Response to Buckland’s article, “Information As Thing”
According to Buckland, the three principal uses of the term ‘information’ are ‘information-as-process,’ ‘information-as-knowledge,’ and ‘information-as-thing.’ ‘Information-as-process’ has to do with the act of being informed, particularly the transition between being uninformed and becoming informed, whereas ‘information-as-knowledge’ is slightly different; it is more about the actual content that is communicated by informing. ‘Information-as-thing’ is very different from the other two uses because it refers to objects of information such as informative data and documents.
Looking at the term ‘information-as-knowledge,’ we can think of pieces of knowledge that can be classified as information. The idea is a bit ambiguous, but that is because knowledge itself encompasses so much. For example, the information I tell my dad about what I am going to be home is ‘information-as-knowledge.’ This is because I am actively communicating with him, giving information that is useful knowledge about what time I will be back. This information is not in the form of writing, data, etc. but rather just him listening to me.
Going further in-depth to ‘information-as-process,’ it becomes clear that this definition is more about the transition from not knowing something to knowing something. This can, as it is mentioned in the article, drastically change our lives. For example, when I heard that I was accepted into UW, I went from not knowing where I would be going to college to knowing exactly where I would be going to college. Opening my acceptance letter was a prime example of ‘information-as-process,’ but the letter itself could be classified as ‘information-as-thing.’
Further examining the concept of ‘information-as-thing,’ we can see that this is fundamentally about the way information is expressed, or the medium of the content. These mediums include data, text, film, sign, signals, etc. as they have the potential to be tangible, unlike ‘information-as-knowledge.’ An example of ‘information-as-thing’ pertaining to my own life is the journal that I write in almost every day. It contains over a hundred pages of written information about myself: my routines, my dreams, my hopes, my conflicts, my sorrows, my stories. That journal is a tangible piece of evidence that I can pick up and read whenever I want, classifying it as ‘information-as-thing’ as it is a vehicle for my personal information.
