{"id":407,"date":"2018-06-29T19:13:53","date_gmt":"2018-06-29T19:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/ivytech-informationliteracy-1\/?post_type=chapter&p=407"},"modified":"2018-06-29T19:24:10","modified_gmt":"2018-06-29T19:24:10","slug":"informatics-by-michael-fourman","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/ivytech-informationliteracy-1\/chapter\/informatics-by-michael-fourman\/","title":{"raw":"Informatics by Michael Fourman","rendered":"Informatics by Michael Fourman"},"content":{"raw":"

Division of Informatics, University of<\/b> <\/b>Edinburgh<\/b><\/p>\r\n

Centre <\/b>for <\/b><\/span>Intelligent Systems and their<\/b> <\/b>Applications\r\n<\/b>Institute <\/b>for <\/b><\/span>Adaptive and Neural<\/b> <\/b>Computation\r\nInstitute <\/b>for <\/b><\/span>Communicating and Collaborative<\/b> <\/b>Systems\r\nInstitute <\/b>for <\/b><\/span>Computing Systems<\/b> <\/b>Architecture\r\n<\/b>Institute<\/b> <\/b>of<\/b> <\/b>Perception,<\/b> <\/b>Action<\/b> <\/b>and<\/b> <\/b>Behaviour\r\nLaboratory <\/b>for <\/b><\/span>Foundations of Computer<\/b> <\/b>Science<\/b><\/p>\r\n \r\n

informatics<\/b><\/p>\r\n

by Michael Fourman<\/p>\r\n

Informatics Research Report<\/b> <\/b>EDI-INF-RR-0139<\/b><\/p>\r\n

Division of<\/b> <\/b>Informatics July<\/b> <\/b>2002\r\n<\/b>http:\/\/www.informatics.ed.ac.uk\/<\/a><\/p>\r\n

informatics<\/b><\/p>\r\n

Michael Fourman<\/p>\r\n

Informatics Research Report EDI-INF-RR-0139 DIVISION of<\/i> <\/i>INFORMATICS\r\n<\/span>Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications\r\nInstitute for Adaptive and Neural Computation\r\nInstitute for Communicating and Collaborative Systems\r\nInstitute for Computing Systems Architecture\r\nInstitute of Perception, Action and Behaviour\r\nLaboratory for Foundations of Computer Science\r\nJuly 2002<\/p>\r\n

entry for \u2018informatics\u2019 to appear in International Encyclopedia of Information and Library Science (second edition) (0415259010) John Feather and Paul Sturges eds. Routledge 2002<\/p>\r\n

Abstract<\/b> <\/b>:<\/b><\/p>\r\n

This article is an extended entry in the Routledge International Enclopedia of Information and Library Science. It gives <\/span>an account of the origins and meaning of the word \u2018informatics\u2019, and attempts to give <\/span>some hint of the scientific depth, intellectual scope, and social importance of the subject, using examples relevant to the intended audience of this encyclopedia.<\/p>\r\n

Keywords <\/b>: informatics<\/p>\r\n

Copyright \u00a9 2002 by Routledge<\/p>\r\n

The author and the University of Edinburgh retain the right to reproduce and publish this paper for non-commercial purposes. Permission is granted for this report to be reproduced by others for non-commercial purposes as long as this copyright notice and the reference to the Encyclopedia are reprinted in full in any reproduction. Applications to make other use of the material should be addressed in the first instance to Routledge Ltd of 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE<\/p>\r\n

The authors and the University of Edinburgh retain the right to reproduce and publish this paper for non-commercial purposes.<\/p>\r\n

Permission is granted for this report to be reproduced by others for non-commercial purposes as long as this copy- right notice is reprinted in full in any reproduction. Applications to make other use of the material should be addressed in the first instance to Copyright Permissions, Division of Informatics, The University of Edinburgh, 80 South Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1HN, Scotland.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

informatics<\/b><\/span><\/h1>\r\n

Informatics\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>science\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>information. \u00a0 <\/span>It \u00a0 <\/span>studies \u00a0 <\/span>the \u00a0 <\/span>representation, \u00a0 <\/span>processing, \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>communication \u00a0 <\/span>of information \u00a0 <\/span>in \u00a0 <\/span>natural \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>artificial \u00a0 <\/span>systems. Since \u00a0 <\/span>computers, \u00a0 <\/span>individuals\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>organizations\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>all\u00a0 <\/span>process information, informatics has computational, cognitive and social aspects.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Used\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>compound, in\u00a0 <\/span>conjunction \u00a0 <\/span>with \u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>name \u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>discipline, \u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>medical \u00a0 <\/span>informatics, \u00a0 <\/span>bio-informatics, etc.,\u00a0 <\/span>it\u00a0 <\/span>denotes the\u00a0 <\/span>specialization of\u00a0 <\/span>informatics to\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>management \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>processing \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>data, \u00a0 <\/span>information \u00a0 <\/span>and knowledge in the named discipline.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n

Terminology<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\r\n

The\u00a0 <\/span>French \u00a0 <\/span>term \u00a0 <\/span>informatique<\/i>, \u00a0 <\/span>together \u00a0 <\/span>with \u00a0 <\/span>various \u00a0 <\/span>translations \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>\u2014 \u00a0 <\/span>informatics\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>(English), \u00a0 <\/span>informatik \u00a0 <\/span><\/i>(German), and informatica <\/i>(Italian, Spanish)\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>\u2014\u00a0 <\/span>was\u00a0 <\/span>coined\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>by\u00a0 <\/span>Dreyfus,\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>March\u00a0 <\/span>1962\u00a0 <\/span>(Dreyfus\u00a0 <\/span>1962),\u00a0 <\/span>referring\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>the application\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>computers\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>store\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>process\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>(see\u00a0 <\/span>also\u00a0 <\/span>Bauer\u00a0 <\/span>1996). \u00a0 <\/span>The\u00a0 <\/span>morphology,\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span><\/i><\/span>+\u00a0-ics<\/i>,\u00a0 <\/span>uses\u00a0 <\/span>\u2018the\u00a0 <\/span>accepted\u00a0 <\/span>form\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>names\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>sciences, as\u00a0 <\/span>conics, linguistics, optics, <\/i><\/span>or \u00a0 <\/span>matters \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>practice, \u00a0 <\/span>as economics, politics, tactics\u2019 <\/i>(Oxford English Dictionary 1989); informatics <\/i><\/span>encompasses both science and practice. Phonologically,\u00a0 <\/span>informatics\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>combines elements \u00a0 <\/span>from \u00a0 <\/span>both \u00a0 <\/span>\u2018information\u2019 \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>\u2018automatic\u2019, \u00a0 <\/span>which \u00a0 <\/span>strengthens\u00a0 <\/span>its semantic appeal.\u00a0 <\/span>This new\u00a0 <\/span>term was\u00a0 <\/span>adopted across Western Europe, and, except in\u00a0 <\/span>English,\u00a0 <\/span>developed\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a meaning roughly translated by\u00a0 <\/span>the \u00a0 <\/span>English \u00a0 <\/span>\u2018computer \u00a0 <\/span>science\u2019, \u00a0 <\/span>or \u00a0 <\/span>\u2018computing \u00a0 <\/span>science\u2019. \u00a0 <\/span>Mikhailov \u00a0 <\/span>et \u00a0 <\/span>al. \u00a0 <\/span><\/i>advocated \u00a0 <\/span>the Russian term \u2018informatika\u2019 (1966), and the\u00a0 <\/span>English\u00a0 <\/span>\u2018informatics\u2019\u00a0 <\/span>(1967),\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>names\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>\u2018theory\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>scientific information\u2019, and argued for <\/span>a broader meaning, including study\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>use\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>information technology in various communities (e.g. scientific) and of the interaction of technology and human organizational structures.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

\u2018Informatics is\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>discipline of\u00a0 <\/span>science which\u00a0 <\/span>investigates the \u00a0 <\/span>structure \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>properties \u00a0 <\/span>(not specific content) of\u00a0 <\/span>scientific information, as\u00a0 <\/span>well\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>regularities of \u00a0 <\/span>scientific \u00a0 <\/span>information activity, <\/span>its theory, history, methodology <\/span>and organization.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\r\n

(Mikhailov <\/span>et<\/i> <\/i>al.<\/i> <\/i>1967)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Usage\u00a0 <\/span>has\u00a0 <\/span>since\u00a0 <\/span>modified\u00a0 <\/span>this\u00a0 <\/span>definition\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>three\u00a0 <\/span>ways.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>First,\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>restriction\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>scientific\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>information\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>removed, as in business informatics <\/i>or legal informatics<\/i>. Second,\u00a0 <\/span>since\u00a0 <\/span>most\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>now\u00a0 <\/span>digitally\u00a0 <\/span>stored\u00a0 <\/span>(Lesk,\u00a0 <\/span>1997; Lyman\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>et\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>al<\/i>.\u00a0 <\/span>2000),\u00a0 <\/span>computation\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>now\u00a0 <\/span>central \u00a0 <\/span>to \u00a0 <\/span>informatics: \u00a0 <\/span>Gorn \u00a0 <\/span>(1983) \u00a0 <\/span>defines\u00a0 <\/span>informatics \u00a0 <\/span>as \u00a0 <\/span>computer science plus information science. Third, the processing and communication of\u00a0 <\/span>information are\u00a0 <\/span>added\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>objects\u00a0 <\/span>of investigation, since they have been recognized as fundamental to any scientific account of information.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>English-speaking world\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>term\u00a0 <\/span>informatics \u00a0 <\/span>was \u00a0 <\/span>first \u00a0 <\/span>widely \u00a0 <\/span>used \u00a0 <\/span>in \u00a0 <\/span>the compound,\u00a0<\/span> \u2018medical informatics\u2019, taken to include \u2018the cognitive,\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>processing,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>communication\u00a0 <\/span>tasks\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>medical\u00a0 <\/span>practice, education,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>research,\u00a0 <\/span>including\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>science\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>technology <\/span> to\u00a0 <\/span>support <\/span> these\u00a0 <\/span>tasks\u2019 <\/span> (Greenes <\/span> and Shortliffe 1990). Many such compounds are now in use.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

A June 2002 web\u00a0 <\/span>search (Google 2002)\u00a0 <\/span>found\u00a0 <\/span>\u2018informatics\u2019 and\u00a0 <\/span>various compounds, occurring more\u00a0 <\/span>or\u00a0 <\/span>less frequently: the numbers of documents returned for\u00a0 <\/span>each\u00a0 <\/span>term\u00a0 <\/span>are\u00a0 <\/span>given\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>parentheses: informatics\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>(1,100,000), bioinformatics\u00a0<\/i>(691,000),\u00a0medical informatics\u00a0<\/span><\/i>(151,000),\u00a0health informatics\u00a0<\/i>(52,800),\u00a0museum informatics\u00a0<\/i>(19,500),nursing informatics\u00a0<\/i>(15,600),\u00a0geoinformatics\u00a0<\/i>(11,100),\u00a0neuroinformatics\u00a0<\/i>(9,180),\u00a0social informatics\u00a0<\/i><\/span>(6,840),\u00a0business informatics\u00a0<\/i>(6,610),\u00a0dental informatics\u00a0<\/i>(2,850),\u00a0molecular informatics\u00a0<\/i>(2,630),\u00a0environmental\u00a0<\/i><\/span>informatics\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>(2,580),\u00a0 <\/span>legal informatics <\/i>(1,640), \u00a0 <\/span>chemical\u00a0 <\/span>informatics \u00a0 <\/span><\/i>(1,230), \u00a0 <\/span>mobile\u00a0 <\/span>informatics \u00a0 <\/span><\/i>(492),\u00a0 <\/span>protein informatics <\/i>(408),\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>library informatics <\/i>(303).\u00a0 <\/span>Some\u00a0 <\/span>informatics specializations are\u00a0 <\/span>named\u00a0 <\/span>in \u00a0 <\/span>other \u00a0 <\/span>ways: \u00a0 <\/span>for example,\u00a0 <\/span>what might\u00a0 <\/span>be \u00a0 <\/span>called\u00a0 <\/span>science\u00a0 <\/span>informatics <\/i>(1,710) \u00a0 <\/span>is \u00a0 <\/span>more \u00a0 <\/span>usually \u00a0 <\/span>called \u00a0 <\/span>e-science \u00a0 <\/span><\/i>(17,700);\u00a0 <\/span>bioinformatics is <\/span>often called computational biology <\/i>(347,000).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Each of these areas\u00a0 <\/span>studies\u00a0 <\/span>representations\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>uses\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>information, which\u00a0 <\/span>may\u00a0 <\/span>be\u00a0 <\/span>peculiar to\u00a0 <\/span>each\u00a0 <\/span>field of application,\u00a0 <\/span>but\u00a0 <\/span>draw\u00a0 <\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span>common\u00a0 <\/span>social, logical and\u00a0 <\/span>computational foundations. They\u00a0 <\/span>all \u00a0 <\/span>involve \u00a0 <\/span>the \u00a0 <\/span>use \u00a0 <\/span>of computing and information technologies to store, process and communicate information. They all also address the interaction\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>technology\u00a0 <\/span>with\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>production\u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>use \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>information \u00a0 <\/span>by \u00a0 <\/span>individuals \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>organizations; \u00a0 <\/span>they develop\u00a0 <\/span>software,\u00a0 <\/span>systems\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>services \u00a0 <\/span>that \u00a0 <\/span>aim \u00a0 <\/span>to \u00a0 <\/span>help \u00a0 <\/span>people \u00a0 <\/span>interact \u00a0 <\/span>with \u00a0 <\/span>information, \u00a0 <\/span>efficiently\u00a0 <\/span>and effectively.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n

The scope of Informatics<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\r\n

What these areas have in\u00a0 <\/span>common\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>informatics:\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>focus\u00a0 <\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>how\u00a0 <\/span>it\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>represented\u00a0 <\/span>in,\u00a0 <\/span>processed <\/span>by,\u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>communicated \u00a0 <\/span>between \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>variety \u00a0 <\/span>of systems. \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Representations \u00a0 <\/span>include \u00a0 <\/span>paper, \u00a0 <\/span>analogue,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>digital\u00a0 <\/span>records of text, sounds and images, as well as, for instance, the information represented in <\/span>a gene,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>memories\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>an individual\u00a0 <\/span>or \u00a0 <\/span>an \u00a0 <\/span>organization.\u00a0 <\/span>Processing\u00a0 <\/span>includes\u00a0 <\/span>human \u00a0 <\/span>reasoning,\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>digital\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>computation,\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>organizational processes. Communication\u00a0 <\/span>includes\u00a0 <\/span>human communication\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>human-computer interface \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>- \u00a0 <\/span>with \u00a0 <\/span>speech \u00a0 <\/span>and<\/span> gesture, with\u00a0 <\/span>text \u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>diagram, \u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>well \u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>computer \u00a0 <\/span>communications \u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>networking, \u00a0 <\/span>which \u00a0 <\/span>may\u00a0 <\/span>use\u00a0 <\/span>radio, optical or electrical signals.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Informatics\u00a0 <\/span>studies\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>interaction\u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>information \u00a0 <\/span>with \u00a0 <\/span>individuals \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>organizations, \u00a0 <\/span>as \u00a0 <\/span>well \u00a0 <\/span>as \u00a0 <\/span>the fundamentals\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>computation\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>computability,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>hardware\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>software\u00a0 <\/span>technologies \u00a0 <\/span>used\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>store, \u00a0 <\/span>process and communicate\u00a0 <\/span>digitised information.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u00a0 <\/span>includes\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>study\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>communication\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a \u00a0 <\/span>process \u00a0 <\/span>that \u00a0 <\/span>links \u00a0 <\/span>people together, <\/span>to affect the behaviour of individuals and organizations.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n

Informatics as <\/b><\/span>a<\/b> Science<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\r\n

