我对以色列情报学家 Dr. Chaim  Zins问卷的回答（2005年6月）

武夷山

2005年间，以色列哲学家、情报学家Chaim  Zins教授就information和information science的概念进行了问卷调查，我是参与答卷的几十位Panel members中除以色列学者外的唯一亚洲学者。后来，他根据问卷结果的分析发表了几篇论文，包括：

Knowledge map of information science: Research Articles， Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology · February 2007

原文见https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227496774_Knowledge_map_of_information_science_Research_Articles

Classification schemes of Information Science: Twenty-eight scholars map the field，Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology ，March 2007

原文见

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220434458_Classification_schemes_of_Information_Science_Twenty-eight_scholars_map_the_field

    我填写问卷后，他将打算在其未来两篇论文中引用的我对information和information science的定义抽了出来（他对我的原始表述略作了调整）。下面是他抽取的我的定义：      

* For a paper on "data", "information", and "knowledge":

"Data are artifacts that reflect a phenomenon in natural or social world in the form of figures, facts, plots, etc. Information is anything communicated among living things. It is one of the three mainstays supporting the survival and evolution of life, along with energy and materials. Knowledge is a human construct, which categorize things, record significant events, and find causal relations among things and/or events, etc. in a systematic way."  (Yishan Wu) 

* For a paper on the conceptions of Information Science:

"Information Science is the study of appropriate human approaches to extracting information from data, and knowledge from information, as well as the study of approaches to composing message with the smallest number of clearest symbols to solve information explosion problem, and the study of approaches to impacting the production of information process with knowledge, and the production of data with appropriate amount of  information."  (Yishan Wu)

他提出要求，要我给出我阐述这两个定义的参考文献。我回答说，我的发表物中未阐述过这两个定义，但在教学中使用过。我还提供了启发过我的思路的其他参考文献。我的答复如下：

Your edited form (or summary) of my definition of data, information, knowledge and information science is quite accurate and succinct. Thank you very much! In fact, I gave these definitions just in response to your questionnaire. I had never given them in my formal publications (I did give them in my teaching, though).

The following are some citations that provoked (I do not necessarily agree with them) my thinking about those critical conceptions. I list them here just in case it is of any use to you.

1.  Yishan WU, A glimpse of “hot spots” in information science, Information studies: Theory and Application, 2002, 25 (4): 241-244。(written in Chinese)    

In this paper, I mainly tell Chinese readers what foreign information scientists are most concerned with.

2.  Jiyuan YE, The relationship among library science, intelligence science, information science and information management science, China Journal of Library Science, 2004, 30(151): 11-17 (written in Chinese) 

3.  Fuyuan FU, Study on construction and development of theoretical information science and applied information science, Information studies: Theory and Application, 2005, 28 (2): 113-119 (written in Chinese)

4.  Ellen Bonnevie, Dretske’s semantic theory and metatheories in library and information science, J. of Documentation, 2001, 57 (4): 519-534

In this paper, F. Machlup’s concept of information is introduced. I echo Machlup’s emphasis that  the word “information” should not be used at all if human being is not involved.

5.  F. J. Miller, I=0 (Information has no intrinsic meaning), http://information.net/ir/8-1/paper140.html