Principles of Information Systems Session 01 What are Informatics?

Principles of Information SystemsSession 01

What are Informatics?

What are Informatics?

Chapter 0

Overview

Learning objectives

1. Introducing informatics

2. Theory and practice in informatics

3. Information systems

4. Summary

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Learning objectives

• Explain what informatics is• Describe several types of informatics disciplines• Explain why informatics involves both theory and

practice• Describe thirteen criteria for good information

products• Describe some fundamental things that we do when

we handle information• Describe what an information system is • Explain why informatics is the central discipline of

our time

Informatics is the art and science of the information that defines and

shapes our world

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Introducing informatics

• Information saturates our personal and our professional lives.

-Music is information-Language is information-Numbers are information-Pictures are information -…

• Informatics is the art and science of information- It is the discipline that addresses how we live with information.

1. Introducing informatics2. Theory and practice in informatics3. Information systems4. Summary

Cartoons by Dorsi Germann

http://www.powerfulinformation.org/page.cfm?pageid=pi-accesstoinfo

Imbalance of information

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Informatics …

• Much of the world now has unprecedented access to data and information.

• Ironically much of the rest of the world does not, and is even losing its traditional knowledge

• Informatics is about forms of information, their origin and transformation, meaning and use

• Informatics is about information, data, knowledge … and ideas.

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… a particular form of information designed for a purpose

A map is an idea of a place…view

It has place names and other data, and if you know how to use it you can find your way around. It is informative, as long as you know what it means.

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A map is an idea of a place…

Very different maps can be drawn ofthe same place, representing different ideas about it and different possibilities for their users.

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Describing informatics

• Informatics itself is a made up word, invented in 1962 at the beginning of the era of computing to describe the new kinds of professional work being done.

• Informatics is commonly understood to involve processes of information handling, usually supported by technology.

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‘Informatics is developing its own fundamental concepts of communication, knowledge, data, interaction and information, and relating them to such phenomena as computation, thought and language’

University of Edinburgh

‘Informatics focuses on people, information and technology as jointly essential … [it] is a design discipline’

John Carroll, Indiana University

Informatics is the bridge between the hard skills associated with technology and the soft understandings associated with people and society.

University of Buffalo

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Informatics…

• The themes of informatics are the everyday activities that have been enacted throughout history and across cultures:

-Selecting, communicating, discovering, recording, organising, problem-solving, deciding, learning…

• Information and communications technologies and tools enable more information to be processed and handled, and exciting new possibilities –

-but the themes are timeless and durable

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Some major types of informatics

• Business informatics• Media informatics • Social informatics• Health informatics• Environmental informatics• Art informatics• Legal informatics

…

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Business informatics

• Accounting, economics, management, marketing, tourism, leisure – all entail decision-making, planning, communication and knowledge work, and all use information systems and technologies.

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Media informatics

• Designing games, animations and interactive websites; film-making, urban design and planning, managing cultural heritage and tourist-oriented displays; cataloguing and archiving art collections, museum and exhibition management…

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Social informatics

• Informatics facilitates and enables activities of community groups, political activity, language and cultural preservation and sharing, language studies, social change and equity…

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Health informatics

• Health is a growing area of research and activity, supported by information technologies and systems.

• Informatics techniques are used in:-Everyday problem-solving in patient care

-Making discoveries from patterns in large data sets, such as in bioinformatics

-Querying and finding information

-Electronic patient records, clinical decision-making, remote controlled surgery…

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Environmental informatics

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• Informing policy decisions based on analysis of environmental evidence is becoming urgent in many areas, and informatics is central to this.

• Monitoring weather patterns, the spread of weeds or exotic species, depletion of fish stocks, salinity, water levels… all require the ability to understand and visualise patterns in large sets of data

Informatics itself• Informatics also encompasses its own traditions,

practices, writings and forms of specific knowledge

• These are currently embodied in fields such as:-information systems -computing science and philosophy -information and communication technology knowledge management

-library and information science

• Practitioner knowledge also informs the field, and keeps its thinking relevant.

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Why is informatics important?