Science progresses by defining, developing, criticizing and refining new concepts, in\u00a0 <\/span>order\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>account for\u00a0 <\/span>observed phenomena. Informatics is developing its own fundamental concepts of communication,\u00a0 <\/span>knowledge,\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>data, secrecy, interaction and\u00a0 <\/span>information, relating them\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>such\u00a0 <\/span>phenomena as\u00a0 <\/span>computation, thought, \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>language, \u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>applying them to develop tools for the management of information resources.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Informatics\u00a0 <\/span>has\u00a0 <\/span>many\u00a0 <\/span>aspects.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u00a0 <\/span>encompasses,\u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>builds \u00a0 <\/span>on, \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a \u00a0 <\/span>number \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>existing\u00a0 <\/span>academic\u00a0 <\/span>disciplines: primarily Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science and\u00a0 <\/span>Computer Science. \u00a0 <\/span>Each \u00a0 <\/span>takes \u00a0 <\/span>part \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>Informatics \u00a0 <\/span>as \u00a0 <\/span>its natural domain: in broad terms, Cognitive Science concerns the\u00a0 <\/span>study\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>natural\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>processing\u00a0 <\/span>systems; Computer\u00a0 <\/span>Science\u00a0 <\/span>concerns\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>analysis\u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>computation, \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>the \u00a0 <\/span>design \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>computing \u00a0 <\/span>systems; \u00a0 <\/span>Artificial Intelligence plays <\/span>a connecting role, producing systems designed to emulate those found\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>nature.\u00a0 <\/span>Informatics\u00a0 <\/span>also informs,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>informed\u00a0 <\/span>by,\u00a0 <\/span>other\u00a0 <\/span>disciplines,\u00a0 <\/span>such\u00a0 <\/span>as \u00a0 <\/span>Mathematics, \u00a0 <\/span>Electronics, Biology, Linguistics,\u00a0 <\/span>Psychology, and\u00a0 <\/span>Sociology. Thus \u00a0 <\/span>Informatics \u00a0 <\/span>provides \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a \u00a0 <\/span>link \u00a0 <\/span>between disciplines \u00a0 <\/span>with \u00a0 <\/span>their \u00a0 <\/span>own \u00a0 <\/span>methodologies \u00a0 <\/span>and perspectives, bringing\u00a0 <\/span>together\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a \u00a0 <\/span>common \u00a0 <\/span>scientific\u00a0 <\/span>paradigm,\u00a0 <\/span>common \u00a0 <\/span>engineering \u00a0 <\/span>methods\u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 pervasive stimulus from both technological development and practical application.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Informatics builds\u00a0 <\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>long\u00a0 <\/span>tradition\u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>work\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>logic, \u00a0 <\/span>which\u00a0 <\/span>provides\u00a0 <\/span>an\u00a0 <\/span>analysis \u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>meaning, \u00a0 <\/span>proof \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>truth. <\/span>It draws <\/span>on probability <\/span>and statistics <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>relate\u00a0 <\/span>data\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>information,\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>more\u00a0 <\/span>recent\u00a0 <\/span>tradition\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>computer science\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>abstract\u00a0 <\/span>models\u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>computation, \u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>fundamental \u00a0 <\/span>notions\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>computability\u00a0 <\/span>(What \u00a0 <\/span>can \u00a0 <\/span>be computed?) and\u00a0 <\/span>complexity (How\u00a0 <\/span>do\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>space\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>time\u00a0 <\/span>requirements of\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>computation\u00a0 <\/span>scale\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>we \u00a0 <\/span>consider \u00a0 <\/span>problems of different sizes?). Combining these traditions enriches them all, since they share <\/span>a common interest in information.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The\u00a0 <\/span>science of\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>provides\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>new\u00a0 <\/span>paradigm\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>scientific\u00a0 <\/span>analysis,\u00a0 <\/span>which\u00a0 <\/span>concentrates\u00a0 <\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>processing and \u00a0 <\/span>communication\u00a0 <\/span>information, \u00a0 <\/span>rather \u00a0 <\/span>than \u00a0 <\/span>focussing \u00a0 <\/span>on \u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>electrical,\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>optical,\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>mechanical\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>or\u00a0 <\/span>chemical interactions\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>embody\u00a0 <\/span>this\u00a0 <\/span>activity.\u00a0 <\/span>Focussing \u00a0 <\/span>on \u00a0 <\/span>information \u00a0 <\/span>provides \u00a0 <\/span>novel \u00a0 <\/span>accounts \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>long-standing phenomena, even in Physics (Frieden 1998). Informatics provides accounts of the representation, processing,\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>and communication \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>information, \u00a0 <\/span>the \u00a0 <\/span>conceptual \u00a0 <\/span>basis \u00a0 <\/span>for \u00a0 <\/span>applying \u00a0 <\/span>computing \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>information \u00a0 <\/span>technologies\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>to develop new tools\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>management\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>diverse\u00a0 <\/span>areas,\u00a0 <\/span>and <\/span> also\u00a0 <\/span>the <\/span> basis\u00a0 <\/span>for <\/span> beginning\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>unravel the workings of the mind.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

We illustrate\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>scope\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>nature\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>informatics\u00a0 <\/span>with\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>brief\u00a0 <\/span>account\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>one\u00a0 <\/span>area\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>which\u00a0 <\/span>informatics is contributing \u00a0 <\/span>to \u00a0 <\/span>library \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>information \u00a0 <\/span>science. \u00a0 <\/span>With \u00a0 <\/span>essentially\u00a0 <\/span>all \u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>becoming\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>available\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>online, libraries will\u00a0 <\/span>focus\u00a0 <\/span>increasingly on\u00a0 <\/span>selection, searching, and\u00a0 <\/span>quality assessment. Informatics'\u00a0 <\/span>contribution\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>to\u00a0 this enterprise is to provide <\/span>and apply appropriate techniques for the\u00a0 <\/span>representation,\u00a0 <\/span>processing\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>communication\u00a0 <\/span>of information. We give an<\/span> account of some of these techniques, with <\/span>a focus on textual information.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n

Representation<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\r\n

\u2018The Web<\/span> was<\/span> designed as an information space, with the goal that it should be useful not only for human-human communication, but \u00a0 <\/span>also \u00a0 <\/span>that \u00a0 <\/span>machines \u00a0 <\/span>would \u00a0 <\/span>be\u00a0 <\/span>able to\u00a0 <\/span>participate \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>help. One of the major obstacles to this has\u00a0 <\/span>been\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>fact\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>most\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>Web\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>designed\u00a0 <\/span>for<\/span> human consumption. [...]\u00a0 <\/span>The\u00a0 <\/span>Semantic Web\u00a0 <\/span>approach [...]\u00a0 <\/span>develops languages for\u00a0 <\/span>expressing information in <\/span>a machine processable form.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\r\n

(Tim Berners-Lee 1998)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Data\u00a0 <\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>World\u00a0 <\/span>Wide\u00a0 <\/span>Web\u00a0 <\/span>makes\u00a0 <\/span>digital representations familiar to\u00a0 <\/span>us\u00a0 <\/span>all.\u00a0 <\/span>Texts,\u00a0 <\/span>images\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>sounds \u00a0 <\/span>are represented \u00a0 <\/span>by\u00a0 <\/span>digital \u00a0 <\/span>encodings, \u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>patterns \u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>bits. \u00a0 <\/span>Standards, \u00a0 <\/span>such \u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>ASCII, \u00a0 <\/span>Unicode, \u00a0 <\/span>JPEG, \u00a0 <\/span>TIFF, \u00a0 <\/span>WAV and<\/span><\/p>\r\n

MP3,\u00a0 <\/span>allow\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>encoding,\u00a0 <\/span>storage, \u00a0 <\/span>exchange, \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>decoding \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>multimedia \u00a0 <\/span>information. \u00a0 <\/span>These \u00a0 <\/span>representations may\u00a0 <\/span>be\u00a0 <\/span>indexed and\u00a0 <\/span>retrieved\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>individual\u00a0 <\/span>files,\u00a0 <\/span>but\u00a0 <\/span>they\u00a0 <\/span>are,\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>varying\u00a0 <\/span>degrees,\u00a0 <\/span>opaque \u00a0 <\/span>to \u00a0 <\/span>software \u00a0 <\/span>agents searching for information.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Text\u00a0 <\/span>files\u00a0 <\/span>are\u00a0 <\/span>stored\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>unstructured\u00a0 <\/span>sequences\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>characters.\u00a0 <\/span>Dividing\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a \u00a0 <\/span>text \u00a0 <\/span>into \u00a0 <\/span>words, \u00a0 <\/span>sentences \u00a0 <\/span>and paragraphs <\/span>is mostly straightforward. Finding keywords in\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>text\u00a0 <\/span>file\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>straightforward, and\u00a0 <\/span>some\u00a0 <\/span>search engines incorporate shallow linguistic knowledge that extends keyword search. For example, \u2018stemming\u2019\u00a0 <\/span>determines\u00a0 <\/span>the morphological\u00a0 <\/span>root of\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>given word form, \u00a0 <\/span>thus \u00a0 <\/span>relating\u00a0 <\/span>singular\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0<\/span>plural\u00a0 <\/span>forms \u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>noun, \u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>different moods and\u00a0 <\/span>tenses\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>verb. \u00a0 <\/span>Searching \u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>swan,\u00a0 <\/span>using\u00a0 <\/span>stemming \u00a0 <\/span>finds\u00a0 <\/span>swans,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>searching\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>goose\u00a0 <\/span>should\u00a0 <\/span>find geese (see free text searching) <\/span>.<\/p>\r\n

We\u00a0 <\/span>can\u00a0 <\/span>also\u00a0 <\/span>search\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>content in\u00a0 <\/span>other\u00a0 <\/span>media.\u00a0 <\/span>Finding keywords in\u00a0 <\/span>recorded \u00a0 <\/span>speech \u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>much \u00a0 <\/span>harder than searching\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>text file: more expensive in \u00a0 <\/span>computing\u00a0 <\/span>resources,\u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>less \u00a0 <\/span>accurate.\u00a0 <\/span>Finding \u00a0 <\/span>images \u00a0 <\/span>with \u00a0 <\/span>specified content, just by examining the image automatically, is even harder (see image retrieval).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Extracting information from\u00a0 <\/span>texts\u00a0 <\/span>requires \u00a0 <\/span>deeper \u00a0 <\/span>linguistic \u00a0 <\/span>analysis. \u00a0 <\/span>For example, searching \u00a0 <\/span>news \u00a0 <\/span>reports \u00a0 <\/span>to glean\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>about\u00a0 <\/span>company\u00a0 <\/span>takeovers \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>-\u00a0 <\/span>who\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>being\u00a0 <\/span>taken\u00a0 <\/span>over,\u00a0 <\/span>by\u00a0 <\/span>whom,\u00a0 <\/span>what\u00a0 <\/span>price\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>being\u00a0 <\/span>paid,\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 what\u00a0<\/span>requires <\/span>a grammatical analysis of<\/span> individual\u00a0 <\/span>sentence\u00a0 <\/span>structures.\u00a0 <\/span>More\u00a0 <\/span>complex\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>- such\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>finding arguments that support\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>particular\u00a0 <\/span>decision\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>-\u00a0 <\/span>demands more global analyses\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>meaning.\u00a0 <\/span>Text\u00a0 <\/span>files\u00a0 <\/span>form\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a small fraction of\u00a0 <\/span>society's data\u00a0 <\/span>storage (Lyman\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>Varian\u00a0 <\/span>2000).\u00a0 <\/span>However, texts\u00a0 <\/span>are\u00a0 <\/span>rich\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>information that\u00a0 <\/span>is not represented elsewhere, so it is important to make this information accessible. If texts are stored\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>ways\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>make grammatical and\u00a0 <\/span>rhetorical structures transparent, then\u00a0 <\/span>it\u00a0 <\/span>becomes easier \u00a0 <\/span>for \u00a0 <\/span>automated \u00a0 <\/span>tools \u00a0 <\/span>to \u00a0 <\/span>access such information.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n

Metadata<\/i><\/span><\/h2>\r\n

The simplest way of making searching\u00a0 <\/span>easier\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>attach\u00a0 <\/span>an\u00a0 <\/span>electronic\u00a0 <\/span>\u2018catalogue\u00a0 <\/span>card\u2019\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>each\u00a0 <\/span>document.\u00a0 <\/span>Such data about data is called \u2018metadata\u2019. For example,\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>Dublin\u00a0 <\/span>Core\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>metadata\u00a0 <\/span>standard\u00a0 <\/span>which\u00a0 <\/span>specifies\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>set <\/span> of required and\u00a0 <\/span>permitted elements for\u00a0 <\/span>such\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>catalogue card.\u00a0 <\/span>The\u00a0 <\/span>Resource Description Format\u00a0 <\/span>(RDF)\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a general standard for such metadata.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Metadata\u00a0 <\/span>allows\u00a0 <\/span>software\u00a0 <\/span>agents\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>find,\u00a0 <\/span>retrieve,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>process\u00a0 <\/span>data.\u00a0 <\/span>Just\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>books\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>library \u00a0 <\/span>are \u00a0 <\/span>made accessible by the catalogue, so information on the web is made accessible by metadata.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The Semantic Web is\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>project\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>aims\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>provide\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>common\u00a0 <\/span>framework\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>such\u00a0 <\/span>efforts,\u00a0 <\/span>by\u00a0 <\/span>having\u00a0 <\/span>data\u00a0 <\/span>on the web defined and linked in such\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>way\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>it\u00a0 <\/span>can\u00a0 <\/span>be\u00a0 <\/span>used\u00a0 <\/span>by\u00a0 <\/span>machines not\u00a0 <\/span>just\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>display\u00a0 <\/span>purposes,\u00a0 <\/span>but for automation,\u00a0 <\/span>integration\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>reuse\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>data\u00a0 <\/span>across\u00a0 <\/span>various\u00a0 <\/span>applications,\u00a0 <\/span>so\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>tomorrow's\u00a0 <\/span>programs\u00a0 <\/span>can \u00a0 <\/span>share and process data even when these programs have been designed totally independently.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n

Structured data<\/i><\/span><\/h2>\r\n

Digital \u00a0 <\/span>documents \u00a0 <\/span>allow, \u00a0 <\/span>in \u00a0 <\/span>principle, \u00a0 <\/span>much \u00a0 <\/span>richer \u00a0 <\/span>automated \u00a0 <\/span>processing \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>- \u00a0 <\/span>content \u00a0 <\/span>selection,\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>information extraction,\u00a0 <\/span>price\u00a0 <\/span>comparisons,\u00a0 <\/span>or\u00a0 <\/span>document\u00a0 <\/span>clustering.\u00a0 <\/span>To\u00a0 <\/span>facilitate\u00a0 <\/span>this,\u00a0 <\/span>data\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>structured;\u00a0 <\/span>documents \u00a0 <\/span>are \u00a0 <\/span>given internal\u00a0 <\/span>structure.\u00a0 <\/span>There\u00a0 <\/span>are\u00a0 <\/span>many\u00a0 <\/span>different\u00a0 <\/span>formats\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>structured\u00a0 <\/span>data,\u00a0 <\/span>some\u00a0 <\/span>simple\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>their\u00a0 <\/span>description,\u00a0 <\/span>others complex and\u00a0 <\/span>rich.\u00a0 <\/span>Many\u00a0 <\/span>communities (biologists, engineers, \u00a0 <\/span>geologists, \u00a0 <\/span>businesses) \u00a0 <\/span>are \u00a0 <\/span>designing \u00a0 <\/span>new \u00a0 <\/span>formats \u00a0 <\/span>to allow them to put machine-understandable data on the\u00a0 <\/span>Web.\u00a0 <\/span>This\u00a0 <\/span>will\u00a0 <\/span>allow\u00a0 <\/span>data\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>be\u00a0 <\/span>shared\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>processed\u00a0 <\/span>by automated tools as well as by people.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n

Relational Data<\/span><\/h2>\r\n

Relational databases represent information by representing relations\u00a0 <\/span>between\u00a0 <\/span>entities\u00a0 <\/span>(such\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>relation\u00a0 <\/span>between book\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>author, or\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>relation between book\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>publisher). \u00a0 <\/span>Rather \u00a0 <\/span>than \u00a0 <\/span>exchange\u00a0 <\/span>whole \u00a0 <\/span>databases, \u00a0 <\/span>query languages, such as SQL, allow users to retrieve, from the database, information about specified\u00a0 <\/span>entities.\u00a0 <\/span>Relational databases\u00a0 <\/span>are\u00a0 <\/span>appropriate\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>representing\u00a0 <\/span>uniformly\u00a0 <\/span>structured\u00a0 <\/span>data,\u00a0 <\/span>where\u00a0 <\/span>all\u00a0 <\/span>entities\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>given\u00a0 <\/span>type\u00a0 <\/span>can\u00a0 <\/span>be represented by\u00a0 <\/span>specifying <\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>given\u00a0 <\/span>collection of\u00a0 <\/span>relations \u00a0 <\/span>(every \u00a0 <\/span>part \u00a0 <\/span>has\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>price, \u00a0 <\/span>every \u00a0 <\/span>employee \u00a0 <\/span>has\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a manager). <\/span>But they <\/span>are\u00a0 <\/span>ill\u00a0 <\/span>adapted\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>open-ended\u00a0 <\/span>nature\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>web,\u00a0 <\/span>where\u00a0 <\/span>we\u00a0 <\/span>may\u00a0 <\/span>find\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>one\u00a0 <\/span>manager also plays <\/span>in a band, and so have to represent the fact that she plays the saxophone.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n

