Info 200 Midterm Notes
Info as thing
only way we can interact with info--books, websites, speech, images, etc.
What's another factor that changes human behavior?
power of emotion
BIG IDEA #4
Emotion mediates the impact of information on knowledge
Info is a powerful driver of...
nearly every aspect of society
What's the cloud?
(1) Store data on a company's computers instead of your computer, (2) Use services that transmit data to and from company computers Before the "cloud", data was typically stored on a computer and all software that manipulated that data ran on that computer.
Privacy context
Desire to keep some info private can be used as a weapon against someone
How does emotion influence decisions?
Emotions influence how deeply we process information, our interpretation of information, and activate goals, which then determine information to which we attend
Six critiques about data (not algorithms)
(1) redefines knowledge, (2) has questionable accuracy, (3) more isn't always better, (4) it loses context, (5) unethical to acquire sometimes, (6) creates new digital divides
Other issues besides with big data:
(1) small data, (2) how algorithms use data sets of any size, (3) data vs. info, (4) misuse of statistics, (5) info overload
Things info does:
(1) teaches, (2) standardizes, (3) encrypts, (4) regulates, (5) explains, (6) inspires, (7) identifies, (8) archives, (9) connects, (10) diagnoses
Experts of information...
(1) understand the power of information and (2) can ensure organizations use that power ethically
New vs. Old Info Tech?
Even when we invent new information technology, the old ones (mostly) persist. We haven't stopped speaking, writing, taking pictures, printing, or recording. We do more of it than ever!
Computers follow instructions
Every program that executes on a computer is a list of instructions. The computer executes these instructions quickly and reliably, but it has no idea what it's doing or why. Programming languages make it easier to write high-level instructions, which are then translated into machine instructions.
Ex: US Library of Congress--not just technology, but like other info systems
- it's a building - it's a software - has 3,000+ employees - $600 million budget - Petabytes of data - Its policies, procedures, an processes curate knowledge
Brooke's formula: ΔI + (S) = (S + ΔS)
A change of information combined with a knowledge state leads to a new knowledge state that includes the result of integrating the new information. [Information causes learning]
Sherry Turkle book, Alone Together
Demonstrated that engaging the infinite amount of info on the web is now easier than engaging with people
Medium of digital photography and video
A grid of very tiny electronic photodetectors, capturing visual moments, but in digital form. Fast, high fidelity, but much noisier than film photography. Allow for instant viewing via digital screens. Video requires massive storage.
What was Bush's Memex?
A personal library with infinite information. Was a vision for a device that gives you access to any knowledge you might want with simple queries and gestures
The internet is...
A set of computers that are networked, allowing them to transmit information to each other. In the abstract, networks are a set of nodes connected by edges. Getting information from one node to another requires traversing the network.
Medium of HTML
Digitally encoded characters, plus markup for presentation. The basis of most of the content on the web. Much harder to author than plain text, but machine readable, easy to copy and manipulate, and efficient to distribute via the internet.
Are algorithms source of all magic and power?
Algorithms are a necessary but insufficient part of making modern information systems work. Without algorithms, and computers to execute them quickly, we'd still have information systems, they'd just be slower, have less information, and be harder to access.
BIG IDEA #8: What is an info system?
An information system is a process that organizes people, technology, and data to allow people to create, store, manipulate, distribute, and access information
Why a process and not a technology?
An internet router is an information technology that moves packets from one node on the Internet to another. W/o packets, or other routers, or people maintaining those routers, or electricity to power those routers, or the internet protocol specification, the router is useless for storing or retrieving information
Buckley's critique of info as thing:
Any imaginable thing can be information in the right context, making the word meaningless. Information is thing+context; without knowing the context, you can't know the information.
BIG IDEA #11
Any information system is good for some tasks and bad for others
Medium of print
Ink on paper, words perceived by sight, including books, newspapers, magazines. Socrates, the Greek philosopher, never wrote, because he believed words were incomplete representations of knowledge: "Their trust in writing... will discourage the use of their own memory within them...
Missing context can do harm
If the person using information is not careful, or is malicious, it can ruin lives, lead to falsehoods, and ultimate shift humanity in directions that have no basis in reality
What drives technology, info or algorithms?
Info
BIG IDEA #6
Context changes the meaning of data
How is data transmitted across edges?
Info converted to a packet--series of bits that contain information such: the computer that sent the packet, the computer to receive the packet, the data being transmitted, data for checking if data was lost
Temporal context
Information can be valid at a particular time--but that validity can decay as the context of the world changes, or the context of info is lost
If Simon's theory is true...
Information is (at least a partial) basis for our decisions and actions
BIG IDEA #1
Information is data + context
Medium of digital computers
CPUs, digital memory, displays, keyboards, mice, and touchscreens First envisioned by Charles Babbage in 1800's as elaborate mechanical calculators, then something entirely new by Vannevar Bush in As We May Think.
