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54-441: The fundamental concept is for the originator to signal how widely they want their information to be circulated beyond the immediate recipient. It is designed to improve the flow of information between individuals , organizations or communities in a controlled and trusted way. It is important that everyone who handles TLP-labeled communications understands and obeys the rules of the protocol. Only then can trust be established and

108-574: A knowledge worker in performing research and making decisions, including steps such as: Stewart (2001) argues that transformation of information into knowledge is critical, lying at the core of value creation and competitive advantage for the modern enterprise. In a biological framework, Mizraji has described information as an entity emerging from the interaction of patterns with receptor systems (eg: in molecular or neural receptors capable of interacting with specific patterns, information emerges from those interactions). In addition, he has incorporated

162-413: A signal ). It can also be encrypted for safe storage and communication. The uncertainty of an event is measured by its probability of occurrence. Uncertainty is inversely proportional to the probability of occurrence. Information theory takes advantage of this by concluding that more uncertain events require more information to resolve their uncertainty. The bit is a typical unit of information . It

216-446: A digital, machine-readable medium is sometimes called digital data . Computer data storage is one of the core functions of a general-purpose computer . Electronic documents can be stored in much less space than paper documents . Barcodes and magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) are two ways of recording machine-readable data on paper. A recording medium is a physical material that holds information. Newly created information

270-416: A document's classification with the acronym "TLP", followed by a colon and classification level, for example: "TLP:RED". Information Information is an abstract concept that refers to something which has the power to inform . At the most fundamental level, it pertains to the interpretation (perhaps formally ) of that which may be sensed , or their abstractions . Any natural process that

324-435: A function must exist, even if it is not accessible for humans; A view surmised by Albert Einstein with the assertion that " God does not play dice ". Modern astronomy cites the mechanical sense of information in the black hole information paradox , positing that, because the complete evaporation of a black hole into Hawking radiation leaves nothing except an expanding cloud of homogeneous particles, this results in

378-434: A nutritional function. The cognitive scientist and applied mathematician Ronaldo Vigo argues that information is a concept that requires at least two related entities to make quantitative sense. These are, any dimensionally defined category of objects S, and any of its subsets R. R, in essence, is a representation of S, or, in other words, conveys representational (and hence, conceptual) information about S. Vigo then defines

432-553: A posed question. Whether the answer provides knowledge depends on the informed person. So a generalized definition of the concept should be: "Information" = An answer to a specific question". When Marshall McLuhan speaks of media and their effects on human cultures, he refers to the structure of artifacts that in turn shape our behaviors and mindsets. Also, pheromones are often said to be "information" in this sense. These sections are using measurements of data rather than information, as information cannot be directly measured. It

486-398: A type of input to an organism or system . Inputs are of two kinds; some inputs are important to the function of the organism (for example, food) or system ( energy ) by themselves. In his book Sensory Ecology biophysicist David B. Dusenbery called these causal inputs. Other inputs (information) are important only because they are associated with causal inputs and can be used to predict

540-901: Is entropy . Entropy quantifies the amount of uncertainty involved in the value of a random variable or the outcome of a random process . For example, identifying the outcome of a fair coin flip (with two equally likely outcomes) provides less information (lower entropy) than specifying the outcome from a roll of a die (with six equally likely outcomes). Some other important measures in information theory are mutual information , channel capacity, error exponents , and relative entropy . Important sub-fields of information theory include source coding , algorithmic complexity theory , algorithmic information theory , and information-theoretic security . Applications of fundamental topics of information theory include source coding/ data compression (e.g. for ZIP files ), and channel coding/ error detection and correction (e.g. for DSL ). Its impact has been crucial to

594-491: Is 'that which reduces uncertainty by half'. Other units such as the nat may be used. For example, the information encoded in one "fair" coin flip is log 2 (2/1) = 1 bit, and in two fair coin flips is log 2 (4/1) = 2 bits. A 2011 Science article estimates that 97% of technologically stored information was already in digital bits in 2007 and that the year 2002 was the beginning of the digital age for information storage (with digital storage capacity bypassing analogue for

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648-434: Is a major concept in both classical physics and quantum mechanics , encompassing the ability, real or theoretical, of an agent to predict the future state of a system based on knowledge gathered during its past and present. Determinism is a philosophical theory holding that causal determination can predict all future events, positing a fully predictable universe described by classical physicist Pierre-Simon Laplace as "

