https://canvas.emporia.edu/courses/19975/discussion_topics/109524?module_item_id=326318 https://canvas.emporia.edu/courses/19975/discussion_topics/109525?module_item_id=326320

Task 2: Post your self-introduction under this Week's Discussion Forum

   You should answer the following questions: 

Can you describe your educational background, technology interests, and library work experience? Tell us in detail about what specific skills and experience related to informatics you have. Specifically, what computer programming languages have you learned? At what levels have you used any of those? What specific areas/topics of informatics are you most interested in learning through this course? How can we make your learning experience more engaging or better? Review and comment your colleague students' bio in a professional manner.

Week1: Overview of Informatics–R&R Jinxuan Ma No unread replies. No replies. Read & React Posts (original posts due on 5/26; comments due on 5/28)

General Guidelines for Writing Read, Reflect & React Posts:

(1) READ & REFLECT: Read the assigned number of articles on the reading list for this week. Post your reflections and critical comments on the course topic/s. For your post: (a) identify TWO main takeaways from this week’s readings/news report and (b) briefly explain why these resonated with you–these should be critical reflections and NOT summaries.

Discussion board postings must be substantive. Original (Read & Reflect) posts should be at least 300 words.

(2) REACT: Post a substantive comment on another student’s posting for this week. These comments (React) posts must be substantive (cite authoritative sources and provide reasons for your position) and should be at least 100 words.

You may post more than one reply and continue the discussion if you wish. At the end of each post, list the articles/resources you chose to read for that week. Use APA 6th edition format for your citations.

Week 1 Reading List and Discussion Tasks:

1. Review the following websites and materials.

Informatics is all about connection people to information and technology. Informatics aims to examine how information technology shapes people's life, organizations, and the world. The School of Informatics and Computing, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. (2016). Informatics defined. Retrieved from https://soic.iupui.edu/about/what-is-informatics/Links to an external site.

Informatics is a study area to “train skilled professionals in every sector of society who can turn information into actionable knowledge” (para. 1). The Information School, University of Washington. (2016). What is Informatics? Retrieved from https://ischool.uw.edu/academics/informatics/what-is-informatics Links to an external site.

American Medical Informatics Association defines informatics gearing towards the medical and healthcare settings: “The science of informatics drives innovation that is defining future approaches to information and knowledge management in biomedical research, clinical care, and public health” (para. 1). American Medical Informatics Association. (2016). Science of Informatics. Retrieved from https://www.amia.org/about-amia/science-informatics Links to an external site.

The Classification of Instructural Programs (CIP) describes Informatics as: “A program that focuses on computer systems from a user-centered perspective and studies the structure, behavior and interactions of natural and artificial systems that store, process and communicate information. Includes instruction in information sciences, human computer interaction, information system analysis and design, telecommunications structure and information architecture and management” (para. 1). Institute of Education of Science, National Center for Education Statistics, Classification of Instructional Programs. (2010). Informatics. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cipcode/cipdetail.aspx?y=55&cipid=8932 Links to an external site.

University of Edinburgh defines informatics as: ” On an article by the University of Edinburgh titled “What is Informatics”, Informatics is defined as follows: “Informatics studies the representation, processing, and communication of information in natural and engineered systems. It has computational, cognitive and social aspects. The central notion is the transformation of information–whether by computation or communication, whether by organisms or artifacts. University of Edinburgh. (2016). What is Informatics? Retrieved from http://www.ed.ac.uk/files/atoms/files/what20is20informatics.pdf Links to an external site.

2. Discussing the following questions:

Why does the concept of Informatics mean different things to the different people in the different contexts? How have those definitions resonated with your experience and learning goals?

Why does the concept of Informatics mean different things to the different people in the different contexts?

Let’s begin by approaching the question diachronically – what is the history of the concept(s) covered by the term informatics.

