What is information?

Hello momterrific,

There are numerous different contexts in which 'information' can be
used, each having it's own meaning. At last check, Dictionary.com had
several different meaning variations, with three different instances
of the word 'information'. The three instances are standard
definitions from three distinct sources. I will use the American
Heritage Dictionary definitions in this answer. I have taken the
liberty to break them all down, with an example of each in it's daily
use:

Definition of 'information' at Dictionary.com
http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=information


Different meanings with examples
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

in*for*ma*tion

1 - Knowledge derived from study, experience, or instruction.
"I found the information the teacher gave me to be very relevant."

2 - Knowledge of specific events or situations that has been gathered
or received by communication; intelligence or news.
"Our information sources give us three instances of the word
'information'."

3 - A collection of facts or data
"This factual information was provided by a Google researcher."

4 - The act of informing or the condition of being informed;
communication of knowledge
"This answer is provided for the information of our clients."

5 - Processed, stored, or transmitted data. (Computer Science)
"This question has been submitted to a processing program and the
resulting information is 'spit' out of the program as a binary
number." (not really)

6 - A numerical measure of the uncertainty of an experimental outcome.
"The information with concern to variable 'A' is not equal to the
amount of uncertainty of solving the overall problem."


Further explanation could bring us into debate about the actual
current existence of 'information' and it's definition. Information is
not a quantitive substance that can be measured in terms of finite
math, rather it is often associated with data that is represented from
within each 'realm' of it's use.

"I guess an example would provide better 'information'." Hmmm. Where
is that statement quantified, and at which point do we determine that
'information' actually exists?

In short - there are many examples of what 'information' is and is
not. I am of the belief that our brain memory is used to the fullest
with daily life concerns, and out of respect for our own sanity - we
quantify the terms that we need to, in order to function.

Here is an interesting article:

"What is information?" by Andrzej Chmielecki (Boston University)
http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Cogn/CognChmi.htm

He goes on to define 'information' in pieces.(Which in theory is the
best approach to understand anything that can not be contained or
understood fully)

Here is an excerpt:

"Information is an abstract entity. It has no separate existence on
its own, because no difference can exist save there are real states of
affairs between which the difference holds, and which constitute its
code."

Does this 'information' answer your question? :-)


To help assist with the answer, I searched Google for:
what is information
://www.google.com/search?q=%22what+is+information%22

I hope this touches up on what you needed. If you need further
clarification, please ask before rating this answer, as I would love
to be of further assistance.

Thanks for the tough question!
SgtCory

Beautiful question, and a very elegant answer.  There is another
aspect of "information" worth attention, and it *is* quantifiable
(sort of).  That is the "information" as defined in Claude Shannon's
seminal work which gave rise to the modern study of "information
theory".  In it, he relates information to the amount of uncertainty
in a system, also called the system's entropy.

It's not simple.  It's not always satisfying, since it defines
"information" in theory, but doesn't always give a practical result to
the question of "how much (or how little) information is in system X?"
whether X is a book, a piece of music, a conversation, a computer
program, an ecosystem, etc.

Anyway, a little bit of background can be had at: 
http://www.lucent.com/minds/infotheory/what1.html

It's a Lucent site....better read it quick before they're out of
business.

Information is data that has been processed into a form that is useful.
This is my understanding of information. Hope it might be useful.

Regards.

pafalafa,

Great point. It is in fact Claude Shannon's detailed work on
information theory that my second reference makes call to.

By the way - I like the lucent reference :-) I remember when their
stock was on the up and up. Current price today: $1.16

Thanks for the comments, every bit of 'information' helps -

SgtCory

Recommend "Women's Ways of Knowing" by Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger,
and Tarule for a scholastic analysis of gender-based subjectivity as a
context for determinging which verbal/written communications are
relevant to build a knowledge base.  Drawn from interviews with women
from varied social/cultural/economic groups.