ID2100 - Rethinking Information Systems and Technology
Information Topography

 


Information Topography **

An Overview

 

Information "types" instead of data "types"

 

 

All information systems are functionally identical! 
The difference between one system and another is not in what we do with information but in how many of which information functions it takes to inform a particular situation. 


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The following table shows all functional usages of information. Beginning with language structures (informational structures intrinsic to all human languages that are mostly ignored by conventional IT) the informational components that comprise all would-be information systems are identified. 


Information Topography:
The Information Landscape

Information in
the Real World

Topologs
(primary
contexts)

Occurrences
(sets/
rows)

Facts
(fields/ columns)

Information
Sources/
Origins

-1-

-2-

-3-

-4-

Functions/
Usage

Things
(Nouns)

Subjects

Actors
(People, self, robots)
Roles

Determinant


Classification
Identification
(Individual,
Collective,
Host)

Inter- Correl
(Relational)
Intra- Correl
(Hierarchical)



Derivable

Summary
Comparison
Immediate

Linguistic 


Objective

Identify
Name
Qualify Quantify Chronolog Locate


Subjective  

Comment

 

Non-Linguistic    

Depict  
Replicate

Determinant

Input  

Pre-Determinant 

Default  

Auto-Determinant

Import 
Auto-Measure
Sequence  
Serial  


Temporal

Effectivity
Applicability


Derivable

Algorithm 
Formula  
Summary  
Balance
Difference

Objects

Tangibles
(Items)
Locations
Constructs

Behaviors
(Verbs)

Intransitive

Correlations

Transitive

Intentions
Actions
Activities
Events

Scenarios
(Business Processes)

 


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Information Levels

Information is naturally organized two levels above where we first cast it in data. Conventional IT begins and ends at the data level.  

  • Level -1- Organizes information based on how it fits the real world instead of how it fits into a computer, legacy solutions, or a limited handful of specific results. 

  • Level -2- Organizes information into topologs ... primary contexts.  The difference between one situation and another is determined by how many of which contexts comprise each situation.  By not identifying contexts before it starts organizing data, standard practice IT routinely develops information out of context thereby substantially reducing its usefulness.

  • Level -3- Organizes information-meaning into data-symbols. Instead of identifying information usage conventional IT focuses on what data looks like.  It identifies fact ("column") data types (alpha, numeric, text, etc.) but not their information types.   It ignores that occurrences ("rows") also break down by information types. It works to form not function; a superficial approach to solution.  By focusing on data form conventional IT never gets around to really understanding information function.

  • Level -4- Identifies how information is obtained.  Conventional IT never identifies origination cases preferring instead to re-invent origination processes for each new system as a special case programmatic procedure.  By looking at them as cases (real-functional thinking) instead of programs (artificial-procedural thinking) we can develop solutions that work for every circumstance and be done re-inventing them for every new system.

 


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When Topography Fails

If a system does not succeed with all of the following, information management fails:

  • Managing information within topologs.

  • Properly identified (typed) occurrences (set usages) especially the differences between determinant and derivable occurrences.

  • Properly identified (typed) facts (field usages) especially the differences between linguistic and non-linguistic information and objective and subjective information.

  • Recognize that relational and hierarchical are the same thing in the real world but have been made different only within the artificial thinking of IT solutions.  Conventional relational/hierarchical half-solutions prohibit using information to its full potential. 

  • Properly identified information origins especially the differences among:

    • determinant information (primary information under developed and taken out of context by conventional IT)

    • temporal information (collateral information mostly ignored by conventional IT and unsupported by conventional data bases)

    • derivable information (secondary information which is often the reason for a system causing systems to focus on the secondary to the detriment of primary and collateral information)

 

 
**  Together information topography and information mechanics are a high level specification for an information management tool ... an information engine ... capable of solving all information usages for all circumstances.  The need for perpetually creating and re-creating special purpose systems for different businesses and circumstances is eliminated.