The publication of Luciano Floridi's magisterial work on the philosophy of information should, I think, be counted as a major contribution to the study of the foundations of the information sciences. This post is a modified version of a review written for journal publication. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I wouldn't have minded if he'd called it A philosophy… Continue reading The Philosophy (or a philosophy?) of information
Author: dbawden
The mapping of science and the information sciences
It is just over fifty years since Derek de Solla Price produced his best known work: Little Science, Big Science. It was on the required reading list for my information science masters course, and – I suspect like many other students of the subject at that time – I wondered what it was doing there.… Continue reading The mapping of science and the information sciences
The document in the cave?
When I talk with my students about the history of recorded information, we usually agree that the rock and cave art of prehistoric times is a good starting point. The people who created such art clearly had a technology for conveying a form of communication across long periods of time, if not across space. As… Continue reading The document in the cave?
iPads, blogs and the information future
O'Reilly has been known as a publisher of books on information technology for over thirty years: as their website puts it "a chronicler and catalyst of leading-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and galvanizing their adoption by amplifying the faint signals from the alpha geeks who are creating the future".… Continue reading iPads, blogs and the information future
Why it’s always nice to ask first
Coming back to the blog after an enforced lay-off during a busy term, I was more than a little disconcerted to find that someone had hacked into it, and vandalised it; or so it seemed when viewed on an iPad. Of course they hadn't really. It was just that WordPress had thought it a good… Continue reading Why it’s always nice to ask first
The sayings of Maurice Line
In a previous post, I wrote about Maurice Line, the eminent British librarian, who died last year. One of Maurice's specialities was his ability to show up what he regarded as the failings of the profession in a pithy and very quotable style. I reproduce a selection of typical Line-isms below, taken from just two… Continue reading The sayings of Maurice Line
Maurice Line (1928-2010)
Rather belatedly, we should note the death in September 2010 of Maurice Line. One of the leaders of his generation of British librarians, Line was always a proponent of the value of research in library and information. I am not sure whether he would have liked the terms 'evidence-based practice' or 'reflective practitioner', but he… Continue reading Maurice Line (1928-2010)
PhD studentships for Information Science
City University London is offering 75 fully-funded studentships for doctoral study, with information science as one of the areas to be supported. The Centre for Information Science, set in the wider Department of Information Science, is City's focus for the study of the academic foundations of the information disciplines and professions. Our research and publications,… Continue reading PhD studentships for Information Science
Benoît Mandelbrot and the self-similarity of information
News of the death of Benoît Mandelbrot should lead us to reflect on his creative work over wide areas of mathematics, his innovative use of computer graphics to convey his results, and his enthusiastic popularisation of his works, through books such as The Fractal Geometry of Nature. Mandelbrot, whose obituary in the Guardian gives a… Continue reading Benoît Mandelbrot and the self-similarity of information
The Once and Future Book
This is a version of an editorial written for the Journal of Documentation. The future of the book has received a good deal of attention, as we move into an increasingly digital information environment. The e-book has become a reality, and the prospect of books being superseded entirely by blogs, wikis and other novel digital… Continue reading The Once and Future Book
The Occasional Informationist 