[Air-l] information seeking, web surfing and social capital

[Rita Lauria]

In terms of jeremy's interest in how to bring info into the construction
of social capital, especially in terms of Shannon's mathematical model,
I'd like to refer you to a triology of work by Tom Stonier on
information. Also refer to the work of physicist David Bohm, who
suggested that information is in fact a truly "objective" (in the
physical sense) aspect of the universe and should be placed alongside
energy and matter as one of the factors that  underlie the processes of
the universe. Granted Bohm, a protege of Einstein's, has been criticized
for his hidden variables theory of the quantum potential that sought to
explain the uncertainty inherent at the level of the quantum in terms of
these variables, but nevertheless, I point to this work in answer to
your query if you want to deal w/information as objectively real.

Also Stonier's work, which starts with "Information andd the Internal
Structure of the Universe (1990), holds that "'information' is no more,
or no less, an abstract concept than 'energy.'" 
His definition of information hinges on the aspect that "a system
contains information if it causes the system itself or some other system
to become organized." What mass is to matter, and heat to energy,
Stonier claims, organization is to information. He notes that the
problem is that although we have the technology to quantify (measure)
the amount of mass in a system, we still have problems quantifying
organization. As such I personally see the 21st century as that century
in which a clarification, i.e., theory of information becomes manifest.

Stonier's second work is "Beyond Information, The Natural History of
Intelligence. His third in his triology is "Information and Meaning, An
Evolutionary Perspective."

Hope these pointers help, esp. Info and Meaning.

Rita Lauria

jeremy hunsinger wrote:
> 
> >
> 
> it seems to me that social capital usually isn't constructed in terms of
> information, but in terms of knowledge and/or relationships.  I'd be
> interested in how you(or others) will bring information(and here I am
> thinking more of information in the Claude Shannon sense) into this
> realm.


Anabel Quan Haase wrote:
> 
> Dear AoIR fellows:
> I am investigating the relationship between information seeking
> (offline), web surfing, and social capital. I would really appreciate
> it, if you could point me to any literature on how these three
> constructs are
> related.
> 
> Specifically to information seeking and social capital: There have been
> some claims that information seeking is related to social capital (the
> direction of the relationship is still unclear). The argument being that
> "People who seek information, e.g., read the newspaper, and go to
> libraries, tend to have higher levels of political and organizational
> participation, as well as more postivie attitudes towards community." or
> "The intensity in which people engage in reading news, etc, leads to
> higher levels of engagement in the community.
> 
> Specifically to web-surfing or net use and information seeking offline:
> "It is claimed that those who are interested in politics, and news in
> general will use the web as one more source thus extending their already
> existent offline reading habits."
> 
> So far the only reference that I have found is:
> 
> Karen E. Pettigrew &- Joan C. Durrance - "Fostering Social Capital Using
> the 'Net: Perceptions of Community Network Users, Information Providers
> and Organizers"
> 
> Thanks so much for your help!
> --
> Anabel
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Anabel Quan Haase
> Faculty of Information Studies,
> University of Toronto
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
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