Markup<\/span><\/h2>\r\n

One common form\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>structuring is\u00a0 <\/span>markup. Markup\u00a0 <\/span>originated as\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>means\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>structuring text;\u00a0 <\/span>before\u00a0 <\/span>the computerization\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>printing\u00a0 <\/span>industry,\u00a0 <\/span>markup\u00a0 <\/span>was\u00a0 <\/span>annotation\u00a0 <\/span>written\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>by\u00a0 <\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>copy \u00a0 <\/span>editor \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>manuscript,\u00a0<\/span> to indicate structure (chapter, heading, paragraph...) and style (italic, bold, etc.). Markup now refers\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>to sequences\u00a0 <\/span>of characters, known\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>tags,\u00a0 <\/span>inserted in\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>text \u00a0 <\/span>or\u00a0 <\/span>word \u00a0 <\/span>processing \u00a0 <\/span>file. \u00a0 <\/span>The\u00a0 <\/span>original \u00a0 <\/span>use\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>markup \u00a0 <\/span>was\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>to indicate how\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>file\u00a0 <\/span>should \u00a0 <\/span>look\u00a0 <\/span>when\u00a0 <\/span>printed \u00a0 <\/span>or\u00a0 <\/span>displayed. \u00a0 <\/span>Markup \u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>now\u00a0 <\/span>often\u00a0 <\/span>used\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>describe \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>document's \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>logical\u00a0<\/span>structure,\u00a0 <\/span>or\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>format\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>describing\u00a0 <\/span>an\u00a0 <\/span>abstract\u00a0 <\/span>logical \u00a0 <\/span>structure, \u00a0 <\/span>so-called \u00a0 <\/span>\u2018semi-structured\u00a0 <\/span>data\u2019 \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>-\u00a0 <\/span>a replacement for the representation <\/span>of structured data <\/span>by traditional relational<\/span> databases.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Standard frameworks for markup, such <\/span>as SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) and\u00a0 <\/span>XML\u00a0 <\/span>(eXtensible Markup Language),\u00a0 <\/span>have been\u00a0 <\/span>adopted by\u00a0 <\/span>many\u00a0 <\/span>metadata initiatives, including \u00a0 <\/span>the \u00a0 <\/span>semantic \u00a0 <\/span>web, \u00a0 <\/span>where \u00a0 <\/span>XML markup is used to structure the metadata\u00a0 <\/span>attached\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>document.\u00a0 <\/span>An\u00a0 <\/span>example\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>SGML\u00a0 <\/span>markup\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>HyperText Markup Language <\/span>(HTML), lingua franca <\/i>of the World Wide Web.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

A\u00a0 <\/span>general markup language,\u00a0 <\/span>such \u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>XML, \u00a0 <\/span>can\u00a0 <\/span>be\u00a0 <\/span>applied\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>encode\u00a0 <\/span>content\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>structure\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>applications \u00a0 <\/span>that go far<\/span> beyond the<\/span> original purposes of markup for<\/span> typesetting and<\/span> display.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>Markup can be used to tag entities in <\/span>a document\u00a0 <\/span>(addresses,\u00a0 <\/span>prices,\u00a0 <\/span>or\u00a0 <\/span>names),\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>tag\u00a0 <\/span>logical\u00a0 <\/span>roles\u00a0 <\/span>(author,\u00a0 <\/span>publisher),\u00a0 <\/span>to \u00a0 <\/span>tag \u00a0 <\/span>logical \u00a0 <\/span>connections, \u00a0 <\/span>for example linking <\/span>a price to an entity, or\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>tag\u00a0 <\/span>phrases and\u00a0 <\/span>parts\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>speech, in\u00a0 <\/span>order\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>indicate <\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>text's\u00a0 <\/span>detailed grammatical structure. Applications of XML\u00a0 <\/span>are\u00a0 <\/span>found\u00a0 <\/span>everywhere:\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>bioinformatics\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>linguistics,\u00a0 <\/span>in business-<\/span> to-business applications, <\/span>in cataloguingand indexing, and in scholarly annotation of ancient texts.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Markup languages define\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>scope\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>what\u00a0 <\/span>can\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>cannot\u00a0 <\/span>be\u00a0 <\/span>expressed \u00a0 <\/span>in \u00a0 <\/span>markup <\/span>. \u00a0 <\/span>For \u00a0 <\/span>example, <\/span>XML provides controlled flexibility, and allows us <\/span>to represent semi-structured\u00a0 <\/span>data that does not fit well in the relational mould.\u00a0 <\/span>XML\u00a0 <\/span>tags\u00a0 <\/span>come\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>pairs,\u00a0 <\/span><author>...<\/author>,\u00a0 <\/span>which\u00a0 <\/span>act\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>\"named\u00a0 <\/span>brackets\". \u00a0 <\/span>These\u00a0 <\/span>brackets\u00a0 <\/span>must be properly nested, <\/span>so an XML\u00a0 <\/span>document\u00a0 <\/span>has\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>hierarchical\u00a0 <\/span>structure\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>which\u00a0 <\/span>each\u00a0 <\/span>layer\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>hierarchy consists of text,\u00a0 <\/span>interspersed \u00a0 <\/span>with\u00a0 <\/span>elements \u00a0 <\/span>from\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>layer\u00a0 <\/span>below\u00a0 <\/span>tagged\u00a0 <\/span>with\u00a0 <\/span>names\u00a0 <\/span>(such\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>\"author\").\u00a0 <\/span>This\u00a0 <\/span>allows\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 mixture of structure and free text <\/span>.<\/p>\r\n

Most\u00a0 <\/span>applications\u00a0 <\/span>require\u00a0 <\/span>further\u00a0 <\/span>restrictions.\u00a0 <\/span>For\u00a0 <\/span>example,\u00a0 <\/span>HTML\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>defined\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>by\u00a0 <\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>document\u00a0 <\/span>type\u00a0 <\/span>definition (DTD)\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>specifies\u00a0 <\/span>which\u00a0 <\/span>elements\u00a0 <\/span>may\u00a0 <\/span>occur\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>an \u00a0 <\/span>HTML \u00a0 <\/span>document \u00a0 <\/span>(headings, \u00a0 <\/span>paragraphs, \u00a0 <\/span>lists...), \u00a0 <\/span>and structural rules (for example, list elements occur within lists) that\u00a0 <\/span>an\u00a0 <\/span>HTML\u00a0 <\/span>document\u00a0 <\/span>must\u00a0 <\/span>follow.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>A DTD can specify <\/span>as many constraints <\/span>on the\u00a0 <\/span>structure\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>are\u00a0 <\/span>needed\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>particular\u00a0 <\/span>application,\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>or\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>few.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>So\u00a0 <\/span>an author element might require <\/span>a surname, allow any number of forenames, and permit nothing else.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

From <\/span>a scientific perspective,\u00a0 <\/span>XML\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>structures\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>it\u00a0 <\/span>allows\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>us\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>express\u00a0 <\/span>represent\u00a0 <\/span>just\u00a0 <\/span>one\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>many possibilities for structuring\u00a0 <\/span>data.\u00a0 <\/span>The science <\/span>underlying\u00a0 <\/span>XML provides\u00a0 <\/span>an\u00a0 <\/span>understanding\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>ways\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>which\u00a0 <\/span>data may be structured.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u00a0 <\/span>provides\u00a0 <\/span>query\u00a0 <\/span>languages\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>algorithms\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>retrieving\u00a0 <\/span>data\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>response\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a query.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u00a0 <\/span>provides the\u00a0 <\/span>conceptual\u00a0 <\/span>framework\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>understanding\u00a0 <\/span>how\u00a0 <\/span>structure\u00a0 <\/span>may\u00a0 <\/span>be \u00a0 <\/span>specified, \u00a0 <\/span>for \u00a0 <\/span>example \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>by \u00a0 <\/span>a \u00a0 <\/span>DTD, and algorithms for checking <\/span>that a document conforms to\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>specified form.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>It\u00a0 <\/span>provides\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>basis\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>assurances\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>of the integrity and provenance of data, and so on.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n

Processing and Communication<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\r\n

Processing <\/span>is the transformation <\/span>of data from one form <\/span>to another. Information <\/span>is data interpreted,\u00a0 <\/span>organized\u00a0 <\/span>and structured. For\u00a0 <\/span>example, the\u00a0 <\/span>English documents on\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>web\u00a0 <\/span>form\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>large\u00a0 <\/span>dataset; when\u00a0 <\/span>we\u00a0 <\/span>use\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>search\u00a0 <\/span>engine\u00a0 <\/span>to count\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>numbers of\u00a0 <\/span>documents containing <\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>given\u00a0 <\/span>search \u00a0 <\/span>term \u00a0 <\/span>it\u00a0 <\/span>finds \u00a0 <\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>web, \u00a0 <\/span>we\u00a0 <\/span>extract \u00a0 <\/span>information from this\u00a0 <\/span>data.\u00a0 <\/span>The\u00a0 <\/span>ability\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>collect, aggregate, and\u00a0 <\/span>organize data\u00a0 <\/span>allows\u00a0 <\/span>us\u00a0 <\/span>to \u00a0 <\/span>create \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>represent \u00a0 <\/span>information. Knowledge is\u00a0 <\/span>information that has\u00a0 <\/span>been analysed \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>so \u00a0 <\/span>that \u00a0 <\/span>inter-relationships \u00a0 <\/span>are \u00a0 <\/span>identified, \u00a0 <\/span>formalized,\u00a0 <\/span>and represented. Thus\u00a0 <\/span>processing can\u00a0 <\/span>extract information from\u00a0 <\/span>data,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>transform\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>into \u00a0 <\/span>knowledge. \u00a0 <\/span>These results must then be communicated effectively to the user.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n

Natural Language Processing<\/i><\/span><\/h2>\r\n

Today\u00a0 <\/span>(2002), machines are\u00a0 <\/span>widely\u00a0 <\/span>used\u00a0 <\/span>for \u00a0 <\/span>document\u00a0 <\/span>retrieval. \u00a0 <\/span>Future \u00a0 <\/span>software \u00a0 <\/span>agents \u00a0 <\/span>will \u00a0 <\/span>use \u00a0 <\/span>Natural Language\u00a0 <\/span>Processing\u00a0 <\/span>(NLP)\u00a0 <\/span>tools\u00a0 <\/span>to \u00a0 <\/span>extract \u00a0 <\/span>relevant \u00a0 <\/span>information \u00a0 <\/span>from \u00a0 <\/span>documents \u00a0 <\/span>in \u00a0 <\/span>response \u00a0 <\/span>to \u00a0 <\/span>user \u00a0 <\/span>queries, create summaries tailored to\u00a0 <\/span>the \u00a0 <\/span>user's \u00a0 <\/span>needs, \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>collate,\u00a0 <\/span>assemble\u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>present \u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>derived \u00a0 <\/span>from \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a multitude of sources.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Human readers see structure\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>texts:\u00a0 <\/span>words,\u00a0 <\/span>sentences,\u00a0 <\/span>paragraphs,\u00a0 <\/span>documents....\u00a0 <\/span>They\u00a0 <\/span>attribute meanings to documents, and\u00a0 <\/span>structure \u00a0 <\/span>these \u00a0 <\/span>meanings \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>- \u00a0 <\/span>as \u00a0 <\/span>facts, \u00a0 <\/span>arguments \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>conclusions, \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>so \u00a0 <\/span>on.\u00a0 <\/span>Representing, processing and\u00a0 <\/span>communicating structures and\u00a0 <\/span>meanings, in\u00a0 <\/span>ways\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>make\u00a0 <\/span>these\u00a0 <\/span>easily\u00a0 <\/span>accessible to \u00a0 <\/span>machine processing, so that users can easily access information relevant to their needs, are key issues for informatics.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Automated text -processing\u00a0 <\/span>tools\u00a0 <\/span>can\u00a0 <\/span>tag\u00a0 <\/span>parts \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>speech, \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>annotate \u00a0 <\/span>grammatical \u00a0 <\/span>links: \u00a0 <\/span>the \u00a0 <\/span>connection between verb, subject, and object; the connection between <\/span>a pronoun and the phrase it refers\u00a0 <\/span>to.\u00a0 <\/span>Deeper\u00a0 <\/span>linguistic processing can\u00a0 <\/span>disambiguate word\u00a0 <\/span>senses. Such \u00a0 <\/span>tools \u00a0 <\/span>are \u00a0 <\/span>components \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>natural \u00a0 <\/span>language \u00a0 <\/span>understanding. \u00a0 <\/span>They convert texts into\u00a0 <\/span>machine-accessible\u00a0 <\/span>sources of\u00a0 <\/span>information,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>provide\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>basis\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>variety\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>information processing<\/span> applications.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

For example, current document retrieval systems <\/span>,\u00a0 <\/span>using\u00a0 <\/span>keyword\u00a0 <\/span>search,\u00a0 <\/span>allow\u00a0 <\/span>users\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>find\u00a0 <\/span>documents\u00a0 <\/span>that <\/span> are relevant to their needs, but most leave it to the user to extract the useful information from those documents. Users, however, are often looking for answers, not documents.\u00a0 <\/span>Information extraction tools,\u00a0 <\/span>based on\u00a0 <\/span>natural\u00a0 <\/span>language understanding,\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>find\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>extract\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>from\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>texts.\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Such\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>tools, \u00a0 <\/span>already \u00a0 <\/span>used, \u00a0 <\/span>by \u00a0 <\/span>intelligence \u00a0 <\/span>analysts\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0<\/span>others,\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>sift through large\u00a0 <\/span>amounts of\u00a0 <\/span>textual information,\u00a0 <\/span>will \u00a0 <\/span>become\u00a0 <\/span>commonplace. \u00a0 <\/span>Document\u00a0 <\/span>clustering \u00a0 <\/span>is another\u00a0 <\/span>application\u00a0 <\/span>that \u00a0 <\/span>draw <\/span>s \u00a0 <\/span>on \u00a0 <\/span>natural\u00a0 <\/span>language\u00a0 <\/span>technology. \u00a0 <\/span>By \u00a0 <\/span>examining \u00a0 <\/span>patterns \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>word occurrences, together with syntactic <\/span>and semantic\u00a0 <\/span>structures,\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>it\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>possible\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>cluster\u00a0 <\/span>documents\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>by\u00a0 <\/span>topic, <\/span>or\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>search\u00a0 <\/span>for documents similar to <\/span>a given example.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Automated natural language\u00a0 <\/span>generation\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>also being\u00a0 <\/span>applied,\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>new\u00a0 <\/span>forms\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>delivery.\u00a0 <\/span>Machine-<\/span> generated text can be used to present information tailored to\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>user\u00a0 <\/span>(Oberlander\u00a0 <\/span>et\u00a0 <\/span>al.\u00a0 <\/span>1998).\u00a0 <\/span>Such tools will be <\/span>applied to present information\u00a0 <\/span>derived\u00a0 <\/span>from\u00a0 <\/span>database\u00a0 <\/span>queries,\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>extraction,\u00a0 <\/span>and data mining.\u00a0 <\/span>Tools\u00a0 <\/span>for document clustering\u00a0 <\/span>will be\u00a0 <\/span>linked to\u00a0 <\/span>natural language generation\u00a0 <\/span>to \u00a0 <\/span>provide \u00a0 <\/span>automatically \u00a0 <\/span>generated\u00a0 <\/span>summaries drawing on <\/span>a variety of sources.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Natural language processing is\u00a0 <\/span>one\u00a0 <\/span>example\u00a0 <\/span>demonstrating\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>way\u00a0 <\/span>informatics\u00a0 <\/span>relates\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>longer-established disciplines.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>It\u00a0 <\/span>relies\u00a0 <\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span>computer \u00a0 <\/span>science \u00a0 <\/span>for \u00a0 <\/span>underlying \u00a0 <\/span>software \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>hardware \u00a0 <\/span>technologies, \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>for \u00a0 <\/span>algorithms that make this processing feasible. It draws on\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>logic\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>linguistics\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>appropriate\u00a0 <\/span>representations\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>linguistic\u00a0 <\/span>and semantic structures, on machine learning techniques from artificial intelligence for tools\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>extract\u00a0 <\/span>from\u00a0 <\/span>large\u00a0 <\/span>text corpora information\u00a0 <\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>words\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>concepts\u00a0 <\/span>relevant\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>particular domain,\u00a0 <\/span>and on\u00a0 <\/span>cognitive\u00a0 <\/span>science <\/span> and psychology for an understanding of how people process and react to information.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

These disciplines\u00a0 <\/span>are\u00a0 <\/span>drawn \u00a0 <\/span>together,\u00a0 <\/span>in \u00a0 <\/span>informatics,\u00a0 <\/span>by \u00a0 <\/span>the \u00a0 <\/span>common \u00a0 <\/span>purpose \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>understanding\u00a0 <\/span>how \u00a0 <\/span>language can communicate\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>between\u00a0 <\/span>human\u00a0 <\/span>users\u00a0 <\/span>and <\/span> a formal\u00a0 <\/span>representation\u00a0 <\/span>stored\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a machine.\u00a0 <\/span>This marriage of\u00a0 <\/span>computational and\u00a0 <\/span>theoretical linguistics \u00a0 <\/span>with \u00a0 <\/span>cognitive \u00a0 <\/span>psychology \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>neuroscience \u00a0 <\/span>has \u00a0 <\/span>generated \u00a0 <\/span>new \u00a0 <\/span>tools, and also thrown new light on human communication.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