• Informatics is undeniably the central discipline of our time. It is one of the newest, and, at the same time, one of the oldest of all areas of study.

• It asks the basic questions:

-What things exist?

-What do we know?

-What should we do?

and brings together ideas, methods and insights from the history of thought to address these questions.

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Why is informatics important?

• These general philosophical questions, their possible answers and human applications existed long before information technology.

• At the same time practical responses now become possible for everyday applications.

• Practically, intelligent decision-making can now be done on a more informed basis, faster, more efficiently and on a larger scale.

• And new applications become possible, such as specifically targeted marketing or production

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Who works in informatics?

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Anyone!• Professionally:

-Knowledge workers deal with information and its handling as a major aspect of their professional life

-End-users work with computer packages, such as spreadsheets, databases and word processing

• And privately:-putting personal content on the Internet, managing photo or music collections involves practical information handling and design

Information is central to all

aspects of our lives, and

informatics is the discipline that

addresses how we live with

information.

Recap

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Theory and practice in informatics• Informatics has both a theoretical and a practical

tradition.

• Intellectually, the ideas include both ‘hard’ aspects with a more scientific focus and ‘soft’ with a more human focus.

• Knowledge and methods have emerged from:

-hard fields such as management science, operations research, cybernetics, engineering, artificial intelligence and computer science

-soft fields, such as social sciences, media, psychology, philosophy, design.

1. Introducing informatics2. Theory and practice in

informatics3. Information systems4. Summary

Theory and practice in informatics

• Informatics is therefore as much about:-people as about numbers

-messy political problems situations as

about logical puzzles

-social acceptance as about technology

development

-use as design.

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Theory and practice in informatics

• Informatics also has a strong practitioner tradition

• The increasing importance of informatics in organisational and personal life has resulted in ideas and methods arising from practitioners developing solutions to workaday problems.

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Asking questions• Many of the essential questions that informatics addresses

have preoccupied thinkers throughout time. In addition, handling information requires practical responses to these questions, and actions in everyday life.

• Informatics concepts help to understand and approach such questions:

-How can I know for sure?-What is important to remember from this experience?-What decision should I make in this situation?-What is this ‘I’ asking ‘What is this I?’?-What can an individual do faced with world problems? …

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Asking questions

• Each question also frames its possible solution within a discipline of information, and what type of answer is seen as relevant.

• The way things are framed also affects whether a choice is acceptable, or whether something is even considered as a problem.

• Framing, or how information is presented for interpretation (and the system of ideas that shape its interpretation) is a very common idea in informatics.

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Information and thinking

During my eighty-seven years I have witnessed a whole succession of technological revolutions. But none of them has done away with the need for character in the individual or the ability to think.

(Bernard M. Baruch)

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How will you decide?

Do you believe me?

Squares A and B are the same shade of grey

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Square B is lighter!

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• I know that chessboards have alternating squares of black and white

• There’s a shadow, but I can still see that the squares are different

This illustrates some common activities in informatics…

What have you done?

• Among other things you have:-recognised a pattern

(in this case a chessboard design)-applied prior knowledge

(the categories light and dark)-observed relevant contextual information

(the shadow affects shades)-compared knowledge sources

(prior theory and data ‘out there’)-decided

(used information to conclude between two options).

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Suppose I still insist that the squares are the same shade – do you believe me?

How shall we resolve it?

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We could select each square…

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view

And match to a spectrum of grey

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Confirm by swapping squares

step

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What does this tell us?

• We have just demonstrated several other common ideas in informatics:

-context surrounds decision making-social and political pressures may affect opinion- information can be implicit in the way a choice is framed-problems can be solved by an agreed method-categories, such as light and dark, can change with context-previously accepted ideas can be changed.

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Tools for practical problem solving

• When we think, or answer questions, a number of processes are involved, such as:

-Defining the question or problem-Finding and noting information relevant to possible answers-Recognising a pattern-Evaluating the answers

• Information is managed in all these activities, and tools to help have been developed

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Tools for practical problem solving

• Tools can extend and adapt physical abilities, for physical work.