702-532: Is an uncountable mass noun . Information theory is the scientific study of the quantification , storage , and communication of information. The field itself was fundamentally established by the work of Claude Shannon in the 1940s, with earlier contributions by Harry Nyquist and Ralph Hartley in the 1920s. The field is at the intersection of probability theory , statistics , computer science, statistical mechanics , information engineering , and electrical engineering . A key measure in information theory

756-463: Is distributed and can be stored in four storage media–print, film, magnetic, and optical–and seen or heard in four information flows–telephone, radio and TV, and the Internet as well as being observed directly. Digital information is stored on electronic media in many different recording formats . With electronic media , the data and the recording media are sometimes referred to as "software" despite

810-472: Is estimated that the world's technological capacity to store information grew from 2.6 (optimally compressed) exabytes in 1986 – which is the informational equivalent to less than one 730-MB CD-ROM per person (539 MB per person) – to 295 (optimally compressed) exabytes in 2007. This is the informational equivalent of almost 61 CD-ROM per person in 2007. The world's combined technological capacity to receive information through one-way broadcast networks

864-431: Is expressed either as the content of a message or through direct or indirect observation . That which is perceived can be construed as a message in its own right, and in that sense, all information is always conveyed as the content of a message. Information can be encoded into various forms for transmission and interpretation (for example, information may be encoded into a sequence of signs , or transmitted via

918-416: Is forecast to increase rapidly, reaching 64.2 zettabytes in 2020. Over the next five years up to 2025, global data creation is projected to grow to more than 180 zettabytes. Records are specialized forms of information. Essentially, records are information produced consciously or as by-products of business activities or transactions and retained because of their value. Primarily, their value is as evidence of

972-422: Is mainly (but not only, e.g. plants can grow in the direction of the light source) a causal input to plants but for animals it only provides information. The colored light reflected from a flower is too weak for photosynthesis but the visual system of the bee detects it and the bee's nervous system uses the information to guide the bee to the flower, where the bee often finds nectar or pollen, which are causal inputs,

1026-421: Is not completely random and any observable pattern in any medium can be said to convey some amount of information. Whereas digital signals and other data use discrete signs to convey information, other phenomena and artifacts such as analogue signals , poems , pictures , music or other sounds , and currents convey information in a more continuous form. Information is not knowledge itself, but

1080-412: Is stored on digital storage devices than on analog storage devices. In 1986, approximately 1% of the world's capacity to store information was in digital format; this grew to 3% by 1993, to 25% by 2000, and to 97% by 2007. These figures correspond to less than three compressed exabytes in 1986, and 295 compressed exabytes in 2007. The quantity of digital storage doubled roughly every three years. It

1134-439: Is the recording (storing) of information ( data ) in a storage medium . Handwriting , phonographic recording, magnetic tape , and optical discs are all examples of storage media. Biological molecules such as RNA and DNA are considered by some as data storage. Recording may be accomplished with virtually any form of energy . Electronic data storage requires electrical power to store and retrieve data. Data storage in

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1188-487: Is the theoretical limit of compression. The information available through a collection of data may be derived by analysis. For example, a restaurant collects data from every customer order. That information may be analyzed to produce knowledge that is put to use when the business subsequently wants to identify the most popular or least popular dish. Information can be transmitted in time, via data storage , and space, via communication and telecommunication . Information

1242-514: The meaning that may be derived from a representation through interpretation. The concept of information is relevant or connected to various concepts, including constraint , communication , control , data , form , education , knowledge , meaning , understanding , mental stimuli , pattern , perception , proposition , representation , and entropy . Information is often processed iteratively: Data available at one step are processed into information to be interpreted and processed at

1296-435: The activities of the organization but they may also be retained for their informational value. Sound records management ensures that the integrity of records is preserved for as long as they are required. The international standard on records management, ISO 15489, defines records as "information created, received, and maintained as evidence and information by an organization or person, in pursuance of legal obligations or in

1350-419: The amount of information that R conveys about S as the rate of change in the complexity of S whenever the objects in R are removed from S. Under "Vigo information", pattern, invariance, complexity, representation, and information – five fundamental constructs of universal science – are unified under a novel mathematical framework. Among other things, the framework aims to overcome

1404-401: The association between signs and behaviour. Semantics can be considered as the study of the link between symbols and their referents or concepts – particularly the way that signs relate to human behavior. Syntax is concerned with the formalism used to represent a message. Syntax as an area studies the form of communication in terms of the logic and grammar of sign systems. Syntax is devoted to

1458-434: The benefits of information sharing realized. The TLP is based on the concept of the originator labeling information with one of four colors to indicate what further dissemination , if any, can be undertaken by the recipient. The recipient must consult the originator if wider dissemination is required. A number of current specifications for TLP exist. There are four colors (or traffic lights): In practice, one will indicate

