Building Blocks and Bursting Bubbles: The Whirl of Information

1
Building Blocks and Bursting BubblesThe Whirl
of Information

• Part I
• Julia Kim
• 20 October 2003

2
Building Blocks and Bursting BubblesThe Whirl
of Information
Anthony Oettinger, Building Blocks and Bursting
Bubbles. Originally published by the Program on
Information Resources Policy, 1989. Reprinted in
The Information Resources Policy Handbook, eds.
Compaine and Read, 1999.

• The world contains information, energy, and
  material resources
• Information resources can be bundled by
  substance, format, and/or process to be
  information products and services
• Information fulfills certain user needs escape,
  social connection, surveillance, and opinion
  formation / decision-making
• Users can know only so much of the Universe of
  All Possible Discourse (UAPD) through inside
  sources, outside sources, and personal knowledge

In times of change, the right concepts, the
right building blocks for those who wish, as
Henri Bergson put it, to think as men of action
and to act as men of thought must be stable,
rich, intelligible, and impartial enough to serve
in many venues than the here and the now. (239)
3
Building Blocks and Bursting BubblesThe Whirl
of Information
Anthony Oettinger, Building Blocks and Bursting
Bubbles. Originally published by the Program on
Information Resources Policy, 1989. Reprinted in
The Information Resources Policy Handbook, eds.
Compaine and Read, 1999.

• The world contains information, energy, and
  material resources
• Information resources can be bundled by
  substance, format, and/or process to be
  information products and services
• Information fulfills certain user needs escape,
  social connection, surveillance, and opinion
  formation / decision-making
• Users can know only so much of the Universe of
  All Possible Discourse (UAPD) through inside
  sources, outside sources, and personal knowledge

In times of change, the right concepts, the
right building blocks for those who wish, as
Henri Bergson put it, to think as men of action
and to act as men of thought must be stable,
rich, intelligible, and impartial enough to serve
in many venues than the here and the now. (239)
4
The world contains information, energy, and
material resources
resource a source of supply or support an
available means
INFORMATION

• Without materials, nothing exists
• Without energy, nothing happens
• Without information, nothing makes sense
• Not all resources exist in the circle (yet)

MATERIALS
ENERGY
(243)
5
Info resources can be bundled by substance,
format, and/or process to be information products
services

• Substance the idea or concept to be conveyed
• Format the material representation of an idea or
  concept consists of symbols, patterns, and/or
  tokens
• Process the manipulation of substance and format
  for the purposes of congealing and accessing the
  information product/service

6
Information product bundleThe Lost Cat example

• Substance
• Format
• Process

• The idea of a lost cat
• Symbols cat, chat, gato, Sylvester
• Patterns c-a-t, C-A-T, _._. ._ _
• Tokens print on paper, silver grain on film,
  current over wire
• Processes for representing a lost cat on a
  poster
• write poster including name, description,
  contact info
• copy poster at Kinkos
• put up posters around the neighborhood

(adapted from 251)
7
Information product bundleThe Lost Cat example
Substance
lost cat
poster
Format
poster-making
poster-posting
Process
8
Information product bundleThe Lost Cat example
Substance
lost cat
poster
Format
poster-making
poster-posting
Process
9
Information product bundleThe Lost Cat example
Substance
lost cat
poster
Format
poster-making
poster-posting
Process
10
Information product bundleThe Lost Cat example
Substance
lost cat
poster
Format
poster-making
poster-posting
Process
11
Information product bundleThe Lost Cat example
LOST CAT orange and white 1.25 reward Contact
555-1234
Substance
Information Product
lost cat
poster
Format
poster-making
poster-posting
Process
12
Information product bundleThe Lost Cat
example (develops synergies)
LOST CAT orange and white 1.25 reward Contact
555-1234
Substance
Information Product
lost cat
poster
WEBSITE
Format
poster-making
poster-posting
Process
13
People are required to manipulate the parts of
information resources
Substance
Editorial Plane
Managerial Plane

• Writers Editors newspapers, books
• Directors Theatre, movies, TV
• Layout persons Commercial art
• Choreographers Dance
• Others

• Publishers newspapers, books
• Producers theatre, movies, tv
• Others

Format
Operating or Formal Plane

• Printers
• Engineers
• Industrial Designers
• Distributors
• Others

Process
(254)
14
Information products and servicesExamples from
the early 1980s

• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Broadcast television
• Broadcast radio
• Cable television
• Books
• Motion Pictures
• Non-broadcast video
• Newsletters
• Databases
• US Government-generated products and services

Today Whats the same? Whats different?
(261-264)
15
Things not yet discussed
16
End of Part I