It\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>clear\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>information, and hence informatics, must\u00a0 <\/span>play\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>pivotal\u00a0 <\/span>role\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>any\u00a0 <\/span>analysis \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>human communication. Informatics\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>also\u00a0 <\/span>transforming other\u00a0 <\/span>areas\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>science: it\u00a0 <\/span>provides\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>new\u00a0 <\/span>paradigm\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>analysing complex\u00a0 <\/span>systems,\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>compositions \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>simpler \u00a0 <\/span>subsystems \u00a0 <\/span>that \u00a0 <\/span>process \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>communicate \u00a0 <\/span>information.\u00a0 <\/span>Long-<\/span> standing challenges to scientific analysis, are being transformed by the new paradigm<\/span> .<\/p>\r\n

For example,\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>biology <\/span>,\u00a0 <\/span>informatics\u00a0 <\/span>provides\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>not\u00a0 <\/span>just\u00a0 <\/span>tools \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>data-processing\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>knowledge \u00a0 <\/span>discovery, \u00a0 <\/span>but also <\/span>a conceptual framework for studying the\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>stored\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>communicated by\u00a0 <\/span>genes,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>processed\u00a0 <\/span>by biochemical cycles that \u2018run the genetic program\u2019 <\/span>to produce structure and form.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In\u00a0 <\/span>cognitive science it\u00a0 <\/span>provides the\u00a0 <\/span>conceptual\u00a0 <\/span>tools\u00a0 <\/span>needed\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>develop\u00a0 <\/span>models \u00a0 <\/span>of the \u00a0 <\/span>connection \u00a0 <\/span>between cognition\u00a0 <\/span>and the\u00a0 <\/span>observed\u00a0 <\/span>structure\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>function\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>billions\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>neurons\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>make\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>up\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>brain.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>It\u00a0 <\/span>also \u00a0 <\/span>provides the technologies that\u00a0 <\/span>allow\u00a0 <\/span>us\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>observe\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>analyse the\u00a0 <\/span>structure\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>operation\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>living\u00a0 <\/span>brain\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>ever\u00a0 <\/span>greater detail, and to <\/span>test\u00a0 <\/span>our\u00a0 <\/span>models <\/span>by\u00a0 <\/span>simulation\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>very\u00a0 <\/span>much\u00a0 <\/span>simplified\u00a0 <\/span>subsystems,\u00a0 <\/span>which,\u00a0 <\/span>despite\u00a0 <\/span>their\u00a0 <\/span>relative simplicity, are complex beyond analytical analysis.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n

Looking forward<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\r\n

The technologies underlying the\u00a0 <\/span>digital storage, processing and\u00a0 <\/span>communication of\u00a0 <\/span>information are improving relentlessly. Since 1965 these improvements\u00a0 <\/span>have\u00a0 <\/span>followed\u00a0 <\/span>\u2018Moore's\u00a0 <\/span>Law\u2019:\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a given\u00a0 <\/span>price,\u00a0 <\/span>both\u00a0 <\/span>processor\u00a0 <\/span>speeds and\u00a0 <\/span>memory\u00a0 <\/span>capacity\u00a0 <\/span>double\u00a0 <\/span>every\u00a0 <\/span>18\u201424\u00a0 <\/span>months\u00a0 <\/span>(Moore\u00a0 <\/span>1965). \u00a0 <\/span>Communication \u00a0 <\/span>bandwidth \u00a0 <\/span>follows \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 similar pattern of\u00a0 <\/span>growth,\u00a0 <\/span>but\u00a0 <\/span>doubles\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>12\u00a0 <\/span>months\u00a0 <\/span>or\u00a0 <\/span>less\u00a0 <\/span>(Poggio\u00a0 <\/span>2000).\u00a0 <\/span>These\u00a0 <\/span>rates\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>exponential\u00a0 <\/span>growth\u00a0 <\/span>are\u00a0 <\/span>predicted to\u00a0 <\/span>continue, so\u00a0 <\/span>processing\u00a0 <\/span>speed\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>memory\u00a0 <\/span>capacity\u00a0 <\/span>will\u00a0 <\/span>increase\u00a0 <\/span>by\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>factor\u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>100, \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>communication bandwidth by <\/span>a factor of 1000 or more, every ten years.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

The\u00a0 <\/span>combination of\u00a0 <\/span>digitisation\u00a0 <\/span>and global\u00a0 <\/span>connectivity\u00a0 <\/span>makes\u00a0 <\/span>data available\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>unprecedented \u00a0 <\/span>volume.\u00a0 <\/span>It \u00a0 <\/span>is estimated \u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>humanity \u00a0 <\/span>creates \u00a0 <\/span>more\u00a0 <\/span>than\u00a0 <\/span>an\u00a0 <\/span>*exabyte \u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>data\u00a0 <\/span>each\u00a0 <\/span>year\u00a0 <\/span>(Lyman\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>Varian, \u00a0 <\/span>2000).\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Nevertheless, it will\u00a0 <\/span>soon\u00a0 <\/span>be\u00a0 <\/span>technologically possible for\u00a0 <\/span>an\u00a0 <\/span>average person\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>access\u00a0 <\/span>virtually all\u00a0 <\/span>recorded information.\u00a0 <\/span>The availability\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>cheap\u00a0 <\/span>processing\u00a0 <\/span>will\u00a0 <\/span>make\u00a0 <\/span>it\u00a0 <\/span>increasingly \u00a0 <\/span>feasible \u00a0 <\/span>to \u00a0 <\/span>restructure \u00a0 <\/span>data \u00a0 <\/span>into \u00a0 <\/span>knowledge \u00a0 <\/span>on demand. New\u00a0 <\/span>technologies are\u00a0 <\/span>being\u00a0 <\/span>developed to\u00a0 <\/span>automatically organize this \u00a0 <\/span>material \u00a0 <\/span>into \u00a0 <\/span>forms \u00a0 <\/span>that \u00a0 <\/span>can \u00a0 <\/span>help \u00a0 <\/span>people quickly and\u00a0 <\/span>accurately\u00a0 <\/span>satisfy\u00a0 <\/span>their\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>needs,\u00a0 <\/span>realizing,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>surpassing,\u00a0 <\/span>Vannevar\u00a0 <\/span>Bush\u2019s\u00a0 <\/span>prescient\u00a0 <\/span>vision of the \u2018Memex\u2019 <\/span>\u2013 \u2018a device in which an individual stores all\u00a0 <\/span>his\u00a0 <\/span>books,\u00a0 <\/span>records,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>communications,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>which\u00a0 <\/span>is mechanized so\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>it\u00a0 <\/span>may\u00a0 <\/span>be\u00a0 <\/span>consulted with\u00a0 <\/span>exceeding speed\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>flexibility\u2019 (Bush\u00a0 <\/span>1945).\u00a0 <\/span>These\u00a0 <\/span>technologies\u00a0 <\/span>are indeed \u2018creating <\/span>a new relationship between thinking man and the sum of our knowledge\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

By 2025, <\/span>if Moore's law\u00a0 <\/span>continues\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>apply,\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>we\u00a0 <\/span>will\u00a0 <\/span>have,\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>our\u00a0 <\/span>pockets\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span>our\u00a0 <\/span>desktops,\u00a0 <\/span>computers\u00a0 <\/span>that each\u00a0 <\/span>have\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>raw\u00a0 <\/span>computing power\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>human\u00a0 <\/span>brain,\u00a0 <\/span>computers\u00a0 <\/span>linked\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>each\u00a0 <\/span>other\u00a0 <\/span>by\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a telepathic communication network. We\u00a0 <\/span>currently have\u00a0 <\/span>little\u00a0 <\/span>idea\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>how\u00a0 <\/span>we\u00a0 <\/span>might\u00a0 <\/span>structure \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>program \u00a0 <\/span>such \u00a0 <\/span>devices \u00a0 <\/span>to achieve\u00a0 <\/span>what\u00a0 <\/span>we\u00a0 <\/span>humans\u00a0 <\/span>find\u00a0 <\/span>straightforward,\u00a0 <\/span>but\u00a0 <\/span>already\u00a0 <\/span>today\u2019s \u00a0 <\/span>machines \u00a0 <\/span>extend \u00a0 <\/span>our\u00a0 <\/span>capabilities\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>by performing tasks\u00a0 <\/span>we\u00a0 <\/span>find\u00a0 <\/span>impossible. We\u00a0 <\/span>can\u00a0 <\/span>be\u00a0 <\/span>sure\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>technological changes will\u00a0 <\/span>continue to\u00a0 <\/span>revolutionize the\u00a0 <\/span>ways\u00a0 <\/span>we manage, share, and analyse data, and will provide new ways of transforming data into information and knowledge.<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n

References<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\r\n

Bauer, W.F. (1996) \u2018Informatics and (et) Informatique.\u2019 Annals<\/i> <\/i>of<\/i> <\/i>the<\/i> <\/i>History<\/i> <\/i>of<\/i> <\/i>Computing,<\/i> <\/i>18(2). http:\/\/www.softwarehistory.org\/history\/Bauer1.html<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\r\n

Berners-Lee, Tim. (1998) <\/span>Se mantic <\/span>Web Roadmap. h<\/span>ttp:\/\/www.w3.org\/DesignIssues\/Semantic.html<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\r\n

Bush, <\/span>V. (1945) <\/span>\u2018As we may think\u2019, <\/span>Atlantic<\/i> <\/i>Monthly<\/i> <\/i>176(1) (July), pp. 101\u20148. http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/unbound\/flashbks\/computer\/bushf.htm<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\r\n

Dreyfus, Ph. (1962) \u2018L\u2019informatique.\u2019 Gestion<\/i>, <\/span>Paris, Juin 1962, pp. 240\u20141.<\/p>\r\n

Frieden, B.R. <\/span>(1998) Physics from Fisher Information: <\/i><\/span>a<\/i> <\/i>Unification<\/i>, Cambridge University Press Google \u00a0 <\/span>(2002)\u00a0 <\/span>http:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=informatics<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\r\n

Gorn, S. (1983). \u2018Informatics (computer and information science): Its ideology, methodology, <\/span>and sociology\u2019, in F. Machlup<\/p>\r\n

& U. Mansfield (eds.), The<\/i> <\/i>study<\/i> <\/i>of<\/i> <\/i>information:<\/i> <\/i>Interdisciplinary<\/i> <\/i>messages,<\/i> <\/i>pp. 121\u201440.<\/p>\r\n

Greenes, R.A. <\/span>and Shortliffe, E.H. (1990) Medical Informatics: <\/span>An emerging discipline with academic <\/span>and institutional <\/span>perspectives. Journal<\/i> <\/i>of<\/i> <\/i>the<\/i> <\/i>American<\/i> <\/i>Medical<\/i> <\/i>Association,<\/i> <\/i>263(8) pp.1114\u201420.<\/p>\r\n

Lesk, Michael. (1997) How Much Information Is There In the World? h<\/span>ttp:\/\/www.lesk.com\/mlesk\/ksg97\/ksg.html<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\r\n

Lyman, P and Varian, H. (2000) How Much Information? The<\/i> <\/i>Journal<\/i> <\/i>of<\/i> <\/i>Electronic<\/i> <\/i>Publishing,<\/i> <\/i>6(2). ISSN 1080-2711 http:\/\/www.press.umich.edu\/jep\/06-0<\/span>2\/lyman.html<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\r\n

Machlup, <\/span>F. and Mansfield <\/span>U. (eds.), <\/span>(1983) The<\/i> <\/i>study<\/i> <\/i>of<\/i> <\/i>information:<\/i> <\/i>Interdisciplinary<\/i> <\/i>messages.<\/i> <\/i>John Wiley <\/span>& Sons.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Mikhailov, A.I., Chernyl, A.I., <\/span>and Gilyarevskii, R.S. <\/span>(1966) Informatika \u2013 novoe nazvanie teorii nau\u00e8noj <\/span>informacii.<\/p>\r\n

Nau\u00e8no<\/i> <\/i>tehni\u00e8eskaja<\/i> <\/i>informacija<\/i>, 12, pp 35 \u2014 9.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Mikhailov, A.I., Chernyl, A.I., <\/span>and Gilyarevskii, R.S. <\/span>(1967) Informatics \u2013 new name for the theory of scientific information.<\/p>\r\n

FID News Bull. <\/i><\/span>17(2), pp. 70 \u20144.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Moore, G.E. (1965) Cramming more components onto integrated circuits. Electronics<\/i>, <\/span>38(8) pp. 114\u20147. http:\/\/www.intel.com\/research\/silicon\/moorespaper.pdf<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\r\n

Oberlander, <\/span>J. O'Donnell, <\/span>M. Knott <\/span>A. and Mellish, <\/span>C. (1998). <\/span>Conversation in the museum: experiments in dynamic hypermedia with the intelligent labeling explorer. New<\/i> <\/i>Review<\/i> <\/i>of<\/i> <\/i>Hypermedia<\/i> <\/i>and<\/i> Multimedia, <\/i><\/span>4, pp. 11\u201432.<\/p>\r\n

Oxford English Dictionary (1989) second edition. Oxford University Press.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Poggio, A. (2000) Information and Products, in Englebart\u2019s<\/i> <\/i>Colloquium,<\/i> <\/i>the<\/i> <\/i>unfinished<\/i> <\/i>revolution.<\/i> <\/i>Stanford http:\/\/www.bootstrap.org\/colloquium\/session_10\/session_10_poggio.jsp<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\r\n

Further Reading<\/b><\/span><\/p>\r\n

Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) h<\/span>ttp:\/\/www.aclweb.org\/<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\r\n

Cole, <\/span>Ron et<\/i> <\/i>al.<\/i> <\/i>(eds), <\/span>(1998) Survey <\/i><\/span>of<\/i> <\/i>the<\/i> State <\/i><\/span>of<\/i> <\/i>the<\/i> <\/i>Art<\/i> <\/i>in<\/i> <\/i>Human<\/i> <\/i>Language<\/i> Technology. <\/i>Studies<\/span> in Natural Language Processing, Cambridge University Press; ISBN: <\/span>0521592771. http:\/\/cslu.cse.ogi.edu\/HLTsurvey<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\r\n

Cover, Robin <\/span>(Ed).<\/span> (2002)<\/span> XML Cover Pages<\/i>, http:\/\/www.oasis-open.org\/cover\/sgml-x<\/span>ml.html<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\r\n

Graves, J.R. <\/span>and Corcoran, <\/span>S. (1989) <\/span>\u2018The Study <\/span>of Nursing Informatics\u2019, <\/span>Image:<\/i> <\/i>Journal<\/i> <\/i>of<\/i> <\/i>Nursing<\/i> <\/i>Scholarship,<\/i> <\/i>21, pp.<\/p>\r\n

227\u201431 http:\/\/www.nih.gov\/ninr\/research\/vol4\/Overview.html<\/span><\/a> Martin, W.J. (1988) The<\/i> <\/i>Information<\/i> <\/i>Society<\/i>, London: ASLIB.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Musen, Mark <\/span>A. (1999) <\/span>\u2018Stanford Medical Informatics: <\/span>Uncommon research, common goals\u2019. MD<\/i> Computing<\/i>,<\/span> January\/February 1999, pp.47\u2014 <\/span>50. http:\/\/camis.stan<\/span> ford.edu\/MDComputing.pdf<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\r\n

Shortliffe, E.H. Perreault, L.E. Wiederhold, <\/span>G. and Fagan, L.M. (1990) <\/span>Medical<\/i> <\/i>Informatics:<\/i> <\/i>Computer<\/i> Applications <\/i><\/span>in<\/i> Health Care, <\/i>Addison-Wesley.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Social\u00a0 <\/span>Informatics <\/span> http:\/\/www.slis.indiana.edu\/si\/concepts.html<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\r\n

Text Retrieval Conference (TREC) http:\/\/trec.nist.gov<\/span>\/<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\r\n

See also: <\/span>artificial intelligence; <\/b>communication; communication and IT;\u00a0 <\/span>computer\u00a0 <\/span>science;\u00a0 <\/span>data\u00a0 <\/span><\/b><\/span>modelling; <\/b>database; database management; human-computer interaction; hypertext; indexing;\u00a0 <\/span>information retrieval; information\u00a0 <\/span>science;\u00a0 <\/span>intelligent\u00a0 <\/span>agents;\u00a0 <\/span>knowledge\u00a0 <\/span>management;\u00a0 <\/span>knowledge <\/b><\/span>-based \u00a0 <\/span><\/b>systems;\u00a0 <\/span>machine translation; \u00a0 <\/span>mark-up \u00a0 <\/span>languages; \u00a0 <\/span>metadata; \u00a0 <\/span>neural \u00a0 <\/span>network; \u00a0 <\/span>relational \u00a0 <\/span>database; \u00a0 <\/span>information \u00a0 <\/span>systems; search engines; software; <\/b><\/span>string indexing; World Wide \u00a0 <\/span>Web<\/b><\/span>.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\r\n

(4107 words)<\/span><\/p>\r\n

M<\/span>ICHAEL\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>P. F<\/span>OURMAN <\/span><\/p>","rendered":"