1512-427: The biological order and participating in the development of multicellular organisms, precedes by millions of years the emergence of human consciousness and the creation of the scientific culture that produced the chemical nomenclature. Systems theory at times seems to refer to information in this sense, assuming information does not necessarily involve any conscious mind, and patterns circulating (due to feedback ) in

1566-403: The chosen language in terms of its agreed syntax and semantics. The sender codes the message in the language and sends the message as signals along some communication channel (empirics). The chosen communication channel has inherent properties that determine outcomes such as the speed at which communication can take place, and over what distance. The existence of information about a closed system

1620-515: The computation and digital representation of data, and assists users in pattern recognition and anomaly detection . Information security (shortened as InfoSec) is the ongoing process of exercising due diligence to protect information, and information systems, from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, destruction, modification, disruption or distribution, through algorithms and procedures focused on monitoring and detection, as well as incident response and repair. Data storage Data storage

1674-415: The context of some social situation. The social situation sets the context for the intentions conveyed (pragmatics) and the form of communication. In a communicative situation intentions are expressed through messages that comprise collections of inter-related signs taken from a language mutually understood by the agents involved in the communication. Mutual understanding implies that agents involved understand

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1728-618: The domain and binary format of each number sequence before exchanging information. By defining number sequences online, this would be systematically and universally usable. Before the exchanged digital number sequence, an efficient unique link to its online definition can be set. This online-defined digital information (number sequence) would be globally comparable and globally searchable. The English word "information" comes from Middle French enformacion/informacion/information 'a criminal investigation' and its etymon, Latin informatiō(n) 'conception, teaching, creation'. In English, "information"

1782-401: The effect of its past and the cause of its future ". Quantum physics instead encodes information as a wave function , which prevents observers from directly identifying all of its possible measurements . Prior to the publication of Bell's theorem , determinists reconciled with this behavior using hidden variable theories , which argued that the information necessary to predict the future of

1836-428: The environment or to purposely make data expire over time. Data such as smoke signals or skywriting are temporary by nature. Depending on the volatility, a gas (e.g. atmosphere , smoke ) or a liquid surface such as a lake would be considered a temporary recording medium if at all. A 2003 UC Berkeley report estimated that about five exabytes of new information were produced in 2002 and that 92% of this data

1890-486: The first time). Information can be defined exactly by set theory: "Information is a selection from the domain of information". The "domain of information" is a set that the sender and receiver of information must know before exchanging information. Digital information, for example, consists of building blocks that are all number sequences. Each number sequence represents a selection from its domain. The sender and receiver of digital information (number sequences) must know

1944-448: The formation and development of an organism without any need for a conscious mind. One might argue though that for a human to consciously define a pattern, for example a nucleotide, naturally involves conscious information processing. However, the existence of unicellular and multicellular organisms, with the complex biochemistry that leads, among other events, to the existence of enzymes and polynucleotides that interact maintaining

1998-401: The idea of "information catalysts", structures where emerging information promotes the transition from pattern recognition to goal-directed action (for example, the specific transformation of a substrate into a product by an enzyme, or auditory reception of words and the production of an oral response) The Danish Dictionary of Information Terms argues that information only provides an answer to

2052-895: The irrecoverability of any information about the matter to have originally crossed the event horizon , violating both classical and quantum assertions against the ability to destroy information. The information cycle (addressed as a whole or in its distinct components) is of great concern to information technology , information systems , as well as information science . These fields deal with those processes and techniques pertaining to information capture (through sensors ) and generation (through computation , formulation or composition), processing (including encoding, encryption, compression, packaging), transmission (including all telecommunication methods), presentation (including visualization / display methods), storage (such as magnetic or optical, including holographic methods ), etc. Information visualization (shortened as InfoVis) depends on

2106-403: The issue of signs with the context within which signs are used. The focus of pragmatics is on the intentions of living agents underlying communicative behaviour. In other words, pragmatics link language to action. Semantics is concerned with the meaning of a message conveyed in a communicative act. Semantics considers the content of communication. Semantics is the study of the meaning of signs –

2160-411: The limitations of Shannon-Weaver information when attempting to characterize and measure subjective information. Information is any type of pattern that influences the formation or transformation of other patterns. In this sense, there is no need for a conscious mind to perceive, much less appreciate, the pattern. Consider, for example, DNA . The sequence of nucleotides is a pattern that influences

