36 research outputs found
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Curating the infosphere: Luciano Floridi's Philosophy of Information as the foundation for Library and Information Science
The purpose of this editorial review is to re-examine the prospect that Luciano Floridi's Philosophy of Information (PI), and information ethics (IE) may serve as the conceptual foundation for library and information science (LIS), and that LIS may thus be seen as applied PI. This re-examination is timely, fifteen years after this proposal was first made, in light of the development and wider acceptance of the PI concept itself, of advances in information technologies and changes in the information environment, and of the consequent, and continuing, need for LIS to re-evaluate its nature and role. We first give a brief and selective account of the introduction and consequent reception of the idea of PI as the basis for LIS; more detailed account of the origins of PI, and its initial reception within LIS, have been given by Furner (2010), by Fyffe (2015), and by Van der Veer Martens (2015). Then we consider whether such a basis is, in fact, needed, and, if so, what the other possibilities might be, and then examine five particular aspects of the relation between LIS and PI. The conclusions, for those who do not make to the end, are that such a foundation is indeed needed, and that PI is the most appropriate basis
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Supporting truth and promoting understanding: knowledge organization and the curation of the infosphere
This paper considers the response of knowledge organisation (KO) to a variety of problems and pathologies associated with the post-factual, or post-truth, society. It argues that there are no quick fixes, but that KO has several roles to play in mitigating these problems, particularly in the promotion of understanding, as well as the communication of informati on and the sharing of knowledge. Borrowing from Floridi's Philosophy of Information, it argues that KO, and more broadly library and information science (LIS), should address these problems as part of our role as 'curators of the infosphere'
WHAT IS INFORMATION SUCH THAT THERE CAN BE INFORMATION SYSTEMS?
Information systems, as a discipline, is concerned with the generation, storage and transmission of
information, generally by technological means. As such, it would seem to be fundamental that it has
a clear and agreed conceptualization of its core subject matter – namely “information”. Yet, we
would claim, this is clearly not the case. As McKinney and Yoos point out, in a recent survey of the
term information within information systems: “This is the IS predicament – using information as a
ubiquitous label whose meaning is almost never specified. Virtually all the extant IS literature fails to
explicitly specify meaning for the very label that identifies it.” We live in an information age and the
vast majority of information (whatever it may be) is made available through a wide range of
computer systems and one would expect therefore that information systems would in fact be one of
the leading disciplines of the times rather than one that appears to hide itself in the shadows.
Governments nowadays routinely utilize many academic experts to advise them in a whole range of
areas but how many IS professors ever get asked? So, the primary purpose of this paper is to
stimulate a debate within IS to discuss, and try to establish, a secure foundation for the discipline in
terms of its fundamental concept – information. The structure of the paper is that we will firstly
review the theories of information used (generally implicitly) within IS. Then we will widen the
picture to consider the range of theories available more broadly within other disciplines. We will
then suggest a particular approach that we consider most fruitful and discuss some of the major
contentious issues. We will illustrate the theories with examples from IS
Discovering the Knowledge Monopoly of Law Librarianship Under the DIKW Pyramid
Historical debates demonstrated that knowledge monopoly is a key to a profession. This article explores the exclusive knowledge base of the law librarianship profession through the lens of the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom (DIKW) paradigm
Super-science, fundamental dimension, way of being: Library and information science in an age of messages. With critique from Rafael Capurro
This is a blog post containing the somewhat revised text of a chapter published in a Festschrift for Rafael Capurr, with comments from Capurro on our chapter
Behind the scenes of emerging technologies Opportunities, challenges, and solution approaches along a socio-technical continuum
Digitalization is a socio-technical phenomenon that shapes our lives as individuals, economies, and societies. The perceived complexity of technologies continues to increase, and technology convergence makes a clear separation between technologies impossible. A good example of this is the Internet of Things (IoT) with its embedded Artificial Intelligence (AI). Furthermore, a separation of the social and the technical component has become near enough impossible, for which there is increasing awareness in the Information Systems (IS) community. Overall, emerging technologies such as AI or IoT are becoming less understandable and transparent, which is evident for instance when AI is described in terms of a black box. This opacity undermines humans trust in emerging technologies, which, however, is crucial for both its usage and spread, especially as emerging technologies start to perform tasks that bear high risks for humans, such as autonomous driving. Critical perspectives on emerging technologies are often discussed in terms of ethics, including such aspects as the responsibility for decisions made by algorithms, the limited data privacy, and the moral values that are encoded in technology. In sum, the varied opportunities that come with digitalization are accompanied by significant challenges.
Research on the negative ramifications of AI is crucial if we are to foster a human-centered technological development that is not simply driven by opportunities but by utility for humanity. As the IS community is positioned at the intersection of the technological and the social context, it plays a central role in finding answers to the question as to how the advantages outweigh the challenges that come with emerging technologies. Challenges are examined under the label of dark side of IS, a research area which receives considerably less attention in existing literature than the positive aspects (Gimpel & Schmied, 2019). With its focus on challenges, this dissertation aims to counterbalance this. Since the remit of IS research is the entire information system, rather than merely the technology, humanistic and instrumental goals ought to be considered in equal measure. This dissertation follows calls for research for a healthy distribution along the so-called socio-technical continuum (Sarker et al., 2019), that broadens its focus to include the social as well as the technical, rather than looking at one or the other. With that in mind, this dissertation aims to advance knowledge on IS with regard to opportunities, and in particular with a focus on challenges of two emerging technologies, IoT and AI, along the socio-technical continuum.
