What is Information?: An Enquiry beyond Information Science from a Systemic Point of View

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Abstract

This chapter uses the concept of system to enquire into the concept of information, trying to separate the different senses in which this core concept is used in Information Science and other sciences, that is, physical or “raw” information, messages, knowledge, news, documentation and meta-information. The concept of information is studied as a system of layers or levels, in which each new sense emerges from the previous one. Once each of these senses is clearly established, it is possible to provide more specific insights about the real scientific domain of Information Science: a science related to the design and maintenance of external social memories and the process of referring their contents to relevant personal and social activities. Its focus is, therefore, the optimization of the processes of social memory. So, in conclusion, Information Science is, first, a science of social memory and its use, and, even more specifically, of the methodologies and technologies (social or technical) that exist to optimize its functioning by means of external memories, references (metadata) and systems of metadata (ontologies).