Beyond Information

Preamble The emergence of machine intelligence during the second half of the twentieth century is the most important development in the evolution of this planet since the origin of life two to three thousand million years ago. The emergence of machine intelligence within the matrix of human society is analogous to the emergence, three billion years ago, of complex, self-replicating molecules within the matrix of an energy-rich molecular soup - the first step in the evolution of life. The emergence of machine intelligence within a human social context has set into motion irreversible processes which will lead to an evolutionary discontinuity. Just as the emergence of "Life" represented a qualitatively different form of organisation of matter and energy, so will pure "Intelligence" represent a qualitatively different form of organisation of matter, energy and life. The emergence of machine intelligence presages the progression of the human species as we know it, into a form which, at present, we would not recognise as "human". As Forsyth and Naylor (1985) have pointed out: "Humanity has opened two Pandora's boxes at the same time, one labelled genetic engineering, the other labelled knowledge engineering. What we have let out is not entirely clear, but it is reasonable to hazard a guess that it contains the seeds of our successors".

A growing focus on product usability is creating demand for usability specialists and prompting companies of all kinds to hire developers and designers who are well versed in this way of thinking. This book takes a look at the unique usability issues surround information appliances and other interactive consumer products.

The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) is a non-profit umbrella organization for national societies working in the field of information processing. It was founded in 1960 under the auspices of UNESCO. It is organized into several technical committees. This book represents the proceedings of the 2006 conference of technical committee 8 (TC8), which covers the field of information systems. This conference formed part of IFIP's World Computer Congress in Chile. The occasion celebrated the 30th anniversary of IFIP TC8 by looking at the past, present and future of information systems. The proceedings reflect not only the breadth and depth of the work of TC8, but also the international nature of the group, with authors from 18 countries being represented in the 21 papers (including two invited papers) and 2 panels. All submissions were rigorously refereed by at least two reviewers and an associate editor and following the review and resubmission process nearly 50% of submissions were accepted. This paper introduces the papers and panels presented at the conference and published in this volume. It is never straightforward to classify a set of papers but we have made an attempt and this classification is also reflected in the sessions of the conference itself. The classification for the papers is as follows: the world of information systems - early pioneers; developing improved information systems; information systems in their domains of application; the discipline of information systems; issues of production; IT impacts on the organization; tools and modeling and new directions.

Understand key information-theoretic principles that underpin the design of next-generation cellular systems with this invaluable resource. This book is the perfect tool for researchers and graduate students in the field of information theory and wireless communications, as well as for practitioners in the telecommunications industry.

In the closing decades of the twentieth century, academic libraries responded to rapid changes in their environment by acquiring and making accessible a host of new information resources, developing innovative new services and collaborative partnerships, and building new kinds of technology-equipped spaces to support changing user behaviors and emerging patterns of learning. The “Information Commons” or “InfoCommons” blossomed in a relatively short amount of time in libraries across North America, and around the world, particularly in Europe and the British Commonwealth. This book is more than a second edition of the 2009 book A Field Guide to the Information Commons which documented the emergence of a range of facilities and service programs that called themselves “Information Commons.” This new book updates this review of current practice in the Information Commons and other new kinds of facilities inspired by the same needs and intents, but goes beyond that by describing the continued evolution. This new book is an attempt to answer the question: “What might be the next emerging concept for a technology-enabled, user-responsive, mission-driven form of the academic library?” Like its predecessor, Beyond the Information Commons is structured in two parts. First, a brief series of essays explore the Information Commons from historical, organizational, technological, and architectural perspectives. The second part is a field guide composed of more than two dozen representative entries describing various Information Commons using a consistent format that provides both perspective on issues and useful details about actual implementations. Each of these includes photos and other graphics.

This book analyses the dynamics of the emerging networks of individuals, organizations, technologies and publications by which means information was exchanged across and through all kinds of borders and boundaries in this period. It extends the frame within which historical discourse about information can take place by bringing together scholars not only from different disciplines but also from different national and linguistic backgrounds. It will be of interest to scholars and students of information history and the emergence of the information society as well as to social and cultural historians concerned with the late 19th and early 20th century.

The period in Europe known as the Belle Epoque was a time of vibrant and unsettling modernization in social and political organization, in artistic and literary life, and in the conduct and discoveries of the sciences. These trends, and the emphasis on internationalization that characterized them, necessitated the development of new structures and processes for discovering, disseminating, manipulating and managing access to information. This book analyses the dynamics of the emerging networks of individuals, organizations, technologies and publications by which means information was exchanged across and through all kinds of borders and boundaries in this period. It extends the frame within which historical discourse about information can take place by bringing together scholars not only from different disciplines but also from different national and linguistic backgrounds. As a result the volume offers new and surprising ways of looking at the historical period of the Belle Epoque. It will be of interest to scholars and students of information history and the emergence of the information society as well as to social and cultural historians concerned with the late 19th and early 20th century.