Informatics appears to have its origins in Germany. According to a history of Informatics prepared by the Department of Biomedical Informatics of Vanderbilt University, “the first professional organization for informatics, currently known as the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Medizinische Dokumentation, Informatik und Statistik, was founded by Gustav Wagner in 1949” (Vanderbuilt, 2002). In the United States, Robert Ledley was the primary influence on the American Scientific community through two influential Science articles: “Reasoning Foundations of Medical Diagnosis” (with Lee B. Lusted) and “Digital Electronic Computers in Biomedical Science” (Robert Ledley, 2017). Reading through the Ledley article, it becomes clear that the American point of departure differed from the European concept because of the differing backgrounds of the two scientists. Wagner had a background in documentation science (Documentation science, 2017) while Ledley did not. This will help account for differences in European and American definitions of informatics to the present day.

Fast forward to today, and we can see that the term informatics has broadened in usage and gone beyond the early mathematical/physics-based approach and added elements involved in management, record keeping, human-computer interaction, user interface design, and thousands of other applications that involve a computer, information, and a human need. What began as a math and science-based engineering discipline with fairly rigid boundaries has stretched to encompass almost any application of information processing technology. Informatics lacks conceptual rigor and so it can be defined elastically which accounts for the disparity in definitions between the two library schools, the professional informatic organization, the education institution, and the University of Edinburgh. In the case of the two library schools, informatics is used rhetorically to make computer science a sexy prospect for potential students and to differentiate their students from computer science engineers and electrical engineers. AMIA provides an institutional definition which is rhetorically defined around innovation which promotes the value of the institution and its members. The CIP definition attempts to define the concept in terms of pedagogy and defines a more constrained set of meanings than do the two library schools or the AMIA. Finally, the University of Edinburgh which created a World-Class school of informatics (based on the pioneering work of Robin Milner which is based on a science of information) offers a much more philosophically and conceptual “deeper” and more generalizable definition of informatics than the others.

What we can takeaway from this analysis: 1) history and developmental context matters in the formation of a concept and is analogous to biological development. 2) Institutional values shape the rhetorical expression of the definitions. The audience the definition is targeted to reach influences its formation.

How have those definitions resonated with your experience and learning goals?

The definitions provided by the two library schools read like sales brochures - with the University of Washington’s being laughably bad (“train skilled professionals in every sector of society who can turn information into actionable knowledge”). Is having a “tip” on tomorrow’s horse race, information that can be turned into actionable knowledge by a skilled professional? AMIA and CIP provide more prosaic definitions which are good working starting points for understanding the informatics in a general sense in the context of healthcare and educational curriculum. Solid and yeoman-like definitions.

But the definition offered by the University of Edinburgh resonates best with my experience and learning because it is the most general of the definitions and therefore the most philosophically/scientifically useful definition. Let me quote it here:

“Informatics studies the representation, processing, and communication of information in natural and engineered systems. It has computational, cognitive and social aspects. The central notion is the transformation of information–whether by computation or communication, whether by organisms or artifacts.”

This definition is jargon and marketing-speak free. This definition is not defined by any particular technology. It is agnostic regarding what entities use the information - they can be biological (natural) or machine (engineered systems). It is defined by information and the ways that information can be transformed. Artificial intelligence is not valued higher or lower than human intelligence. Neither computation nor cognition is privileged over the other. This definition marries the craft and body of knowledge of traditional library science (classification, bibliometrics, categorization, meta-data, etc.) with the domain of knowledge and craft from computer science and systems theory (artificial intelligence, algorithms, databases, programming, etc) and puts it in the context of human information needs. From this foundation, informatics can be built into a rigorous discipline based on the concepts of information, work, communication, system, and constraint.

This conceptual clarity will be helpful when thinking through the engineering problems that informatics is designed to address. What is information? How is work performed? How is information communicated? What constitutes a system? And how do constraints affect information, work, communication, and systems?

These questions are ones I hope to find good answers to as we move through the material in class as well as thinking through the opportunities and disruptions that technological innovations will have on Libraries, Archives, Museums.

-B

Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University. (2002). What is biomedical informatics? Retrieved http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/dbmi/informatics.html (Links to an external site.)

Robert Ledley. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved May 25, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ledley (Links to an external site.)

Documentation science. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved May 25, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentation_science