Infological models and information user views

摘要

The study of data systems as information systems put into focus the role of data as representations of information in the sense of knowledge about some slice of the world. This information system-view—or infological view—made it clear that the data alone cannot “carry” information. They can only, at best, give rise to information in the minds of people and only in those people who hold a suitable frame-of-reference or world view, or “receiving structure”, in their mind. Thus the infological perspective had to be widened successively from a concern merely with information representation, structuring, and exploitation to the study of social, sociopsychological and socio-linguistical aspects and of “object system”, job design and other socio-technical issues.The term “user view” is employed widely in recent data base work. The use of the term “user view” suggests such an “infological” perspective. However, a closer look at how the term is actually used indicates a much more delimited interpretation which focuses on representational aspects and processing. This is also made explicit, to some degree, by the usual formulation “user view of the data” rather than, for instance, “user view of the world”.In this paper a brief study is made of the two aspects of user views, 1.(i) the infological/conceptual aspect, which is concerned with how conception relates to data and information, and to reality, and2.(ii) the “datalogical” aspect, which is concerned with the selection of data from a data base and the rearrangement of them to suit a “user view” of the data (as seen from the application programmer).The infological aspect is illustrated through a discussion of some of my own earlier results which are here brought together. The datalogical aspect is exemplified by some quotations from the most recent data base literature, as well as by some earlier results of my own.The term “user view” is frequently used in the datalogical sense whereas the infological or information-system-theoretical studies often have addressed questions that have to do with the infological/conceptual aspects of “user views”, without employing that term. In this paper some aspects of the problem of infological/conceptual user views are treated with a view to gain understanding of how both aspects of user views affect the design and use of information systems and data bases. Illustrations are taken from the author's own earlier work, for three reasons: 1.(i) they were most easily available,2.ii) they are directly associated with the problem at hand, and3.(iii) they have earlier been scattered over several works and it was useful, for the purpose of the present discussion, to bring them together.