Pros of info
Can shape behavior for the better, empower people to do good, clarify, democratize, streamline decisions
Cons of info
Can shape behavior for the worse, empower people to do bad, confuse, divide, paralyze deciders
BIG IDEA #3
Changes in information cause changes in knowledge
Medium of the internet
Connected digital computers, spanning the globe, transmitting information from and to anywhere that is connected.
Tech + Info
Information requires media to be transmitted, stored, retrieved, etc. Information technologies define new media that change how we communicate and transmit information. (Digital computers are our most sophisticated form of information technology, but not the only form)
Info System Qualities
Information systems have many different qualities that determine their fitness to a particular kind of task. Knowing what qualities a system has can help you choose the right system.
BIG IDEA #9
Information systems span all of human history and all media, not just computers
Medium of handwriting
Ink on paper by hand, perceived by sight. Hard to learn, hard to read, and requires a writing device and a writing surface, but can be used almost any time, anywhere with the right tools.
Truth
Few things online make any guarantees about truth, accuracy, correctness, or currency. For these, you need a librarian or a domain expert who can help you find valid information. Sometimes, searching the internet is like sifting through the garbage for a meal.
Info System Timeliness
How current the information is with respect to the world. ex: tweets are timely if you want to hear about what happened today. If you're trying to learn what happened a long time ago, newspaper archives are useful
Info System Accuracy
How true the information is with respect to some notion of correctness. ex: predicting future of climate change, science journals are best source not blogs about conspiracy theories. If you're trying to learn about what people believe about it, then you look at the blogs
Medium of speech
Human speech is a form of information technology. We generate sound waves with our voices, which transmit through air, which cause vibration in our ears. It's hard to persist and retrieve, and inaccessible to people who are deaf.
Ex: The more time teens spend on screens, the more likely they are able to be depressed--is this likely?
Significantly more likely, but did it cause it?
How does a packet identify a (more) computers?
It uses internet protocol version 6 addresses. Example: 2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:ff00:0042:8329 A sequence of eight 16-bit numbers, allowing for (2^16)^8=2^128=3.4x10^38 computers That's 1 trillion trillion trillion, about half the number of atoms in the universe, so that should be enough.
Reading: What did Malady miss while unplugged?
Learning--he liked following his curiosity
Examples of info systems
Libraries, newspapers, telegraph networks --> telephone networks --> broadcast and cable TV, mobile phones, internet
Medium of film photography and video
Light on film, capturing visual moments, began black and white, but eventually supported color. With the right tools, simple to capture a moment in history. Somewhat easy to copy, difficult to distribute.
Measurement Context
Measurement can bias meaning
Self-knowledge
Mental health therapy can help people with a wide range of challenges in life. The Internet can help you find a therapist, or can help you decide if you would benefit from one. However, good therapy requires knowing you as an individual, and the content on the web simply doesn't know you.
Medium of phones
More human speech, but through an analog or digital recording of speech, transmitted via electricity, through a network of telephone lines and switching stations to connect them, formerly human operated, now computer-controlled. Tethered to a cable, but high bandwidth and reliable.
BIG IDEA #7
More information sometimes does harm
Library of Alexandria flaws:
No backups, hard to access geographically, hard to access if you weren't a scholar, its index made documents hard to retrieve
BIG IDEA #12
Not all technology is digital, not not all technology is information technology
What instructions can computers follow?
Not many--add/sub, mult/div, read + write to memory, jump to another instruction conditionally or unconditionally Through the wonders of logic, mathematics, and human intelligence, we've found ways of translating high-level instructions into these basic instructions.
Library of Alexandria
One of the largest ancient information systems, gathering documents from all over the world. Got most of its books from stealing from ships. Every time a ship came to port, they searched it for books, took them to the library, copied them, and decided whether to confiscate or return them
Medium of visual art
Paint, ink, graphite, wax, crayon, etc. Difficult to learn to create, hard to replicate, but always aesthetically unique.
Translators
People who understand both people and technology
Identity context
Race, ethnicity, nationality, citizenship, religion, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, age, gender presentation, disability, etc., are forms of context about you. Can be basis of fining, firing, jailing, deporting, rejecting, killing
How does the packet actually get to its destination?
Routers get it there. They're the edge in that connects nodes in a network. (You probably have one in your home.) It takes packets from a computer, figures out their destination IP address, uses data about the fastest route to that address, and then sends the data along that route.
Methods of acquiring books for Library of Alexandria aren't different from today's methods on the internet
Search engines scrape information from content on websites, "stealing" it from its authors; people write content on Wikipedia altruistically, without being paid; Google acquires single copies of books and digitizes them for its search index.
Attention economics
Too much information creates the need to efficiently market and obtain our attention
Use context
Some info can be used to do harm. Without knowing who will use the information and how, one cannot prevent the information from doing harm.
