This book arose from the 2007 workshop The Nature of Information. It was published in 2011 by Routledge, ed. Magnus Ramage and David Chapman. It is available in hardback or e-book format, both for purchase and through a number of academic libraries.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction - Magnus Ramage and David Chapman

2. Competing models of information in the history of cybernetics - Magnus Ramage

3. ‘The Information Revolution’: taking a long view - Chris Bissell

4. Information, meaning and context - David Chapman

5. Signs and Signals - John Monk

6. Fundamentals of Information: purposeful activity, meaning and conceptualisation - Sue Holwell

7. Using Information (and Exformation) to inform Action - Paul Lefrere

8. Information and Libraries: Impact of Web 2.0 - Juanita Foster-Jones

9. Three Principles of Information Flow: Conversation as a Dialogue Game - Paul Piwek

10. Quantum Information - Tony Nixon

11. Information Policy Making: developing the rules of the road for the information society (or the anatomy of a Digital Economy Act) - Ray Corrigan

12. Conclusion - David Chapman and Magnus Ramage

The book chapters did not contain abstracts.

Publisher's description

Information is everywhere, and defines everything in today's society. Moreover, information is a key concept in a wide range of academic disciplines, from quantum physics to public policy. However, these disciplines all interpret the concept in quite different ways. This book looks at information in several different academic disciplines - cybernetics, ICT, communications theory, semiotics, information systems, library science, linguistics, quantum physics and public policy.

Perspectives on Information brings clarity and coherence to different perspectives through promoting information as a unifying concept across the disciplinary spectrum. Though conceived as a contribution to the ongoing conversation between academic disciplines into the nature of information, the deliberately accessible style of this text (reflecting the authors’ backgrounds at The Open University) will be make it valuable for anyone who needs to know something more about information. Given the ubiquity of information in the 21st century, that means everyone.