• In informatics, the mental abilities of storing, retrieving, recognising patterns, predicting and so on are enhanced and supported by relevant tools and technologies

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When we think, design, or work

with ‘mental stuff’ the same

essential themes apply,

whether in everyday or

professional life

Recap

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Information products

… documents, web pages, reports, signage systems, forms, transport timetables, presentations, food labels, plans and articles, CDs, data stored in computers or disks, software and procedure manuals; temporary communications such as sketches, briefings, diagrams and notes made on flip charts; theatre posters, logos…

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Designing information products

• Design principles can be applied to all types of information product to ensure communication is effective and key information is presented.

• Badly designed forms:-cause confusion-cost money-cause the customer to lose patience -can mislead and misrepresent intention

• The issue of usability has been a concern in informatics for many years.

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Which party is this vote for?

Usability in the Palm Beach voting form

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Information Design - the defining, planning and shaping of the contents of a message and the environments in which it is presented in with the intention of achieving particular objectives in relation to the needs of users.

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Information design principles

1. Is it new or surprising?- Telling people what they already know makes no practical difference.

2. Is it reliable?- Can we trust articles by private citizens on the Internet to inform our

policy?

3. Is it accurate?- Remember, 43 per cent of statistics are worthless.

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Information design principles

4. Is it relevant?- Do we really need to know AFL round 10 scores from 2004?

5. Is it timely?- This information about the horse racing odds is for last week’s races!

6. Is it usable?- This huge table of numbers does not tell me at a glance how the

company is travelling!

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Information design principles

7. Is it complete?- Is any of the data missing?

8. Is it simple?- Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler (Einstein)

9. Is it economical (and efficient to produce)?- The cost to produce information should not exceed the benefit it returns.

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Information design principles

10. Is it flexible? - A multipurpose joke for all occasions, a spreadsheet that answers

different questions

11. Is it verifiable?- Can it be independently checked, preferably from more than one

reliable source?

12. Is it accessible?- Can the right people get it when they need to?

13. Is it secure?- Can the wrong people not get it when we don’t want them to?

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NewReliableAccurateRelevantTimelyUsableCompleteSimpleEconomicalFlexibleVerifiableAccessibleSecure

Evaluate it using the 13 information design principles

How well designed is this map?

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Information design principles

can be applied to all types of

information product to ensure

communication is effective

and key information is

presented.

Recap

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Information systems

• Information systems are combinations of people, processes and (usually) technology that perform some useful function

• They take some inputs and transform them to outputs

• And they are designed to meet some identified requirement

• Information systems don’t have to involve technology, but usually do because of the increased power and speed it provides

1. Introducing informatics2. Theory and practice in informatics3. Information systems4. Summary

When have you used an information system today?

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• Buying something in a shop• Using a multi-rider electronic transport ticket• Checking a book out of the library• Enrolling for classes over the Internet• Chatting online• Reading text messages• Paying rent online• …

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Information systems

• Information systems comprise not just information technologies, but their use and impact in human contexts.

• This understanding affects the design, adoption and value of information and communication technologies (ICTs), and their place in government, commerce and society.

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Information systems• New possibilities in informatics are continually

emerging – there are new ways of:-accessing information, music or entertainment, -sharing knowledge and resources, -communicating and making friends, -doing business, -participating in society and government.

• All these applications and only require people to imagine, design and develop them.

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Information systems

• Humanity has never been more ‘in love’ with information than it is now.

• Information systems are now so embedded in everyday life that society is effectively dependent on them.

• New applications are constantly happening, but we must ask - What do we need as a society? - What sort of life do we want?

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Information systems are combinations

of people, processes and (usually)

technology that perform some useful

function.

They comprise not just information

technologies, but their use and impact

in human contexts.

Recap

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Summary

• Informatics is the discipline that addresses how we live with information

• Informatics is relevant to all modern professions, as well as to leisure and play.

• Informatics has its own areas of knowledge and these areas are relevant to all other disciplines of study.

• The themes of informatics have been around throughout all human history and cultures.

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Summary

• Informatics involves both theory and practice

• Design principles can be applied to all types of information product to ensure communication is effective and key information is presented

• Information systems are combinations of people, processes and (usually) technology that perform some useful function

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