Information

							           Information
            William Hugh Murray
             October 15, 2001




NPS CISR           Ethics         1
     “He said that there was one only good, namely,
    knowledge; and one only evil,namely, ignorance.”


              -- attributed by Diogenes to Socrates




NPS CISR                      Ethics                   2
                         Definitions:
•   Information is knowledge about something, esp. facts and news.
•   Information retrieval is the process of finding stored information on a
    computer.
•   Information technology (abbreviation IT) is the science and activity of
    storing and sending out information by using computers.




NPS CISR                            Ethics                                    3
                          Information:
•   the (recording) communication or reception of knowledge or intelligence

•   a (1) : knowledge obtained from investigation, study, or instruction (2) :
    INTELLIGENCE, NEWS (3) : FACTS, DATA
•   b : the attribute inherent in and communicated by one of two or more alternative
    sequences or arrangements of something (as nucleotides in DNA or binary
    digits in a computer program) that produce specific effects
•   c (1): a signal or character (as in a communication system or computer)
    representing data (2) : something (as a message, experimental data, or a
    picture) which justifies change in a construct (as a plan or theory) that
    represents physical or mental experience or another construct
•   d : a quantitative measure of the content of information; specifically : a numerical
    quantity that measures the uncertainty in the outcome of an experiment to be
    performed



NPS CISR                                 Ethics                                        4
      From Information Theory:
• Information: that quality or property of a
  record or message that reduces the
  uncertainty in the communication
• Bit: that quantity of information that
  reduces uncertainty by half



NPS CISR             Ethics                    5
                      Examples
•   A medical record
•   A database of medical records
•   An expression of an idea
•   An image
•   Encoded sound
•   A movie
•   A model
•   Encapsulation of work
•   Encapsulation of special knowledge
•   An expression of a design
•   DNA
•   A robot personality
NPS CISR                       Ethics    6
“The automation of a process results in
  data that would not have existed
  otherwise.”
“In the future, work will consist of
  organizing the data into knowledge and
  converting the knowledge to value.”
      Shoshanna Zuboff, Harvard Business
                                     School
NPS CISR            Ethics                7
           Contrast Information to:
•   Data
•   Noise
•   Code
•   Methaphor
•   Myth



NPS CISR             Ethics           8
    DoD Hierarchy of Sensitivity to
             Disclosure
•   Raw data
•   Organized and analyzed data
•   Conclusions
•   Plans of action




NPS CISR                 Ethics       9
           Information Ethics
• Study of right behavior with regard to
  the creation,




NPS CISR            Ethics                 10