Motivational Context
Some people deceive and people respond to these information attacks by occasionally committing violence. If one doesn't know the motives of someone authoring content, one might misinterpret their truth
Personal information
The Internet doesn't have any of this information. You have to you use your family information system to retrieve that.
"Technology"
The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry Reminder: not just the most recent inventions
Info System Learnability
The ease with which someone can learn to use an information system to obtain information. Ex: using smartphone to look for restaurants in foreign country is probably most learnable vs asking a stranger. But, if you aren't comfortable with a smartphone, asking might be easier to learn
BIG IDEA #10
The internet is billions of computers connected by light storing billions of packets of bits maintained by millions of people
Info System Relevance
The likelihood an information system will resolve an information need. Ex: looking for most popular music review website, ask google not teenager on street. But, looking for most popular band in your town, reverse is true
Info System Availability
The odds that when you access an information system, it is ready to use. Ex: getting directions, google maps are most likely available vs. from a stranger. But, if you're in a deserted area, reverse is true
Different types of routers
The router in your house probably sends all of its data to your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Your ISP then has a big powerful router that tries to find the shortest path between it and your packet's destination.
What is modern version of Library of Alexandria?
US Library of Congress, largest library in the world. 450 languages, much digitized, includes archives from internet, anyone can visit in person or online, lots of backups (and fireproof)
Addiction
Things that offer the existence of info without revealing its content gives a dopamine rush that is addictive
How does a packet identify a computer?
Uses internet protocol (IP) addresses An IP version 4 address looks like this: 216.3.128.12 It's a sequence of four numbers, each between 0 and 255--allows for 256 x 256 x 256 x 256 = 4.3 billion different computers to be addressed.
Medium of VOIP
Voice over internet protocol, transmitting speech via digital packets through internet routers instead of analog electrical signals or sound waves. Includes Skype audio, VOIP phones, etc. Higher latency, less reliable than analog lines, but available everywhere.
Medium of Video Chat
Voice over internet protocol, transmitting speech via digital packets through internet routers instead of analog electrical signals or sound waves. Includes Skype, VOIP phones, etc. Even higher latency, but with rich non-verbal cues, allowing multi-channel signaling in conversations.
Information + emotions
WE are info processors but what we process is mediated by our emotions. Info is conditionally powerful, because it requires rational thought to be processed accurately and acted upon accordingly. Must find strategies to overcome emotional bias
Reasonable to prefer recent inventions
We are excited about them, they are often our greatest source of economic opportunity, often have new capabilities. But, doesn't mean they're superior along every dimension
Human beings are info processors:
We have sensors, gathering information about the world, building models in our minds of what exists and how to interact with it--use to reason, judge, problem solve, plan, and decide
Sometimes emotions lead to bad decisions
We ignore evidence, because emotions result in us not attending to information. We favor the status quo, because fear disrupts information processing
Information overload (aka analysis paralysis)
When you know too much about an issue, it can be difficult to decide what to do about it
Provenance context
Where did the info come from? Who created it? What were their motives in creating it? Do they have the expertise to create accurate information?
Do all computers use these standards?
Yes, every computer and router on the planet has software to communicate using these protocols. The name of these protocols are TCP and IP—the transmission control protocol (TCP) determines how bits of information are reliably sent and the internet protocol (IP) defines how those bits should be structured and what information they should contain. Every internet-connected device must use these protocols to be connected to the internet.
Innovation
You can't search the web for new ideas, just old ones. If you're looking for new perspectives, you can get inspired by things people have written, but you'll still have to produce those new perspectives.
Info changes beliefs
can, if you're open to change
Info reveals opportunities
can, if you're paying attention
Info...
changes perspectives, can connect people to resources, can connect people to community, is the basis of communication
Expert knowledge
You need a researcher, a political analyst, or other experts, since the answers may not exist, or may not be captured as data
What happens if an internet backbone cable is broken?
Your packet might be lost. How does the internet know? It uses a checksum. Router takes the sum of all of the 16-bit values in the packet, converts them to binary, then flips all the 1's to 0's, 0's to 1's. Adding this number to the sum of all the values in the packet should be 0. If it's not, data was corrupted and the packet should be resent.
Internet backbones
Your packet will probably follow an internet backbone to reach its destination. Most of these are owned by private companies and consistent of thousands of miles of fiber optic cable underground or under the ocean.
BIG IDEA #5
data is not necessarily accurate, ethical, helpful, or fair
Designing Technology
deciding what software should do (not just how), so that it improves lives, organizations, and society, rather than just having more functionality
Context
information ABOUT information, that allows for accurate interpretation of the meaning of info
BIG IDEA #2
information is difference that makes a difference in the world
Info as difference
information" may be succinctly defined as any difference which makes a difference in some later event. Ex: pen vs pin--difference in vowel makes difference in meaning
Analyzing Technology
understanding and communicating its failings and flaws, so we can identify ways to improve it
Choice Overload (aka paradox of choice)
when there are too many roughly equivalent options, decisions become overwhelming, leading to indecision