This dissertation provides novel insights for individuals to better understand opportunities, but in particular possible negative side effects. It guides organizations on how to address these challenges and suggests not only the necessity of further research along the socio-technical continuum but also several ideas on where to take this future research.
Chapter 2 contributes to research on opportunities and challenges of IoT. Section 2.1 identifies and structures opportunities that IoT devices provide for retail commerce customers. By conducting a structured literature review, affordances are identified, and by examining a sample of 337 IoT devices, completeness and parsimony are validated. Section 2.2 takes a close look at the ethical challenges posed by IoT, also known as IoT ethics. Based on a structured literature review, it first identifies and structures IoT ethics, then provides detailed guidance for further research in this important and yet under-appreciated field of study. Together, these two research articles underline that IoT has the potential to radically transform our lives, but they also illustrate the urgent need for further research on possible ethical issues that are associated with IoTs specific features.
Chapter 3 contributes to research on AI along the socio-technical continuum. Section 3.1 examines algorithms underlying AI. Through a structured literature review and semi-structured interviews analyzed with a qualitative content analysis, this section identifies, structures and communicates concerns about algorithmic decision-making and is supposed to improve offers and services. Section 3.2 takes a deep dive into the concept of moral agency in AI to discuss whether responsibility in human-computer interaction can be grasped better with the concept of agency. In section 3.3, data from an online experiment with a self-developed AI system is used to examine the role of a users domain-specific expertise in trusting and following suggestions from AI decision support systems. Finally, section 3.4 draws on design science research to present a framework for ethical software development that considers ethical issues from the beginning of the design and development process. By looking at the multiple facets of this topic, these four research articles ought to guide practitioners in deciding which challenges to consider during product development. With a view to subsequent steps, they also offer first ideas on how these challenges could be addressed. Furthermore, the articles offer a basis for further, solution-oriented research on AIs challenges and encourage users to form their own, informed, opinions.Die Digitalisierung ist ein sozio-technisches Phänomen, das unser persönliches Leben, aber auch die Wirtschaft und die gesamte Gesellschaft prägt. Die wahrgenommene Komplexität von Technologie nimmt stetig zu. Die Technologiekonvergenz macht eine klare Trennung zwischen Technologien praktisch unmöglich, wofür das Internet der Dinge (IoT) mit seiner eingebetteten Künstlichen Intelligenz (KI) ein gutes Beispiel ist. Darüber hinaus wird eine Trennung der sozialen und der technischen Komponente nahezu unmöglich, wofür es ein steigendes Bewusstsein in der Information Systems (IS) Community gibt. Insgesamt werden aufstrebende Technologien wie KI oder IoT weniger verständlich und transparent, was sich beispielsweise darin zeigt, dass KI der Begriff der Black Box zugeschrieben wird. Die Undurchsichtigkeit untergräbt das Vertrauen der Menschen in aufstrebende Technologien, das jedoch für die Nutzung und Verbreitung dieser entscheidend ist, insbesondere wenn Technologien Aufgaben übernehmen oder unterstützen, die hohe Risiken für den Menschen bergen, wie z. B. autonomes Fahren. Kritische Perspektiven auf neue Technologien werden oft unter dem Begriff der Ethik diskutiert, darunter Aspekte wie die Verantwortung für Entscheidungen, die von Algorithmen getroffen werden, moralische Werte, die in die Technologie eingebettet sind, und Datenschutz. Zusammenfassend lässt sich sagen, dass die vielfältigen Chancen der Digitalisierung mit Herausforderungen einhergehen.
Die Forschung zu Risiken und Nebenwirkungen ist entscheidend, um eine menschenzentrierte technologische Entwicklung zu fördern, die nicht nur von den Möglichkeiten, sondern insbesondere vom Nutzenstiften für die Menschheit getrieben ist. An der Schnittstelle zwischen Technologie und sozialem Kontext angesiedelt, spielt die IS-Community eine wichtige Rolle bei der Suche nach Antworten auf die Frage, wie die Vorteile die Risiken neuer Technologien überwiegen können. Herausforderungen werden im Forschungsbereich dark side of IS untersucht, welcher in der bestehenden Literatur deutlich weniger Aufmerksamkeit erhält als die positiven Aspekte (Gimpel & Schmied, 2019). Dem möchte diese Dissertation ein Stück weit entgegenwirken, indem ein Fokus auf die Herausforderungen gelegt wird. Da in der IS-Forschung das gesamte Informationssystem und nicht nur die Technologie im Mittelpunkt der Betrachtung steht, sollen humanistische und instrumentelle Ziele gleichermaßen berücksichtigt werden. Darüber hinaus folgt diese Dissertation dem Aufruf nach einer angemessenen Verteilung der Forschung entlang des sogenannten sozio-technischen Kontinuums (Sarker et al., 2019) und löst sich somit von Forschung, die am sozialen oder technischen Endpunkt des Kontinuums angesiedelt ist. Zusammenfassend zielt diese Dissertation darauf ab, das Wissen über IS im Hinblick auf die Chancen und insbesondere die Herausforderungen entlang des sozio-technischen Kontinuums der aufkommenden Technologien IoT und KI voranzutreiben. Damit liefert die Dissertation neue Einblicke für Individuen, um die Möglichkeiten, aber insbesondere die potenziellen negativen Nebenwirkungen der Digitalisierung besser zu verstehen, bietet Orientierung für Organisationen, um diese Herausforderungen zu adressieren, und veranschaulicht die Notwendigkeit und Ideen für weitere Forschung entlang des sozio-technischen Kontinuums.