2214-407: The more common use of the word to describe computer software . With ( traditional art ) static media, art materials such as crayons may be considered both equipment and medium as the wax, charcoal or chalk material from the equipment becomes part of the surface of the medium. Some recording media may be temporary either by design or by nature. Volatile organic compounds may be used to preserve

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2268-438: The multi-faceted concept of information in terms of signs and signal-sign systems. Signs themselves can be considered in terms of four inter-dependent levels, layers or branches of semiotics : pragmatics, semantics, syntax, and empirics. These four layers serve to connect the social world on the one hand with the physical or technical world on the other. Pragmatics is concerned with the purpose of communication. Pragmatics links

2322-427: The next step. For example, in written text each symbol or letter conveys information relevant to the word it is part of, each word conveys information relevant to the phrase it is part of, each phrase conveys information relevant to the sentence it is part of, and so on until at the final step information is interpreted and becomes knowledge in a given domain . In a digital signal , bits may be interpreted into

2376-436: The occurrence of a causal input at a later time (and perhaps another place). Some information is important because of association with other information but eventually there must be a connection to a causal input. In practice, information is usually carried by weak stimuli that must be detected by specialized sensory systems and amplified by energy inputs before they can be functional to the organism or system. For example, light

2430-594: The organization or to meet legal, fiscal or accountability requirements imposed on the organization. Willis expressed the view that sound management of business records and information delivered "...six key requirements for good corporate governance ...transparency; accountability; due process; compliance; meeting statutory and common law requirements; and security of personal and corporate information." Michael Buckland has classified "information" in terms of its uses: "information as process", "information as knowledge", and "information as thing". Beynon-Davies explains

2484-471: The specific context associated with this interpretation may cause the transformation of the information into knowledge . Complex definitions of both "information" and "knowledge" make such semantic and logical analysis difficult, but the condition of "transformation" is an important point in the study of information as it relates to knowledge, especially in the business discipline of knowledge management . In this practice, tools and processes are used to assist

2538-418: The study of the form rather than the content of signs and sign systems. Nielsen (2008) discusses the relationship between semiotics and information in relation to dictionaries. He introduces the concept of lexicographic information costs and refers to the effort a user of a dictionary must make to first find, and then understand data so that they can generate information. Communication normally exists within

2592-664: The success of the Voyager missions to deep space, the invention of the compact disc , the feasibility of mobile phones and the development of the Internet. The theory has also found applications in other areas, including statistical inference , cryptography , neurobiology , perception , linguistics, the evolution and function of molecular codes ( bioinformatics ), thermal physics , quantum computing , black holes , information retrieval , intelligence gathering , plagiarism detection , pattern recognition , anomaly detection and even art creation. Often information can be viewed as

2646-512: The symbols, letters, numbers, or structures that convey the information available at the next level up. The key characteristic of information is that it is subject to interpretation and processing. The derivation of information from a signal or message may be thought of as the resolution of ambiguity or uncertainty that arises during the interpretation of patterns within the signal or message. Information may be structured as data . Redundant data can be compressed up to an optimal size, which

2700-434: The system can be called information. In other words, it can be said that information in this sense is something potentially perceived as representation, though not created or presented for that purpose. For example, Gregory Bateson defines "information" as a "difference that makes a difference". If, however, the premise of "influence" implies that information has been perceived by a conscious mind and also interpreted by it,

2754-416: The transaction of business". The International Committee on Archives (ICA) Committee on electronic records defined a record as, "recorded information produced or received in the initiation, conduct or completion of an institutional or individual activity and that comprises content, context and structure sufficient to provide evidence of the activity". Records may be maintained to retain corporate memory of

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2808-508: Was more than 30% per year. In a more limited study, the International Data Corporation estimated that the total amount of digital data in 2007 was 281 exabytes, and that the total amount of digital data produced exceeded the global storage capacity for the first time. A 2011 Science Magazine article estimated that the year 2002 was the beginning of the digital age for information storage: an age in which more information

2862-422: Was stored on hard disk drives. This was about twice the data produced in 2000. The amount of data transmitted over telecommunications systems in 2002 was nearly 18 exabytes—three and a half times more than was recorded on non-volatile storage. Telephone calls constituted 98% of the telecommunicated information in 2002. The researchers' highest estimate for the growth rate of newly stored information (uncompressed)

2916-443: Was the informational equivalent of 174 newspapers per person per day in 2007. The world's combined effective capacity to exchange information through two-way telecommunication networks was the informational equivalent of 6 newspapers per person per day in 2007. As of 2007, an estimated 90% of all new information is digital, mostly stored on hard drives. The total amount of data created, captured, copied, and consumed globally

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