Division of Informatics, University of<\/b> <\/b>Edinburgh<\/b><\/p>\n

Centre <\/b>for <\/b><\/span>Intelligent Systems and their<\/b> <\/b>Applications
\n<\/b>Institute <\/b>for <\/b><\/span>Adaptive and Neural<\/b> <\/b>Computation
\nInstitute <\/b>for <\/b><\/span>Communicating and Collaborative<\/b> <\/b>Systems
\nInstitute <\/b>for <\/b><\/span>Computing Systems<\/b> <\/b>Architecture
\n<\/b>Institute<\/b> <\/b>of<\/b> <\/b>Perception,<\/b> <\/b>Action<\/b> <\/b>and<\/b> <\/b>Behaviour
\nLaboratory <\/b>for <\/b><\/span>Foundations of Computer<\/b> <\/b>Science<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

informatics<\/b><\/p>\n

by Michael Fourman<\/p>\n

Informatics Research Report<\/b> <\/b>EDI-INF-RR-0139<\/b><\/p>\n

Division of<\/b> <\/b>Informatics July<\/b> <\/b>2002
\n<\/b>http:\/\/www.informatics.ed.ac.uk\/<\/a><\/p>\n

informatics<\/b><\/p>\n

Michael Fourman<\/p>\n

Informatics Research Report EDI-INF-RR-0139 DIVISION of<\/i> <\/i>INFORMATICS
\n<\/span>Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications
\nInstitute for Adaptive and Neural Computation
\nInstitute for Communicating and Collaborative Systems
\nInstitute for Computing Systems Architecture
\nInstitute of Perception, Action and Behaviour
\nLaboratory for Foundations of Computer Science
\nJuly 2002<\/p>\n

entry for \u2018informatics\u2019 to appear in International Encyclopedia of Information and Library Science (second edition) (0415259010) John Feather and Paul Sturges eds. Routledge 2002<\/p>\n

Abstract<\/b> <\/b>:<\/b><\/p>\n

This article is an extended entry in the Routledge International Enclopedia of Information and Library Science. It gives <\/span>an account of the origins and meaning of the word \u2018informatics\u2019, and attempts to give <\/span>some hint of the scientific depth, intellectual scope, and social importance of the subject, using examples relevant to the intended audience of this encyclopedia.<\/p>\n

Keywords <\/b>: informatics<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2002 by Routledge<\/p>\n

The author and the University of Edinburgh retain the right to reproduce and publish this paper for non-commercial purposes. Permission is granted for this report to be reproduced by others for non-commercial purposes as long as this copyright notice and the reference to the Encyclopedia are reprinted in full in any reproduction. Applications to make other use of the material should be addressed in the first instance to Routledge Ltd of 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE<\/p>\n

The authors and the University of Edinburgh retain the right to reproduce and publish this paper for non-commercial purposes.<\/p>\n

Permission is granted for this report to be reproduced by others for non-commercial purposes as long as this copy- right notice is reprinted in full in any reproduction. Applications to make other use of the material should be addressed in the first instance to Copyright Permissions, Division of Informatics, The University of Edinburgh, 80 South Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1HN, Scotland.<\/p>\n

informatics<\/b><\/span><\/h1>\n

Informatics\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>science\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>information. \u00a0 <\/span>It \u00a0 <\/span>studies \u00a0 <\/span>the \u00a0 <\/span>representation, \u00a0 <\/span>processing, \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>communication \u00a0 <\/span>of information \u00a0 <\/span>in \u00a0 <\/span>natural \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>artificial \u00a0 <\/span>systems. Since \u00a0 <\/span>computers, \u00a0 <\/span>individuals\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>organizations\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>all\u00a0 <\/span>process information, informatics has computational, cognitive and social aspects.<\/span><\/p>\n

Used\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>compound, in\u00a0 <\/span>conjunction \u00a0 <\/span>with \u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>name \u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>discipline, \u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>medical \u00a0 <\/span>informatics, \u00a0 <\/span>bio-informatics, etc.,\u00a0 <\/span>it\u00a0 <\/span>denotes the\u00a0 <\/span>specialization of\u00a0 <\/span>informatics to\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>management \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>processing \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>data, \u00a0 <\/span>information \u00a0 <\/span>and knowledge in the named discipline.<\/span><\/p>\n

Terminology<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

The\u00a0 <\/span>French \u00a0 <\/span>term \u00a0 <\/span>informatique<\/i>, \u00a0 <\/span>together \u00a0 <\/span>with \u00a0 <\/span>various \u00a0 <\/span>translations \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>\u2014 \u00a0 <\/span>informatics\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>(English), \u00a0 <\/span>informatik \u00a0 <\/span><\/i>(German), and informatica <\/i>(Italian, Spanish)\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>\u2014\u00a0 <\/span>was\u00a0 <\/span>coined\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>by\u00a0 <\/span>Dreyfus,\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>March\u00a0 <\/span>1962\u00a0 <\/span>(Dreyfus\u00a0 <\/span>1962),\u00a0 <\/span>referring\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>the application\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>computers\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>store\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>process\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>(see\u00a0 <\/span>also\u00a0 <\/span>Bauer\u00a0 <\/span>1996). \u00a0 <\/span>The\u00a0 <\/span>morphology,\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span><\/i><\/span>+\u00a0–ics<\/i>,\u00a0 <\/span>uses\u00a0 <\/span>\u2018the\u00a0 <\/span>accepted\u00a0 <\/span>form\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>names\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>sciences, as\u00a0 <\/span>conics, linguistics, optics, <\/i><\/span>or \u00a0 <\/span>matters \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>practice, \u00a0 <\/span>as economics, politics, tactics\u2019 <\/i>(Oxford English Dictionary 1989); informatics <\/i><\/span>encompasses both science and practice. Phonologically,\u00a0 <\/span>informatics\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>combines elements \u00a0 <\/span>from \u00a0 <\/span>both \u00a0 <\/span>\u2018information\u2019 \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>\u2018automatic\u2019, \u00a0 <\/span>which \u00a0 <\/span>strengthens\u00a0 <\/span>its semantic appeal.\u00a0 <\/span>This new\u00a0 <\/span>term was\u00a0 <\/span>adopted across Western Europe, and, except in\u00a0 <\/span>English,\u00a0 <\/span>developed\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a meaning roughly translated by\u00a0 <\/span>the \u00a0 <\/span>English \u00a0 <\/span>\u2018computer \u00a0 <\/span>science\u2019, \u00a0 <\/span>or \u00a0 <\/span>\u2018computing \u00a0 <\/span>science\u2019. \u00a0 <\/span>Mikhailov \u00a0 <\/span>et \u00a0 <\/span>al. \u00a0 <\/span><\/i>advocated \u00a0 <\/span>the Russian term \u2018informatika\u2019 (1966), and the\u00a0 <\/span>English\u00a0 <\/span>\u2018informatics\u2019\u00a0 <\/span>(1967),\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>names\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>\u2018theory\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>scientific information\u2019, and argued for <\/span>a broader meaning, including study\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>use\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>information technology in various communities (e.g. scientific) and of the interaction of technology and human organizational structures.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Informatics is\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>discipline of\u00a0 <\/span>science which\u00a0 <\/span>investigates the \u00a0 <\/span>structure \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>properties \u00a0 <\/span>(not specific content) of\u00a0 <\/span>scientific information, as\u00a0 <\/span>well\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>regularities of \u00a0 <\/span>scientific \u00a0 <\/span>information activity, <\/span>its theory, history, methodology <\/span>and organization.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

(Mikhailov <\/span>et<\/i> <\/i>al.<\/i> <\/i>1967)<\/span><\/p>\n

Usage\u00a0 <\/span>has\u00a0 <\/span>since\u00a0 <\/span>modified\u00a0 <\/span>this\u00a0 <\/span>definition\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>three\u00a0 <\/span>ways.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>First,\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>restriction\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>scientific\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>information\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>removed, as in business informatics <\/i>or legal informatics<\/i>. Second,\u00a0 <\/span>since\u00a0 <\/span>most\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>now\u00a0 <\/span>digitally\u00a0 <\/span>stored\u00a0 <\/span>(Lesk,\u00a0 <\/span>1997; Lyman\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>et\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>al<\/i>.\u00a0 <\/span>2000),\u00a0 <\/span>computation\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>now\u00a0 <\/span>central \u00a0 <\/span>to \u00a0 <\/span>informatics: \u00a0 <\/span>Gorn \u00a0 <\/span>(1983) \u00a0 <\/span>defines\u00a0 <\/span>informatics \u00a0 <\/span>as \u00a0 <\/span>computer science plus information science. Third, the processing and communication of\u00a0 <\/span>information are\u00a0 <\/span>added\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>objects\u00a0 <\/span>of investigation, since they have been recognized as fundamental to any scientific account of information.<\/span><\/p>\n

In\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>English-speaking world\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>term\u00a0 <\/span>informatics \u00a0 <\/span>was \u00a0 <\/span>first \u00a0 <\/span>widely \u00a0 <\/span>used \u00a0 <\/span>in \u00a0 <\/span>the compound,\u00a0<\/span> \u2018medical informatics\u2019, taken to include \u2018the cognitive,\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>processing,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>communication\u00a0 <\/span>tasks\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>medical\u00a0 <\/span>practice, education,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>research,\u00a0 <\/span>including\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>science\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>technology <\/span> to\u00a0 <\/span>support <\/span> these\u00a0 <\/span>tasks\u2019 <\/span> (Greenes <\/span> and Shortliffe 1990). Many such compounds are now in use.<\/span><\/p>\n

A June 2002 web\u00a0 <\/span>search (Google 2002)\u00a0 <\/span>found\u00a0 <\/span>\u2018informatics\u2019 and\u00a0 <\/span>various compounds, occurring more\u00a0 <\/span>or\u00a0 <\/span>less frequently: the numbers of documents returned for\u00a0 <\/span>each\u00a0 <\/span>term\u00a0 <\/span>are\u00a0 <\/span>given\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>parentheses: informatics\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>(1,100,000), bioinformatics\u00a0<\/i>(691,000),\u00a0medical informatics\u00a0<\/span><\/i>(151,000),\u00a0health informatics\u00a0<\/i>(52,800),\u00a0museum informatics\u00a0<\/i>(19,500),nursing informatics\u00a0<\/i>(15,600),\u00a0geoinformatics\u00a0<\/i>(11,100),\u00a0neuroinformatics\u00a0<\/i>(9,180),\u00a0social informatics\u00a0<\/i><\/span>(6,840),\u00a0business informatics\u00a0<\/i>(6,610),\u00a0dental informatics\u00a0<\/i>(2,850),\u00a0molecular informatics\u00a0<\/i>(2,630),\u00a0environmental\u00a0<\/i><\/span>informatics\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>(2,580),\u00a0 <\/span>legal informatics <\/i>(1,640), \u00a0 <\/span>chemical\u00a0 <\/span>informatics \u00a0 <\/span><\/i>(1,230), \u00a0 <\/span>mobile\u00a0 <\/span>informatics \u00a0 <\/span><\/i>(492),\u00a0 <\/span>protein informatics <\/i>(408),\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>library informatics <\/i>(303).\u00a0 <\/span>Some\u00a0 <\/span>informatics specializations are\u00a0 <\/span>named\u00a0 <\/span>in \u00a0 <\/span>other \u00a0 <\/span>ways: \u00a0 <\/span>for example,\u00a0 <\/span>what might\u00a0 <\/span>be \u00a0 <\/span>called\u00a0 <\/span>science\u00a0 <\/span>informatics <\/i>(1,710) \u00a0 <\/span>is \u00a0 <\/span>more \u00a0 <\/span>usually \u00a0 <\/span>called \u00a0 <\/span>e-science \u00a0 <\/span><\/i>(17,700);\u00a0 <\/span>bioinformatics is <\/span>often called computational biology <\/i>(347,000).<\/span><\/p>\n

Each of these areas\u00a0 <\/span>studies\u00a0 <\/span>representations\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>uses\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>information, which\u00a0 <\/span>may\u00a0 <\/span>be\u00a0 <\/span>peculiar to\u00a0 <\/span>each\u00a0 <\/span>field of application,\u00a0 <\/span>but\u00a0 <\/span>draw\u00a0 <\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span>common\u00a0 <\/span>social, logical and\u00a0 <\/span>computational foundations. They\u00a0 <\/span>all \u00a0 <\/span>involve \u00a0 <\/span>the \u00a0 <\/span>use \u00a0 <\/span>of computing and information technologies to store, process and communicate information. They all also address the interaction\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>technology\u00a0 <\/span>with\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>production\u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>use \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>information \u00a0 <\/span>by \u00a0 <\/span>individuals \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>organizations; \u00a0 <\/span>they develop\u00a0 <\/span>software,\u00a0 <\/span>systems\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>services \u00a0 <\/span>that \u00a0 <\/span>aim \u00a0 <\/span>to \u00a0 <\/span>help \u00a0 <\/span>people \u00a0 <\/span>interact \u00a0 <\/span>with \u00a0 <\/span>information, \u00a0 <\/span>efficiently\u00a0 <\/span>and effectively.<\/span><\/p>\n

The scope of Informatics<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

What these areas have in\u00a0 <\/span>common\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>informatics:\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>focus\u00a0 <\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>how\u00a0 <\/span>it\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>represented\u00a0 <\/span>in,\u00a0 <\/span>processed <\/span>by,\u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>communicated \u00a0 <\/span>between \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>variety \u00a0 <\/span>of systems. \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Representations \u00a0 <\/span>include \u00a0 <\/span>paper, \u00a0 <\/span>analogue,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>digital\u00a0 <\/span>records of text, sounds and images, as well as, for instance, the information represented in <\/span>a gene,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>memories\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>an individual\u00a0 <\/span>or \u00a0 <\/span>an \u00a0 <\/span>organization.\u00a0 <\/span>Processing\u00a0 <\/span>includes\u00a0 <\/span>human \u00a0 <\/span>reasoning,\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>digital\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>computation,\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>organizational processes. Communication\u00a0 <\/span>includes\u00a0 <\/span>human communication\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>human-computer interface \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>– \u00a0 <\/span>with \u00a0 <\/span>speech \u00a0 <\/span>and<\/span> gesture, with\u00a0 <\/span>text \u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>diagram, \u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>well \u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>computer \u00a0 <\/span>communications \u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>networking, \u00a0 <\/span>which \u00a0 <\/span>may\u00a0 <\/span>use\u00a0 <\/span>radio, optical or electrical signals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Informatics\u00a0 <\/span>studies\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>interaction\u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>information \u00a0 <\/span>with \u00a0 <\/span>individuals \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>organizations, \u00a0 <\/span>as \u00a0 <\/span>well \u00a0 <\/span>as \u00a0 <\/span>the fundamentals\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>computation\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>computability,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>hardware\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>software\u00a0 <\/span>technologies \u00a0 <\/span>used\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>store, \u00a0 <\/span>process and communicate\u00a0 <\/span>digitised information.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u00a0 <\/span>includes\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>study\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>communication\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a \u00a0 <\/span>process \u00a0 <\/span>that \u00a0 <\/span>links \u00a0 <\/span>people together, <\/span>to affect the behaviour of individuals and organizations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Informatics as <\/b><\/span>a<\/b> Science<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

Science progresses by defining, developing, criticizing and refining new concepts, in\u00a0 <\/span>order\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>account for\u00a0 <\/span>observed phenomena. Informatics is developing its own fundamental concepts of communication,\u00a0 <\/span>knowledge,\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>data, secrecy, interaction and\u00a0 <\/span>information, relating them\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>such\u00a0 <\/span>phenomena as\u00a0 <\/span>computation, thought, \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>language, \u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>applying them to develop tools for the management of information resources.<\/span><\/p>\n

Informatics\u00a0 <\/span>has\u00a0 <\/span>many\u00a0 <\/span>aspects.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u00a0 <\/span>encompasses,\u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>builds \u00a0 <\/span>on, \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a \u00a0 <\/span>number \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>existing\u00a0 <\/span>academic\u00a0 <\/span>disciplines: primarily Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science and\u00a0 <\/span>Computer Science. \u00a0 <\/span>Each \u00a0 <\/span>takes \u00a0 <\/span>part \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>Informatics \u00a0 <\/span>as \u00a0 <\/span>its natural domain: in broad terms, Cognitive Science concerns the\u00a0 <\/span>study\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>natural\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>processing\u00a0 <\/span>systems; Computer\u00a0 <\/span>Science\u00a0 <\/span>concerns\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>analysis\u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>computation, \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>the \u00a0 <\/span>design \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>computing \u00a0 <\/span>systems; \u00a0 <\/span>Artificial Intelligence plays <\/span>a connecting role, producing systems designed to emulate those found\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>nature.\u00a0 <\/span>Informatics\u00a0 <\/span>also informs,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>informed\u00a0 <\/span>by,\u00a0 <\/span>other\u00a0 <\/span>disciplines,\u00a0 <\/span>such\u00a0 <\/span>as \u00a0 <\/span>Mathematics, \u00a0 <\/span>Electronics, Biology, Linguistics,\u00a0 <\/span>Psychology, and\u00a0 <\/span>Sociology. Thus \u00a0 <\/span>Informatics \u00a0 <\/span>provides \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a \u00a0 <\/span>link \u00a0 <\/span>between disciplines \u00a0 <\/span>with \u00a0 <\/span>their \u00a0 <\/span>own \u00a0 <\/span>methodologies \u00a0 <\/span>and perspectives, bringing\u00a0 <\/span>together\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a \u00a0 <\/span>common \u00a0 <\/span>scientific\u00a0 <\/span>paradigm,\u00a0 <\/span>common \u00a0 <\/span>engineering \u00a0 <\/span>methods\u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 pervasive stimulus from both technological development and practical application.<\/span><\/p>\n