Kapitel 2 leistet einen Beitrag zur Forschung über Chancen und Herausforderungen des IoT. Kapitel 2.1 identifiziert und strukturiert Chancen von IoT-Geräten für Kunden im Einzelhandel. Mit einer strukturierten Literaturrecherche werden Affordanzen von IoT-Geräten für Kunden identifiziert und mit einer Stichprobe von 337 IoT-Geräten wird eine Validierung hinsichtlich Vollständigkeit und Sparsamkeit durchgeführt. Kapitel 2.2 beschäftigt sich mit ethischen Herausforderungen des IoT, genannt IoT-Ethik. Basierend auf einer strukturierten Literaturrecherche identifiziert und strukturiert es die IoT-Ethik und gibt detaillierte Hinweise für die weitere Erforschung dieses wichtigen, aber noch zu wenig erforschten Feldes. Mit diesen beiden Forschungsartikeln unterstreicht diese Dissertation das Potenzial des IoT, unser Leben radikal zu verändern, verdeutlicht aber auch den Bedarf an weiterer Forschung zu potenziellen ethischen Fragen, die mit den spezifischen Eigenschaften des IoT verbunden sind. Kapitel 3 trägt zur Forschung über KI entlang des sozio-technischen Kontinuums bei. Kapitel 3.1 untersucht die Algorithmen, die KI zugrunde liegen. Eine strukturierte Literaturrecherche und semi-strukturierte Interviews, die mit einer qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse analysiert werden, zielen darauf ab, Bedenken gegenüber algorithmischer Entscheidungsfindung zu identifizieren, zu strukturieren und zu kommunizieren, um darauf basierend Angebote und Dienstleistungen zu verbessern. Kapitel 3.2 bietet eine ethische Vertiefung in das Konzept der moralischen Handlungsfähigkeit und untersucht, ob Verantwortung in der Mensch-Computer-Interaktion mit dem Konzept der Agency besser erfasst werden kann. In Kapitel 3.3 wird anhand von Daten aus einem Online-Experiment mit einem selbst entwickelten KI-System untersucht, welche Rolle das domänenspezifische Fachwissen der Nutzer für das Vertrauen in und das Befolgen von Vorschlägen von KI-Entscheidungsunterstützungssystemen spielt. Schließlich wird in Kapitel 3.4 auf der Grundlage designwissenschaftlicher Forschung ein Rahmenwerk für ethische Softwareentwicklung vorgestellt, das ethische Aspekte bereits zu Beginn des Design- und Entwicklungsprozesses berücksichtigt. Diese vier Forschungsartikel können Praktikern als Orientierung dienen, welche Herausforderungen bei der Produktentwicklung zu berücksichtigen sind und bieten erste Ideen, wie sie diese angehen können. Darüber hinaus bieten die Forschungsergebnisse eine Grundlage für weitere, lösungsorientierte Forschung zu den Herausforderungen von KI und ermutigen Nutzer, sich eine eigene, fundierte Meinung zu bilden
Glossarium BITri 2016 : Interdisciplinary Elucidation of Concepts, Metaphors, Theories and Problems Concerning Information
222 p.Terms included in this glossary recap some of the main
concepts, theories, problems and metaphors concerning
INFORMATION in all spheres of knowledge.
This is the first edition of an ambitious enterprise covering
at its completion all relevant notions relating to
INFORMATION in any scientific context. As such,
this glossariumBITri is part of the broader project
BITrum, which is committed to the mutual understanding
of all disciplines devoted to information
across fields of knowledge and practic
What is information? Toward a theory of information as objective and veridical
Information systems are a strong and ever-growing discipline of enormous relevance to today’s informated world, and yet, as recent reviews have shown, there is still not an agreed and explicit conceptualization or definition of information. After an evaluative review of a range of theories of information, this paper develops and defends a particular theory, one that sees information as both objective and veridical. By objective, we mean that the information carried by signs and messages exists independently of its receivers or observers. The information carried by a sign exists even if the sign is not actually observed. By veridical, we mean that information must be true or correct in order to be information – information is truth-constituted. False information is not information, but misinformation or disinformation. The paper develops this theory and then discusses four contentious issues – information as objective rather than subjective; information as true or correct; information and knowledge; and information and the ambiguity of meaning. It concludes with a discussion of the practical implications of the theory