Caleb Scharf, an astronomer and astrobiologist, is the latest in a series of authors to give an account of the new recognition of information as a significant, and objective, feature of the world, in his The Ascent of Information. The book gives an overview of the concept of information, not dissimilar to James Gleick's The Information… Continue reading Dataome rising
Category: digital, onlife, infosphere
Google’s Global Media Literacy Summit
A couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to attend Google's Global Media Literacy Summit for 2019, in the shiny new surroundings the of Google's London headquarters at King's Cross. Introducing the day, Ramya Raghavan, head of civics and news outreach at Google, made a point that I often try to emphasise: that our… Continue reading Google’s Global Media Literacy Summit
Information education for onlife
I was fortunate enough to be able to visit the lovely city of Pisa earlier this month, to give a keynote talk at FEIS 2018, an international symposium on the future of education in information science. The symposium was part of the EINFOSE Erasmus+ project, which is examining the variation in entry requirements and learning… Continue reading Information education for onlife
Supporting truth and promoting understanding: knowledge organization and the curation of the infosphere
This is an updated text of a keynote address given at the Fifteenth International ISKO Conference, Porto, 9th July 2018. A brief account of the conference is given in an earlier blog post. Supporting truth and promoting understanding: knowledge organization and the curation of the infosphere David Bawden and Lyn Robinson Abstract This paper considers… Continue reading Supporting truth and promoting understanding: knowledge organization and the curation of the infosphere
Information generations; the end of the Millennials?
The idea of a 'generation' is a widely understood one, and we often take it for granted that people of a certain age will have similar experiences, expectations, and values. Terms like 'Baby Boomers', 'Gen X', and 'Millennials' are in common use, and it seems to be generally accepted that they have some value as… Continue reading Information generations; the end of the Millennials?
Tweet, tweet … analysing a library conference backchannel with Hawksey’s TAGS
Twitter has gained a reputation as a social media tool which is very popular within the LIS community, and most libraries and archives, LIS schools, and library/information conferences, and well as many individuals in the discipline and profession, make serious use of it for information exchange. Being able to easily get an analysis of the… Continue reading Tweet, tweet … analysing a library conference backchannel with Hawksey’s TAGS
Two encyclopaedias: both alike in dignity?
A recent article, originally appearing on an Australian radio website and widely republished, celebrated the 16th anniversary of Wikipedia, suggested that traditional encyclopaedias were now worthless, as Wikipedia completed the process of organising knowledge begun by the Romans. Well, up to a point. Wikipedia, however widely used it may be, is not the only online… Continue reading Two encyclopaedias: both alike in dignity?
When data science met the library: the 4th British Library Labs Symposium
Last Monday, I had the chance to attend the latest in the series of BL Labs annual symposia. The BL Labs were set up to "support and inspire the public use of the British Library's digital collections and data in exciting and innovative ways", and the symposia series is designed to showcase some of the… Continue reading When data science met the library: the 4th British Library Labs Symposium
Super-science, fundamental dimension, way of being: Library and information science in an age of messages
This is a slightly modified version of a chapter by Lyn Robinson and myself, published in Information cultures in the digital age: a festschrift in honor of Rafael Capurro. M Kelly and J Bielby (eds). Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2016, pp 31-43. Introduction Rafael Capurro’s body of writings encompass a wide and diverse set of issues… Continue reading Super-science, fundamental dimension, way of being: Library and information science in an age of messages
Into the infosphere: theory, literacy and education for new forms of document
This is a slightly revised version of a chapter contributed by myself and Lyn Robinson to a Festschrift in honour of our colleague Professor Tatjana Aparac-Jelušić, of the University of Zadar in Croatia. We came to know Tatjana particularly through the LIDA conferences, of which she has been the inspiration and main organiser, through her… Continue reading Into the infosphere: theory, literacy and education for new forms of document
The Occasional Informationist 