Informatics builds\u00a0 <\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>long\u00a0 <\/span>tradition\u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>work\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>logic, \u00a0 <\/span>which\u00a0 <\/span>provides\u00a0 <\/span>an\u00a0 <\/span>analysis \u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>meaning, \u00a0 <\/span>proof \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>truth. <\/span>It draws <\/span>on probability <\/span>and statistics <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>relate\u00a0 <\/span>data\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>information,\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>more\u00a0 <\/span>recent\u00a0 <\/span>tradition\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>computer science\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>abstract\u00a0 <\/span>models\u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>computation, \u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>fundamental \u00a0 <\/span>notions\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>computability\u00a0 <\/span>(What \u00a0 <\/span>can \u00a0 <\/span>be computed?) and\u00a0 <\/span>complexity (How\u00a0 <\/span>do\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>space\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>time\u00a0 <\/span>requirements of\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>computation\u00a0 <\/span>scale\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>we \u00a0 <\/span>consider \u00a0 <\/span>problems of different sizes?). Combining these traditions enriches them all, since they share <\/span>a common interest in information.<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0 <\/span>science of\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>provides\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>new\u00a0 <\/span>paradigm\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>scientific\u00a0 <\/span>analysis,\u00a0 <\/span>which\u00a0 <\/span>concentrates\u00a0 <\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>processing and \u00a0 <\/span>communication\u00a0 <\/span>information, \u00a0 <\/span>rather \u00a0 <\/span>than \u00a0 <\/span>focussing \u00a0 <\/span>on \u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>electrical,\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>optical,\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>mechanical\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>or\u00a0 <\/span>chemical interactions\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>embody\u00a0 <\/span>this\u00a0 <\/span>activity.\u00a0 <\/span>Focussing \u00a0 <\/span>on \u00a0 <\/span>information \u00a0 <\/span>provides \u00a0 <\/span>novel \u00a0 <\/span>accounts \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>long-standing phenomena, even in Physics (Frieden 1998). Informatics provides accounts of the representation, processing,\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>and communication \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>information, \u00a0 <\/span>the \u00a0 <\/span>conceptual \u00a0 <\/span>basis \u00a0 <\/span>for \u00a0 <\/span>applying \u00a0 <\/span>computing \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>information \u00a0 <\/span>technologies\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>to develop new tools\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>management\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>diverse\u00a0 <\/span>areas,\u00a0 <\/span>and <\/span> also\u00a0 <\/span>the <\/span> basis\u00a0 <\/span>for <\/span> beginning\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>unravel the workings of the mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

We illustrate\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>scope\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>nature\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>informatics\u00a0 <\/span>with\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>brief\u00a0 <\/span>account\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>one\u00a0 <\/span>area\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>which\u00a0 <\/span>informatics is contributing \u00a0 <\/span>to \u00a0 <\/span>library \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>information \u00a0 <\/span>science. \u00a0 <\/span>With \u00a0 <\/span>essentially\u00a0 <\/span>all \u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>becoming\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>available\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>online, libraries will\u00a0 <\/span>focus\u00a0 <\/span>increasingly on\u00a0 <\/span>selection, searching, and\u00a0 <\/span>quality assessment. Informatics’\u00a0 <\/span>contribution\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>to\u00a0 this enterprise is to provide <\/span>and apply appropriate techniques for the\u00a0 <\/span>representation,\u00a0 <\/span>processing\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>communication\u00a0 <\/span>of information. We give an<\/span> account of some of these techniques, with <\/span>a focus on textual information.<\/span><\/p>\n

Representation<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u2018The Web<\/span> was<\/span> designed as an information space, with the goal that it should be useful not only for human-human communication, but \u00a0 <\/span>also \u00a0 <\/span>that \u00a0 <\/span>machines \u00a0 <\/span>would \u00a0 <\/span>be\u00a0 <\/span>able to\u00a0 <\/span>participate \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>help. One of the major obstacles to this has\u00a0 <\/span>been\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>fact\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>most\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>Web\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>designed\u00a0 <\/span>for<\/span> human consumption. […]\u00a0 <\/span>The\u00a0 <\/span>Semantic Web\u00a0 <\/span>approach […]\u00a0 <\/span>develops languages for\u00a0 <\/span>expressing information in <\/span>a machine processable form.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

(Tim Berners-Lee 1998)<\/span><\/p>\n

Data\u00a0 <\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>World\u00a0 <\/span>Wide\u00a0 <\/span>Web\u00a0 <\/span>makes\u00a0 <\/span>digital representations familiar to\u00a0 <\/span>us\u00a0 <\/span>all.\u00a0 <\/span>Texts,\u00a0 <\/span>images\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>sounds \u00a0 <\/span>are represented \u00a0 <\/span>by\u00a0 <\/span>digital \u00a0 <\/span>encodings, \u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>patterns \u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>bits. \u00a0 <\/span>Standards, \u00a0 <\/span>such \u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>ASCII, \u00a0 <\/span>Unicode, \u00a0 <\/span>JPEG, \u00a0 <\/span>TIFF, \u00a0 <\/span>WAV and<\/span><\/p>\n

MP3,\u00a0 <\/span>allow\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>encoding,\u00a0 <\/span>storage, \u00a0 <\/span>exchange, \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>decoding \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>multimedia \u00a0 <\/span>information. \u00a0 <\/span>These \u00a0 <\/span>representations may\u00a0 <\/span>be\u00a0 <\/span>indexed and\u00a0 <\/span>retrieved\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>individual\u00a0 <\/span>files,\u00a0 <\/span>but\u00a0 <\/span>they\u00a0 <\/span>are,\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>varying\u00a0 <\/span>degrees,\u00a0 <\/span>opaque \u00a0 <\/span>to \u00a0 <\/span>software \u00a0 <\/span>agents searching for information.<\/span><\/p>\n

Text\u00a0 <\/span>files\u00a0 <\/span>are\u00a0 <\/span>stored\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>unstructured\u00a0 <\/span>sequences\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>characters.\u00a0 <\/span>Dividing\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a \u00a0 <\/span>text \u00a0 <\/span>into \u00a0 <\/span>words, \u00a0 <\/span>sentences \u00a0 <\/span>and paragraphs <\/span>is mostly straightforward. Finding keywords in\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>text\u00a0 <\/span>file\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>straightforward, and\u00a0 <\/span>some\u00a0 <\/span>search engines incorporate shallow linguistic knowledge that extends keyword search. For example, \u2018stemming\u2019\u00a0 <\/span>determines\u00a0 <\/span>the morphological\u00a0 <\/span>root of\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>given word form, \u00a0 <\/span>thus \u00a0 <\/span>relating\u00a0 <\/span>singular\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0<\/span>plural\u00a0 <\/span>forms \u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>noun, \u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>different moods and\u00a0 <\/span>tenses\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>verb. \u00a0 <\/span>Searching \u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>swan,\u00a0 <\/span>using\u00a0 <\/span>stemming \u00a0 <\/span>finds\u00a0 <\/span>swans,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>searching\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>goose\u00a0 <\/span>should\u00a0 <\/span>find geese (see free text searching) <\/span>.<\/p>\n

We\u00a0 <\/span>can\u00a0 <\/span>also\u00a0 <\/span>search\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>content in\u00a0 <\/span>other\u00a0 <\/span>media.\u00a0 <\/span>Finding keywords in\u00a0 <\/span>recorded \u00a0 <\/span>speech \u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>much \u00a0 <\/span>harder than searching\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>text file: more expensive in \u00a0 <\/span>computing\u00a0 <\/span>resources,\u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>less \u00a0 <\/span>accurate.\u00a0 <\/span>Finding \u00a0 <\/span>images \u00a0 <\/span>with \u00a0 <\/span>specified content, just by examining the image automatically, is even harder (see image retrieval).<\/span><\/p>\n

Extracting information from\u00a0 <\/span>texts\u00a0 <\/span>requires \u00a0 <\/span>deeper \u00a0 <\/span>linguistic \u00a0 <\/span>analysis. \u00a0 <\/span>For example, searching \u00a0 <\/span>news \u00a0 <\/span>reports \u00a0 <\/span>to glean\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>about\u00a0 <\/span>company\u00a0 <\/span>takeovers \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>–\u00a0 <\/span>who\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>being\u00a0 <\/span>taken\u00a0 <\/span>over,\u00a0 <\/span>by\u00a0 <\/span>whom,\u00a0 <\/span>what\u00a0 <\/span>price\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>being\u00a0 <\/span>paid,\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 what\u00a0<\/span>requires <\/span>a grammatical analysis of<\/span> individual\u00a0 <\/span>sentence\u00a0 <\/span>structures.\u00a0 <\/span>More\u00a0 <\/span>complex\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>– such\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>finding arguments that support\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>particular\u00a0 <\/span>decision\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>–\u00a0 <\/span>demands more global analyses\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>meaning.\u00a0 <\/span>Text\u00a0 <\/span>files\u00a0 <\/span>form\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a small fraction of\u00a0 <\/span>society’s data\u00a0 <\/span>storage (Lyman\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>Varian\u00a0 <\/span>2000).\u00a0 <\/span>However, texts\u00a0 <\/span>are\u00a0 <\/span>rich\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>information that\u00a0 <\/span>is not represented elsewhere, so it is important to make this information accessible. If texts are stored\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>ways\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>make grammatical and\u00a0 <\/span>rhetorical structures transparent, then\u00a0 <\/span>it\u00a0 <\/span>becomes easier \u00a0 <\/span>for \u00a0 <\/span>automated \u00a0 <\/span>tools \u00a0 <\/span>to \u00a0 <\/span>access such information.<\/span><\/p>\n

Metadata<\/i><\/span><\/h2>\n

The simplest way of making searching\u00a0 <\/span>easier\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>attach\u00a0 <\/span>an\u00a0 <\/span>electronic\u00a0 <\/span>\u2018catalogue\u00a0 <\/span>card\u2019\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>each\u00a0 <\/span>document.\u00a0 <\/span>Such data about data is called \u2018metadata\u2019. For example,\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>Dublin\u00a0 <\/span>Core\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>metadata\u00a0 <\/span>standard\u00a0 <\/span>which\u00a0 <\/span>specifies\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>set <\/span> of required and\u00a0 <\/span>permitted elements for\u00a0 <\/span>such\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>catalogue card.\u00a0 <\/span>The\u00a0 <\/span>Resource Description Format\u00a0 <\/span>(RDF)\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a general standard for such metadata.<\/span><\/p>\n

Metadata\u00a0 <\/span>allows\u00a0 <\/span>software\u00a0 <\/span>agents\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>find,\u00a0 <\/span>retrieve,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>process\u00a0 <\/span>data.\u00a0 <\/span>Just\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>books\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>library \u00a0 <\/span>are \u00a0 <\/span>made accessible by the catalogue, so information on the web is made accessible by metadata.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Semantic Web is\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>project\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>aims\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>provide\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>common\u00a0 <\/span>framework\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>such\u00a0 <\/span>efforts,\u00a0 <\/span>by\u00a0 <\/span>having\u00a0 <\/span>data\u00a0 <\/span>on the web defined and linked in such\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>way\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>it\u00a0 <\/span>can\u00a0 <\/span>be\u00a0 <\/span>used\u00a0 <\/span>by\u00a0 <\/span>machines not\u00a0 <\/span>just\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>display\u00a0 <\/span>purposes,\u00a0 <\/span>but for automation,\u00a0 <\/span>integration\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>reuse\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>data\u00a0 <\/span>across\u00a0 <\/span>various\u00a0 <\/span>applications,\u00a0 <\/span>so\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>tomorrow’s\u00a0 <\/span>programs\u00a0 <\/span>can \u00a0 <\/span>share and process data even when these programs have been designed totally independently.<\/span><\/p>\n

Structured data<\/i><\/span><\/h2>\n

Digital \u00a0 <\/span>documents \u00a0 <\/span>allow, \u00a0 <\/span>in \u00a0 <\/span>principle, \u00a0 <\/span>much \u00a0 <\/span>richer \u00a0 <\/span>automated \u00a0 <\/span>processing \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>– \u00a0 <\/span>content \u00a0 <\/span>selection,\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>information extraction,\u00a0 <\/span>price\u00a0 <\/span>comparisons,\u00a0 <\/span>or\u00a0 <\/span>document\u00a0 <\/span>clustering.\u00a0 <\/span>To\u00a0 <\/span>facilitate\u00a0 <\/span>this,\u00a0 <\/span>data\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>structured;\u00a0 <\/span>documents \u00a0 <\/span>are \u00a0 <\/span>given internal\u00a0 <\/span>structure.\u00a0 <\/span>There\u00a0 <\/span>are\u00a0 <\/span>many\u00a0 <\/span>different\u00a0 <\/span>formats\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>structured\u00a0 <\/span>data,\u00a0 <\/span>some\u00a0 <\/span>simple\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>their\u00a0 <\/span>description,\u00a0 <\/span>others complex and\u00a0 <\/span>rich.\u00a0 <\/span>Many\u00a0 <\/span>communities (biologists, engineers, \u00a0 <\/span>geologists, \u00a0 <\/span>businesses) \u00a0 <\/span>are \u00a0 <\/span>designing \u00a0 <\/span>new \u00a0 <\/span>formats \u00a0 <\/span>to allow them to put machine-understandable data on the\u00a0 <\/span>Web.\u00a0 <\/span>This\u00a0 <\/span>will\u00a0 <\/span>allow\u00a0 <\/span>data\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>be\u00a0 <\/span>shared\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>processed\u00a0 <\/span>by automated tools as well as by people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Relational Data<\/span><\/h2>\n

Relational databases represent information by representing relations\u00a0 <\/span>between\u00a0 <\/span>entities\u00a0 <\/span>(such\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>relation\u00a0 <\/span>between book\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>author, or\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>relation between book\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>publisher). \u00a0 <\/span>Rather \u00a0 <\/span>than \u00a0 <\/span>exchange\u00a0 <\/span>whole \u00a0 <\/span>databases, \u00a0 <\/span>query languages, such as SQL, allow users to retrieve, from the database, information about specified\u00a0 <\/span>entities.\u00a0 <\/span>Relational databases\u00a0 <\/span>are\u00a0 <\/span>appropriate\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>representing\u00a0 <\/span>uniformly\u00a0 <\/span>structured\u00a0 <\/span>data,\u00a0 <\/span>where\u00a0 <\/span>all\u00a0 <\/span>entities\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>given\u00a0 <\/span>type\u00a0 <\/span>can\u00a0 <\/span>be represented by\u00a0 <\/span>specifying <\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>given\u00a0 <\/span>collection of\u00a0 <\/span>relations \u00a0 <\/span>(every \u00a0 <\/span>part \u00a0 <\/span>has\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>price, \u00a0 <\/span>every \u00a0 <\/span>employee \u00a0 <\/span>has\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a manager). <\/span>But they <\/span>are\u00a0 <\/span>ill\u00a0 <\/span>adapted\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>open-ended\u00a0 <\/span>nature\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>web,\u00a0 <\/span>where\u00a0 <\/span>we\u00a0 <\/span>may\u00a0 <\/span>find\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>one\u00a0 <\/span>manager also plays <\/span>in a band, and so have to represent the fact that she plays the saxophone.<\/span><\/p>\n

Markup<\/span><\/h2>\n

One common form\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>structuring is\u00a0 <\/span>markup. Markup\u00a0 <\/span>originated as\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>means\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>structuring text;\u00a0 <\/span>before\u00a0 <\/span>the computerization\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>printing\u00a0 <\/span>industry,\u00a0 <\/span>markup\u00a0 <\/span>was\u00a0 <\/span>annotation\u00a0 <\/span>written\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>by\u00a0 <\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>copy \u00a0 <\/span>editor \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>manuscript,\u00a0<\/span> to indicate structure (chapter, heading, paragraph…) and style (italic, bold, etc.). Markup now refers\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>to sequences\u00a0 <\/span>of characters, known\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>tags,\u00a0 <\/span>inserted in\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>text \u00a0 <\/span>or\u00a0 <\/span>word \u00a0 <\/span>processing \u00a0 <\/span>file. \u00a0 <\/span>The\u00a0 <\/span>original \u00a0 <\/span>use\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>markup \u00a0 <\/span>was\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>to indicate how\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>file\u00a0 <\/span>should \u00a0 <\/span>look\u00a0 <\/span>when\u00a0 <\/span>printed \u00a0 <\/span>or\u00a0 <\/span>displayed. \u00a0 <\/span>Markup \u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>now\u00a0 <\/span>often\u00a0 <\/span>used\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>describe \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>document’s \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>logical\u00a0<\/span>structure,\u00a0 <\/span>or\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>format\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>describing\u00a0 <\/span>an\u00a0 <\/span>abstract\u00a0 <\/span>logical \u00a0 <\/span>structure, \u00a0 <\/span>so-called \u00a0 <\/span>\u2018semi-structured\u00a0 <\/span>data\u2019 \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>–\u00a0 <\/span>a replacement for the representation <\/span>of structured data <\/span>by traditional relational<\/span> databases.<\/span><\/p>\n

