultimate goal of information experiences is discovery. In so saying, this provides the basis for a new field of information studies that contributes insights and knowledge to the human and social processes of discovery.
Discovery can be formal and informal, significant and trivial, personal or shared. It is an experience for all, young or old, expert or novice, professional or amateur. Acts of discovery are life long, and in their most refined form are defining characteristics of our species.
The process of discovery requires the meeting of an enquiring mind with a world, real or virtual, present or represented. Libraries and collections, physical and virtual, provide rich representational spaces for discovery. Digital tools offer interfaces to information for visualization, manipulation, and analysis. The emerging cyber infrastructure unites people and practices with layers of technology and resources. There is no turning back. The field of information serves to facilitate the engagement of minds into acts of discovery through the gathering, organization and presentation of vast data sets, and the tools for exploration and innovation.
It is happening already. There are 1bn Internet users today. There will be 2bn by 2015. The Internet has changed society, spawned more than a trillion dollar impact on the global economy, and this is only the beginning. Despite popular images, Internet use is not just about email and Google. 40m Americans report having used the Internet to find scientific information, and more impressively, 80% of these state they have checked the quality of this information with other sources. The need for curation and stewardship has never been greater. 99.99% of all new data is born digital. The ability to store data in a tiny chip exceeds the capability of the Library of Congress to store paper equivalents. All professions involve digital technology use somewhere in the set of tasks they perform. We have witnessed in a decade the emergence of a new socio-technical infrastructure in which we routinely live and work, make purchases and perform services, learn and communicate, create and share, without pause or concern for distance. Those born in the last decade will never understand a world without the Internet. More than half of teenage users have created and shared digital materials. The longer life expectancy of people now anticipates extended or multiple career opportunities which will demand more fluid and individual educational opportunities as never before.
What lies ahead should be studied. It should not be left to business or technological forces alone but should be planned and shaped with human and social concerns at the forefront. It unites the arts and sciences, it involves design and creativity, and it is will require legal processes and economic insights to understand and to manage. Ultimately, we need to create a new field, one that can make sense of the data smog we live in, helping people to leverage meaning from information, be they scientists or citizens, adult s or children, rich or poor. This is the field of Information, and its mission is to enable, and even accelerate, discovery for the benefit of all.
A new field requires a new kind of school. And this is why we have schools of information.