INLS 180 Day 1 Notes

August 31, 2005

1. Introductions and personal goals
2. Course overview  (syllabus and notes on WWW)
3. Assignments
1. Post to blog: one sentence statements about what each of these terms mean to you: information, communication, interaction
2. Term Project (see syllabus)
3. Asking questions
4. Readings

Reading assignments—everybody poses a question on each reading to the blog. Each group discusses questions of interest and one person summarizes the discussion verbally.

2. Reading responsibilities:  (discuss groups)

Readings for Next week:

Read for next meeting:

Pierce, J. (1972) Communication.  Scientific American, 227(3), 31-41 [consider the lens of 30 years]

Pool, I. D. S. (1973). Communication systems.   In Ithiel Pool, Wilbur Schramm, Nathan Maccoby & Edwin Parker, (Eds.), Handbook of communication.  Chicago: Rand McNally.  pp 3-36.

Optional:  Weaver, W. (1949). Recent contributions to the mathematical theory of communication.  In, The mathematical theory of communication.  Urbana, IL: U. of Illinois Press. [Read Chapter 1]

3. Introduction to Information and Communication Theory

Information senses:

      Thing/object (what we handle, transmit, store)

      Process (act of informing)

      Mental state (knowledge)

Projection of self in cyberspace

 (signal—data—information—knowledge—wisdom)

                        Signal (mass/energy)

                        Data (ordered mass/energy)

                        Information (data in a human)

                        Knowledge (formalized information and skills—represented mentally and/or physically)

                        Wisdom (the experience to know the differences)

Communication senses:

            Process involving:

                        Two or more (human) participants (sender/receiver, creator/audience, etc.)

                        Sender (initiator, creator, etc.) has intention

                        Receiver’s mental state changes

                        Time ranges from 0+ to infinite

                        May be unidirectional

            Object (e.g., document)

Interaction senses:

            Mutual (reciprocal) action (process)

                        Two or more objects (often we are concerned with one being human)

                        Either may initiate, may be unintentional/random

                        States of both objects change

                        Time ranges from 0+ to infinite (but most often concerned with small latencies)

                        Always bidirectional (feedback required, typically multiple cycles)

What might it mean to interact with information?   Does information change when we ‘interact’ with it? 

How does digital information affect the possibilities of interaction?

For HII do we also include the inferences and uses made of information?

4. One-minute paper concept

What was the big point you learned in class today?

What is the main, unanswered question you leave class with today?