Standard frameworks for markup, such <\/span>as SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) and\u00a0 <\/span>XML\u00a0 <\/span>(eXtensible Markup Language),\u00a0 <\/span>have been\u00a0 <\/span>adopted by\u00a0 <\/span>many\u00a0 <\/span>metadata initiatives, including \u00a0 <\/span>the \u00a0 <\/span>semantic \u00a0 <\/span>web, \u00a0 <\/span>where \u00a0 <\/span>XML markup is used to structure the metadata\u00a0 <\/span>attached\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>document.\u00a0 <\/span>An\u00a0 <\/span>example\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>SGML\u00a0 <\/span>markup\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>HyperText Markup Language <\/span>(HTML), lingua franca <\/i>of the World Wide Web.<\/span><\/p>\n

A\u00a0 <\/span>general markup language,\u00a0 <\/span>such \u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>XML, \u00a0 <\/span>can\u00a0 <\/span>be\u00a0 <\/span>applied\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>encode\u00a0 <\/span>content\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>structure\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>applications \u00a0 <\/span>that go far<\/span> beyond the<\/span> original purposes of markup for<\/span> typesetting and<\/span> display.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>Markup can be used to tag entities in <\/span>a document\u00a0 <\/span>(addresses,\u00a0 <\/span>prices,\u00a0 <\/span>or\u00a0 <\/span>names),\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>tag\u00a0 <\/span>logical\u00a0 <\/span>roles\u00a0 <\/span>(author,\u00a0 <\/span>publisher),\u00a0 <\/span>to \u00a0 <\/span>tag \u00a0 <\/span>logical \u00a0 <\/span>connections, \u00a0 <\/span>for example linking <\/span>a price to an entity, or\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>tag\u00a0 <\/span>phrases and\u00a0 <\/span>parts\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>speech, in\u00a0 <\/span>order\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>indicate <\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>text’s\u00a0 <\/span>detailed grammatical structure. Applications of XML\u00a0 <\/span>are\u00a0 <\/span>found\u00a0 <\/span>everywhere:\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>bioinformatics\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>linguistics,\u00a0 <\/span>in business-<\/span> to-business applications, <\/span>in cataloguingand indexing, and in scholarly annotation of ancient texts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Markup languages define\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>scope\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>what\u00a0 <\/span>can\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>cannot\u00a0 <\/span>be\u00a0 <\/span>expressed \u00a0 <\/span>in \u00a0 <\/span>markup <\/span>. \u00a0 <\/span>For \u00a0 <\/span>example, <\/span>XML provides controlled flexibility, and allows us <\/span>to represent semi-structured\u00a0 <\/span>data that does not fit well in the relational mould.\u00a0 <\/span>XML\u00a0 <\/span>tags\u00a0 <\/span>come\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>pairs,\u00a0 <\/span><author>…<\/author>,\u00a0 <\/span>which\u00a0 <\/span>act\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>“named\u00a0 <\/span>brackets”. \u00a0 <\/span>These\u00a0 <\/span>brackets\u00a0 <\/span>must be properly nested, <\/span>so an XML\u00a0 <\/span>document\u00a0 <\/span>has\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>hierarchical\u00a0 <\/span>structure\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>which\u00a0 <\/span>each\u00a0 <\/span>layer\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>hierarchy consists of text,\u00a0 <\/span>interspersed \u00a0 <\/span>with\u00a0 <\/span>elements \u00a0 <\/span>from\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>layer\u00a0 <\/span>below\u00a0 <\/span>tagged\u00a0 <\/span>with\u00a0 <\/span>names\u00a0 <\/span>(such\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>“author”).\u00a0 <\/span>This\u00a0 <\/span>allows\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 mixture of structure and free text <\/span>.<\/p>\n

Most\u00a0 <\/span>applications\u00a0 <\/span>require\u00a0 <\/span>further\u00a0 <\/span>restrictions.\u00a0 <\/span>For\u00a0 <\/span>example,\u00a0 <\/span>HTML\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>defined\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>by\u00a0 <\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>document\u00a0 <\/span>type\u00a0 <\/span>definition (DTD)\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>specifies\u00a0 <\/span>which\u00a0 <\/span>elements\u00a0 <\/span>may\u00a0 <\/span>occur\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>an \u00a0 <\/span>HTML \u00a0 <\/span>document \u00a0 <\/span>(headings, \u00a0 <\/span>paragraphs, \u00a0 <\/span>lists…), \u00a0 <\/span>and structural rules (for example, list elements occur within lists) that\u00a0 <\/span>an\u00a0 <\/span>HTML\u00a0 <\/span>document\u00a0 <\/span>must\u00a0 <\/span>follow.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>A DTD can specify <\/span>as many constraints <\/span>on the\u00a0 <\/span>structure\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>are\u00a0 <\/span>needed\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>particular\u00a0 <\/span>application,\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>or\u00a0 <\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>few.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>So\u00a0 <\/span>an author element might require <\/span>a surname, allow any number of forenames, and permit nothing else.<\/span><\/p>\n

From <\/span>a scientific perspective,\u00a0 <\/span>XML\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>structures\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>it\u00a0 <\/span>allows\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>us\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>express\u00a0 <\/span>represent\u00a0 <\/span>just\u00a0 <\/span>one\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>many possibilities for structuring\u00a0 <\/span>data.\u00a0 <\/span>The science <\/span>underlying\u00a0 <\/span>XML provides\u00a0 <\/span>an\u00a0 <\/span>understanding\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>ways\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>which\u00a0 <\/span>data may be structured.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u00a0 <\/span>provides\u00a0 <\/span>query\u00a0 <\/span>languages\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>algorithms\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>retrieving\u00a0 <\/span>data\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>response\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a query.\u00a0 <\/span>It\u00a0 <\/span>provides the\u00a0 <\/span>conceptual\u00a0 <\/span>framework\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>understanding\u00a0 <\/span>how\u00a0 <\/span>structure\u00a0 <\/span>may\u00a0 <\/span>be \u00a0 <\/span>specified, \u00a0 <\/span>for \u00a0 <\/span>example \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>by \u00a0 <\/span>a \u00a0 <\/span>DTD, and algorithms for checking <\/span>that a document conforms to\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>specified form.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>It\u00a0 <\/span>provides\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>basis\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>assurances\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>of the integrity and provenance of data, and so on.<\/span><\/p>\n

Processing and Communication<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

Processing <\/span>is the transformation <\/span>of data from one form <\/span>to another. Information <\/span>is data interpreted,\u00a0 <\/span>organized\u00a0 <\/span>and structured. For\u00a0 <\/span>example, the\u00a0 <\/span>English documents on\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>web\u00a0 <\/span>form\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>large\u00a0 <\/span>dataset; when\u00a0 <\/span>we\u00a0 <\/span>use\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>search\u00a0 <\/span>engine\u00a0 <\/span>to count\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>numbers of\u00a0 <\/span>documents containing <\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>given\u00a0 <\/span>search \u00a0 <\/span>term \u00a0 <\/span>it\u00a0 <\/span>finds \u00a0 <\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>web, \u00a0 <\/span>we\u00a0 <\/span>extract \u00a0 <\/span>information from this\u00a0 <\/span>data.\u00a0 <\/span>The\u00a0 <\/span>ability\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>collect, aggregate, and\u00a0 <\/span>organize data\u00a0 <\/span>allows\u00a0 <\/span>us\u00a0 <\/span>to \u00a0 <\/span>create \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>represent \u00a0 <\/span>information. Knowledge is\u00a0 <\/span>information that has\u00a0 <\/span>been analysed \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>so \u00a0 <\/span>that \u00a0 <\/span>inter-relationships \u00a0 <\/span>are \u00a0 <\/span>identified, \u00a0 <\/span>formalized,\u00a0 <\/span>and represented. Thus\u00a0 <\/span>processing can\u00a0 <\/span>extract information from\u00a0 <\/span>data,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>transform\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>into \u00a0 <\/span>knowledge. \u00a0 <\/span>These results must then be communicated effectively to the user.<\/span><\/p>\n

Natural Language Processing<\/i><\/span><\/h2>\n

Today\u00a0 <\/span>(2002), machines are\u00a0 <\/span>widely\u00a0 <\/span>used\u00a0 <\/span>for \u00a0 <\/span>document\u00a0 <\/span>retrieval. \u00a0 <\/span>Future \u00a0 <\/span>software \u00a0 <\/span>agents \u00a0 <\/span>will \u00a0 <\/span>use \u00a0 <\/span>Natural Language\u00a0 <\/span>Processing\u00a0 <\/span>(NLP)\u00a0 <\/span>tools\u00a0 <\/span>to \u00a0 <\/span>extract \u00a0 <\/span>relevant \u00a0 <\/span>information \u00a0 <\/span>from \u00a0 <\/span>documents \u00a0 <\/span>in \u00a0 <\/span>response \u00a0 <\/span>to \u00a0 <\/span>user \u00a0 <\/span>queries, create summaries tailored to\u00a0 <\/span>the \u00a0 <\/span>user’s \u00a0 <\/span>needs, \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>collate,\u00a0 <\/span>assemble\u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>present \u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>derived \u00a0 <\/span>from \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a multitude of sources.<\/span><\/p>\n

Human readers see structure\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>texts:\u00a0 <\/span>words,\u00a0 <\/span>sentences,\u00a0 <\/span>paragraphs,\u00a0 <\/span>documents….\u00a0 <\/span>They\u00a0 <\/span>attribute meanings to documents, and\u00a0 <\/span>structure \u00a0 <\/span>these \u00a0 <\/span>meanings \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>– \u00a0 <\/span>as \u00a0 <\/span>facts, \u00a0 <\/span>arguments \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>conclusions, \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>so \u00a0 <\/span>on.\u00a0 <\/span>Representing, processing and\u00a0 <\/span>communicating structures and\u00a0 <\/span>meanings, in\u00a0 <\/span>ways\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>make\u00a0 <\/span>these\u00a0 <\/span>easily\u00a0 <\/span>accessible to \u00a0 <\/span>machine processing, so that users can easily access information relevant to their needs, are key issues for informatics.<\/span><\/p>\n

Automated text -processing\u00a0 <\/span>tools\u00a0 <\/span>can\u00a0 <\/span>tag\u00a0 <\/span>parts \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>speech, \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>annotate \u00a0 <\/span>grammatical \u00a0 <\/span>links: \u00a0 <\/span>the \u00a0 <\/span>connection between verb, subject, and object; the connection between <\/span>a pronoun and the phrase it refers\u00a0 <\/span>to.\u00a0 <\/span>Deeper\u00a0 <\/span>linguistic processing can\u00a0 <\/span>disambiguate word\u00a0 <\/span>senses. Such \u00a0 <\/span>tools \u00a0 <\/span>are \u00a0 <\/span>components \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>natural \u00a0 <\/span>language \u00a0 <\/span>understanding. \u00a0 <\/span>They convert texts into\u00a0 <\/span>machine-accessible\u00a0 <\/span>sources of\u00a0 <\/span>information,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>provide\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>basis\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>variety\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>information processing<\/span> applications.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, current document retrieval systems <\/span>,\u00a0 <\/span>using\u00a0 <\/span>keyword\u00a0 <\/span>search,\u00a0 <\/span>allow\u00a0 <\/span>users\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>find\u00a0 <\/span>documents\u00a0 <\/span>that <\/span> are relevant to their needs, but most leave it to the user to extract the useful information from those documents. Users, however, are often looking for answers, not documents.\u00a0 <\/span>Information extraction tools,\u00a0 <\/span>based on\u00a0 <\/span>natural\u00a0 <\/span>language understanding,\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>find\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>extract\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>from\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>texts.\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Such\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>tools, \u00a0 <\/span>already \u00a0 <\/span>used, \u00a0 <\/span>by \u00a0 <\/span>intelligence \u00a0 <\/span>analysts\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0<\/span>others,\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>sift through large\u00a0 <\/span>amounts of\u00a0 <\/span>textual information,\u00a0 <\/span>will \u00a0 <\/span>become\u00a0 <\/span>commonplace. \u00a0 <\/span>Document\u00a0 <\/span>clustering \u00a0 <\/span>is another\u00a0 <\/span>application\u00a0 <\/span>that \u00a0 <\/span>draw <\/span>s \u00a0 <\/span>on \u00a0 <\/span>natural\u00a0 <\/span>language\u00a0 <\/span>technology. \u00a0 <\/span>By \u00a0 <\/span>examining \u00a0 <\/span>patterns \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>word occurrences, together with syntactic <\/span>and semantic\u00a0 <\/span>structures,\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>it\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>possible\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>cluster\u00a0 <\/span>documents\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>by\u00a0 <\/span>topic, <\/span>or\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>search\u00a0 <\/span>for documents similar to <\/span>a given example.<\/span><\/p>\n

Automated natural language\u00a0 <\/span>generation\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>also being\u00a0 <\/span>applied,\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>new\u00a0 <\/span>forms\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>delivery.\u00a0 <\/span>Machine-<\/span> generated text can be used to present information tailored to\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>user\u00a0 <\/span>(Oberlander\u00a0 <\/span>et\u00a0 <\/span>al.\u00a0 <\/span>1998).\u00a0 <\/span>Such tools will be <\/span>applied to present information\u00a0 <\/span>derived\u00a0 <\/span>from\u00a0 <\/span>database\u00a0 <\/span>queries,\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>extraction,\u00a0 <\/span>and data mining.\u00a0 <\/span>Tools\u00a0 <\/span>for document clustering\u00a0 <\/span>will be\u00a0 <\/span>linked to\u00a0 <\/span>natural language generation\u00a0 <\/span>to \u00a0 <\/span>provide \u00a0 <\/span>automatically \u00a0 <\/span>generated\u00a0 <\/span>summaries drawing on <\/span>a variety of sources.<\/span><\/p>\n

Natural language processing is\u00a0 <\/span>one\u00a0 <\/span>example\u00a0 <\/span>demonstrating\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>way\u00a0 <\/span>informatics\u00a0 <\/span>relates\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>longer-established disciplines.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>It\u00a0 <\/span>relies\u00a0 <\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span>computer \u00a0 <\/span>science \u00a0 <\/span>for \u00a0 <\/span>underlying \u00a0 <\/span>software \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>hardware \u00a0 <\/span>technologies, \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>for \u00a0 <\/span>algorithms that make this processing feasible. It draws on\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>logic\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>linguistics\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>appropriate\u00a0 <\/span>representations\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>linguistic\u00a0 <\/span>and semantic structures, on machine learning techniques from artificial intelligence for tools\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>extract\u00a0 <\/span>from\u00a0 <\/span>large\u00a0 <\/span>text corpora information\u00a0 <\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>words\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>concepts\u00a0 <\/span>relevant\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>particular domain,\u00a0 <\/span>and on\u00a0 <\/span>cognitive\u00a0 <\/span>science <\/span> and psychology for an understanding of how people process and react to information.<\/span><\/p>\n

These disciplines\u00a0 <\/span>are\u00a0 <\/span>drawn \u00a0 <\/span>together,\u00a0 <\/span>in \u00a0 <\/span>informatics,\u00a0 <\/span>by \u00a0 <\/span>the \u00a0 <\/span>common \u00a0 <\/span>purpose \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>understanding\u00a0 <\/span>how \u00a0 <\/span>language can communicate\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>between\u00a0 <\/span>human\u00a0 <\/span>users\u00a0 <\/span>and <\/span> a formal\u00a0 <\/span>representation\u00a0 <\/span>stored\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a machine.\u00a0 <\/span>This marriage of\u00a0 <\/span>computational and\u00a0 <\/span>theoretical linguistics \u00a0 <\/span>with \u00a0 <\/span>cognitive \u00a0 <\/span>psychology \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>neuroscience \u00a0 <\/span>has \u00a0 <\/span>generated \u00a0 <\/span>new \u00a0 <\/span>tools, and also thrown new light on human communication.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>clear\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>information, and hence informatics, must\u00a0 <\/span>play\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>pivotal\u00a0 <\/span>role\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>any\u00a0 <\/span>analysis \u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>human communication. Informatics\u00a0 <\/span>is\u00a0 <\/span>also\u00a0 <\/span>transforming other\u00a0 <\/span>areas\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>science: it\u00a0 <\/span>provides\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>new\u00a0 <\/span>paradigm\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>analysing complex\u00a0 <\/span>systems,\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>as\u00a0 <\/span>compositions \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>simpler \u00a0 <\/span>subsystems \u00a0 <\/span>that \u00a0 <\/span>process \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>communicate \u00a0 <\/span>information.\u00a0 <\/span>Long-<\/span> standing challenges to scientific analysis, are being transformed by the new paradigm<\/span> .<\/p>\n

