RE: [FIS] General remark

[Loet Leydesdorff]

From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Igor Rojdestvenski Sent: Saturday, October 28, 2006 9:18 AM To: fis@listas.unizar.es Subject: Re: [FIS] General remark We cannot consider a concept as a variable. Simply because a concept is not measured in bits, grams, joules, etc. And a variable always is.   We may, instead, associate variables with a concept, these variables describing certain measurable aspects of a concept. Similarly to the concept of matter, the variables for which represent mass, density, structural parameters, etc, etc.   This is the key point, in my opinion. Information is a concept. And what we call information in Shannon's definition is, in fact, a variable associated with the concept of information. One of many possible variables.   Igor    Yes, the same concept can differently be operationalized. However, in the case of information we should not confuse two concepts: Shannon-type information and meaningful information. The Chinese language has two different expressions for these two concepts: Both words contain two char­acters . The above one, ‘sjin sji’, corresponds to the mathe­matical definition of informa­tion as uncertainty. The sec­ond, ‘tsjin bao,’ means infor­mation but also intelligence. In other words, it means infor­mation which informs us, and which is thus considered meaningful.    The first concept can be operationalized as Shannon-type information. The second perhaps as Brillouin's "negentropy". "Meaningful information" assumes a system for which the information can have meaning. One can also call this "observed information", that is, the information is "observed" by the receiving system. Shannon-type information remains expected information content (of a message).   It seems to me that operational definitions thoroughly solve the conceptual confusion.   With best wishes,     Loet Loet Leydesdorff Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR) Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam Tel.: +31-20- 525 6598; fax: +31-20- 525 3681 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; http://www.leydesdorff.net/   Now available: The Knowledge-Based Economy: Modeled, Measured, Simulated. 385 pp.; US$ 18.95  The Self-Organization of the Knowledge-Based Society; The Challenge of Scientometrics

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