For example,\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>biology <\/span>,\u00a0 <\/span>informatics\u00a0 <\/span>provides\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>not\u00a0 <\/span>just\u00a0 <\/span>tools \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span>data-processing\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>knowledge \u00a0 <\/span>discovery, \u00a0 <\/span>but also <\/span>a conceptual framework for studying the\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>stored\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>communicated by\u00a0 <\/span>genes,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>processed\u00a0 <\/span>by biochemical cycles that \u2018run the genetic program\u2019 <\/span>to produce structure and form.<\/span><\/p>\n

In\u00a0 <\/span>cognitive science it\u00a0 <\/span>provides the\u00a0 <\/span>conceptual\u00a0 <\/span>tools\u00a0 <\/span>needed\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>develop\u00a0 <\/span>models \u00a0 <\/span>of the \u00a0 <\/span>connection \u00a0 <\/span>between cognition\u00a0 <\/span>and the\u00a0 <\/span>observed\u00a0 <\/span>structure\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>function\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>billions\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>neurons\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>make\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>up\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>brain.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>It\u00a0 <\/span>also \u00a0 <\/span>provides the technologies that\u00a0 <\/span>allow\u00a0 <\/span>us\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>observe\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>analyse the\u00a0 <\/span>structure\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>operation\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>living\u00a0 <\/span>brain\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>ever\u00a0 <\/span>greater detail, and to <\/span>test\u00a0 <\/span>our\u00a0 <\/span>models <\/span>by\u00a0 <\/span>simulation\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>very\u00a0 <\/span>much\u00a0 <\/span>simplified\u00a0 <\/span>subsystems,\u00a0 <\/span>which,\u00a0 <\/span>despite\u00a0 <\/span>their\u00a0 <\/span>relative simplicity, are complex beyond analytical analysis.<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking forward<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

The technologies underlying the\u00a0 <\/span>digital storage, processing and\u00a0 <\/span>communication of\u00a0 <\/span>information are improving relentlessly. Since 1965 these improvements\u00a0 <\/span>have\u00a0 <\/span>followed\u00a0 <\/span>\u2018Moore’s\u00a0 <\/span>Law\u2019:\u00a0 <\/span>for\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a given\u00a0 <\/span>price,\u00a0 <\/span>both\u00a0 <\/span>processor\u00a0 <\/span>speeds and\u00a0 <\/span>memory\u00a0 <\/span>capacity\u00a0 <\/span>double\u00a0 <\/span>every\u00a0 <\/span>18\u201424\u00a0 <\/span>months\u00a0 <\/span>(Moore\u00a0 <\/span>1965). \u00a0 <\/span>Communication \u00a0 <\/span>bandwidth \u00a0 <\/span>follows \u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 similar pattern of\u00a0 <\/span>growth,\u00a0 <\/span>but\u00a0 <\/span>doubles\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>12\u00a0 <\/span>months\u00a0 <\/span>or\u00a0 <\/span>less\u00a0 <\/span>(Poggio\u00a0 <\/span>2000).\u00a0 <\/span>These\u00a0 <\/span>rates\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>exponential\u00a0 <\/span>growth\u00a0 <\/span>are\u00a0 <\/span>predicted to\u00a0 <\/span>continue, so\u00a0 <\/span>processing\u00a0 <\/span>speed\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>memory\u00a0 <\/span>capacity\u00a0 <\/span>will\u00a0 <\/span>increase\u00a0 <\/span>by\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a\u00a0 <\/span>factor\u00a0 <\/span>of \u00a0 <\/span>100, \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>communication bandwidth by <\/span>a factor of 1000 or more, every ten years.<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0 <\/span>combination of\u00a0 <\/span>digitisation\u00a0 <\/span>and global\u00a0 <\/span>connectivity\u00a0 <\/span>makes\u00a0 <\/span>data available\u00a0 <\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>unprecedented \u00a0 <\/span>volume.\u00a0 <\/span>It \u00a0 <\/span>is estimated \u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>humanity \u00a0 <\/span>creates \u00a0 <\/span>more\u00a0 <\/span>than\u00a0 <\/span>an\u00a0 <\/span>*exabyte \u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>data\u00a0 <\/span>each\u00a0 <\/span>year\u00a0 <\/span>(Lyman\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>Varian, \u00a0 <\/span>2000).\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Nevertheless, it will\u00a0 <\/span>soon\u00a0 <\/span>be\u00a0 <\/span>technologically possible for\u00a0 <\/span>an\u00a0 <\/span>average person\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>access\u00a0 <\/span>virtually all\u00a0 <\/span>recorded information.\u00a0 <\/span>The availability\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>cheap\u00a0 <\/span>processing\u00a0 <\/span>will\u00a0 <\/span>make\u00a0 <\/span>it\u00a0 <\/span>increasingly \u00a0 <\/span>feasible \u00a0 <\/span>to \u00a0 <\/span>restructure \u00a0 <\/span>data \u00a0 <\/span>into \u00a0 <\/span>knowledge \u00a0 <\/span>on demand. New\u00a0 <\/span>technologies are\u00a0 <\/span>being\u00a0 <\/span>developed to\u00a0 <\/span>automatically organize this \u00a0 <\/span>material \u00a0 <\/span>into \u00a0 <\/span>forms \u00a0 <\/span>that \u00a0 <\/span>can \u00a0 <\/span>help \u00a0 <\/span>people quickly and\u00a0 <\/span>accurately\u00a0 <\/span>satisfy\u00a0 <\/span>their\u00a0 <\/span>information\u00a0 <\/span>needs,\u00a0 <\/span>realizing,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>surpassing,\u00a0 <\/span>Vannevar\u00a0 <\/span>Bush\u2019s\u00a0 <\/span>prescient\u00a0 <\/span>vision of the \u2018Memex\u2019 <\/span>\u2013 \u2018a device in which an individual stores all\u00a0 <\/span>his\u00a0 <\/span>books,\u00a0 <\/span>records,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>communications,\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>which\u00a0 <\/span>is mechanized so\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>it\u00a0 <\/span>may\u00a0 <\/span>be\u00a0 <\/span>consulted with\u00a0 <\/span>exceeding speed\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span>flexibility\u2019 (Bush\u00a0 <\/span>1945).\u00a0 <\/span>These\u00a0 <\/span>technologies\u00a0 <\/span>are indeed \u2018creating <\/span>a new relationship between thinking man and the sum of our knowledge\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

By 2025, <\/span>if Moore’s law\u00a0 <\/span>continues\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>apply,\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>we\u00a0 <\/span>will\u00a0 <\/span>have,\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>in\u00a0 <\/span>our\u00a0 <\/span>pockets\u00a0 <\/span>and\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>on\u00a0 <\/span>our\u00a0 <\/span>desktops,\u00a0 <\/span>computers\u00a0 <\/span>that each\u00a0 <\/span>have\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>raw\u00a0 <\/span>computing power\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>the\u00a0 <\/span>human\u00a0 <\/span>brain,\u00a0 <\/span>computers\u00a0 <\/span>linked\u00a0 <\/span>to\u00a0 <\/span>each\u00a0 <\/span>other\u00a0 <\/span>by\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>a telepathic communication network. We\u00a0 <\/span>currently have\u00a0 <\/span>little\u00a0 <\/span>idea\u00a0 <\/span>of\u00a0 <\/span>how\u00a0 <\/span>we\u00a0 <\/span>might\u00a0 <\/span>structure \u00a0 <\/span>and \u00a0 <\/span>program \u00a0 <\/span>such \u00a0 <\/span>devices \u00a0 <\/span>to achieve\u00a0 <\/span>what\u00a0 <\/span>we\u00a0 <\/span>humans\u00a0 <\/span>find\u00a0 <\/span>straightforward,\u00a0 <\/span>but\u00a0 <\/span>already\u00a0 <\/span>today\u2019s \u00a0 <\/span>machines \u00a0 <\/span>extend \u00a0 <\/span>our\u00a0 <\/span>capabilities\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>by performing tasks\u00a0 <\/span>we\u00a0 <\/span>find\u00a0 <\/span>impossible. We\u00a0 <\/span>can\u00a0 <\/span>be\u00a0 <\/span>sure\u00a0 <\/span>that\u00a0 <\/span>technological changes will\u00a0 <\/span>continue to\u00a0 <\/span>revolutionize the\u00a0 <\/span>ways\u00a0 <\/span>we manage, share, and analyse data, and will provide new ways of transforming data into information and knowledge.<\/span><\/p>\n

References<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

Bauer, W.F. (1996) \u2018Informatics and (et) Informatique.\u2019 Annals<\/i> <\/i>of<\/i> <\/i>the<\/i> <\/i>History<\/i> <\/i>of<\/i> <\/i>Computing,<\/i> <\/i>18(2). http:\/\/www.softwarehistory.org\/history\/Bauer1.html<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Berners-Lee, Tim. (1998) <\/span>Se mantic <\/span>Web Roadmap. h<\/span>ttp:\/\/www.w3.org\/DesignIssues\/Semantic.html<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Bush, <\/span>V. (1945) <\/span>\u2018As we may think\u2019, <\/span>Atlantic<\/i> <\/i>Monthly<\/i> <\/i>176(1) (July), pp. 101\u20148. http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/unbound\/flashbks\/computer\/bushf.htm<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Dreyfus, Ph. (1962) \u2018L\u2019informatique.\u2019 Gestion<\/i>, <\/span>Paris, Juin 1962, pp. 240\u20141.<\/p>\n

Frieden, B.R. <\/span>(1998) Physics from Fisher Information: <\/i><\/span>a<\/i> <\/i>Unification<\/i>, Cambridge University Press Google \u00a0 <\/span>(2002)\u00a0 <\/span>http:\/\/www.google.com\/search?q=informatics<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Gorn, S. (1983). \u2018Informatics (computer and information science): Its ideology, methodology, <\/span>and sociology\u2019, in F. Machlup<\/p>\n

& U. Mansfield (eds.), The<\/i> <\/i>study<\/i> <\/i>of<\/i> <\/i>information:<\/i> <\/i>Interdisciplinary<\/i> <\/i>messages,<\/i> <\/i>pp. 121\u201440.<\/p>\n

Greenes, R.A. <\/span>and Shortliffe, E.H. (1990) Medical Informatics: <\/span>An emerging discipline with academic <\/span>and institutional <\/span>perspectives. Journal<\/i> <\/i>of<\/i> <\/i>the<\/i> <\/i>American<\/i> <\/i>Medical<\/i> <\/i>Association,<\/i> <\/i>263(8) pp.1114\u201420.<\/p>\n

Lesk, Michael. (1997) How Much Information Is There In the World? h<\/span>ttp:\/\/www.lesk.com\/mlesk\/ksg97\/ksg.html<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Lyman, P and Varian, H. (2000) How Much Information? The<\/i> <\/i>Journal<\/i> <\/i>of<\/i> <\/i>Electronic<\/i> <\/i>Publishing,<\/i> <\/i>6(2). ISSN 1080-2711 http:\/\/www.press.umich.edu\/jep\/06-0<\/span>2\/lyman.html<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Machlup, <\/span>F. and Mansfield <\/span>U. (eds.), <\/span>(1983) The<\/i> <\/i>study<\/i> <\/i>of<\/i> <\/i>information:<\/i> <\/i>Interdisciplinary<\/i> <\/i>messages.<\/i> <\/i>John Wiley <\/span>& Sons.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mikhailov, A.I., Chernyl, A.I., <\/span>and Gilyarevskii, R.S. <\/span>(1966) Informatika \u2013 novoe nazvanie teorii nau\u00e8noj <\/span>informacii.<\/p>\n

Nau\u00e8no<\/i> <\/i>tehni\u00e8eskaja<\/i> <\/i>informacija<\/i>, 12, pp 35 \u2014 9.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mikhailov, A.I., Chernyl, A.I., <\/span>and Gilyarevskii, R.S. <\/span>(1967) Informatics \u2013 new name for the theory of scientific information.<\/p>\n

FID News Bull. <\/i><\/span>17(2), pp. 70 \u20144.<\/span><\/p>\n

Moore, G.E. (1965) Cramming more components onto integrated circuits. Electronics<\/i>, <\/span>38(8) pp. 114\u20147. http:\/\/www.intel.com\/research\/silicon\/moorespaper.pdf<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Oberlander, <\/span>J. O’Donnell, <\/span>M. Knott <\/span>A. and Mellish, <\/span>C. (1998). <\/span>Conversation in the museum: experiments in dynamic hypermedia with the intelligent labeling explorer. New<\/i> <\/i>Review<\/i> <\/i>of<\/i> <\/i>Hypermedia<\/i> <\/i>and<\/i> Multimedia, <\/i><\/span>4, pp. 11\u201432.<\/p>\n

Oxford English Dictionary (1989) second edition. Oxford University Press.<\/span><\/p>\n

Poggio, A. (2000) Information and Products, in Englebart\u2019s<\/i> <\/i>Colloquium,<\/i> <\/i>the<\/i> <\/i>unfinished<\/i> <\/i>revolution.<\/i> <\/i>Stanford http:\/\/www.bootstrap.org\/colloquium\/session_10\/session_10_poggio.jsp<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Further Reading<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) h<\/span>ttp:\/\/www.aclweb.org\/<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Cole, <\/span>Ron et<\/i> <\/i>al.<\/i> <\/i>(eds), <\/span>(1998) Survey <\/i><\/span>of<\/i> <\/i>the<\/i> State <\/i><\/span>of<\/i> <\/i>the<\/i> <\/i>Art<\/i> <\/i>in<\/i> <\/i>Human<\/i> <\/i>Language<\/i> Technology. <\/i>Studies<\/span> in Natural Language Processing, Cambridge University Press; ISBN: <\/span>0521592771. http:\/\/cslu.cse.ogi.edu\/HLTsurvey<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Cover, Robin <\/span>(Ed).<\/span> (2002)<\/span> XML Cover Pages<\/i>, http:\/\/www.oasis-open.org\/cover\/sgml-x<\/span>ml.html<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Graves, J.R. <\/span>and Corcoran, <\/span>S. (1989) <\/span>\u2018The Study <\/span>of Nursing Informatics\u2019, <\/span>Image:<\/i> <\/i>Journal<\/i> <\/i>of<\/i> <\/i>Nursing<\/i> <\/i>Scholarship,<\/i> <\/i>21, pp.<\/p>\n

227\u201431 http:\/\/www.nih.gov\/ninr\/research\/vol4\/Overview.html<\/span><\/a> Martin, W.J. (1988) The<\/i> <\/i>Information<\/i> <\/i>Society<\/i>, London: ASLIB.<\/span><\/p>\n

Musen, Mark <\/span>A. (1999) <\/span>\u2018Stanford Medical Informatics: <\/span>Uncommon research, common goals\u2019. MD<\/i> Computing<\/i>,<\/span> January\/February 1999, pp.47\u2014 <\/span>50. http:\/\/camis.stan<\/span> ford.edu\/MDComputing.pdf<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Shortliffe, E.H. Perreault, L.E. Wiederhold, <\/span>G. and Fagan, L.M. (1990) <\/span>Medical<\/i> <\/i>Informatics:<\/i> <\/i>Computer<\/i> Applications <\/i><\/span>in<\/i> Health Care, <\/i>Addison-Wesley.<\/span><\/p>\n

Social\u00a0 <\/span>Informatics <\/span> http:\/\/www.slis.indiana.edu\/si\/concepts.html<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Text Retrieval Conference (TREC) http:\/\/trec.nist.gov<\/span>\/<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

See also: <\/span>artificial intelligence; <\/b>communication; communication and IT;\u00a0 <\/span>computer\u00a0 <\/span>science;\u00a0 <\/span>data\u00a0 <\/span><\/b><\/span>modelling; <\/b>database; database management; human-computer interaction; hypertext; indexing;\u00a0 <\/span>information retrieval; information\u00a0 <\/span>science;\u00a0 <\/span>intelligent\u00a0 <\/span>agents;\u00a0 <\/span>knowledge\u00a0 <\/span>management;\u00a0 <\/span>knowledge <\/b><\/span>-based \u00a0 <\/span><\/b>systems;\u00a0 <\/span>machine translation; \u00a0 <\/span>mark-up \u00a0 <\/span>languages; \u00a0 <\/span>metadata; \u00a0 <\/span>neural \u00a0 <\/span>network; \u00a0 <\/span>relational \u00a0 <\/span>database; \u00a0 <\/span>information \u00a0 <\/span>systems; search engines; software; <\/b><\/span>string indexing; World Wide \u00a0 <\/span>Web<\/b><\/span>.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

(4107 words)<\/span><\/p>\n

M<\/span>ICHAEL\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>P. F<\/span>OURMAN <\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t

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