Focus and Perspectivism in Viewing Information, Data, and Informing: Fundamental Distinctions

Abstract

Introduction Many streams of research deal with information and informing. It is an interdisciplinary mix. Information and informing also are of a transdisciplinary nature. Scholarly studies of the subject, glossaries in MIS textbooks, and the terminology used by IT professionals reflect a heterogeneous collection of disparate views that are made from various, frequently not explicitly stated perspectives with a widely ranging focus. Callaos and Callaos (2002) tried to reconcile the disparate views without excluding any of them by resorting to the concept of distributive truth. Their conclusions failed to bring us closer to a cohesive view befitting the theory and practice in this domain. Why researchers investigating phenomena frequently find themselves in awkward positions may be illustrated by two metaphors: * Plato's metaphor of a prisoner chained in a cave in such a way that anything that moves behind him can be seen only on the opposite wall as the shadows projected by the fire that lights the cave from behind (a very limited perspective), or * The metaphor of a group of blind men investigating an elephant by touching it at different places and reporting what they perceive (a very limited scope and focus) Whatever the selected perspective and focus are, they may limit the view of some aspects or reveal other aspects that otherwise cannot be seen. This paper * presents a simple demo of optical perspective to illustrate the concept of perspectivism; * provides an overview of many disparate views about information and informing within the context of routine operations and processes observed in nature; * articulates the fundamental distinctions that cannot be ignored in operations without grave consequences and attempts to illustrate them by conceptual schemes, as suggested by Gill (2011); and * shows how many of the existing controversies can be resolved by viewing information as physical patterns of factors in form in decision making for action and viewing informing as acquiring, processing, and spreading such patterns among resonating entities. Introductory Demo of an Optical Perspective Perspectivism (2010) is a fundamental concept in research and analysis of objects and phenomena; however, it is frequently forgotten, ignored, and neglected. Nietzsche's (German philosopher 1844-1900) ("Friedrich Nietzsche," 2007; "Nietzsche, Genealogy, History," 2010) major contribution to the theory of knowledge can be summarized as follows: Knowledge is always perspectival ... knowledge from no point of view is as incoherent as a notion of seeing from no particular vantage point. The notion of all-inclusive perspective is as incoherent as the concept of seeing an object from every possible vantage point simultaneously. ("Friedrich Nietzsche," 2007) Even when one initially ignores dynamic changes, there are an infinite number of possible optical perspectives, such as the number of points on the surface of a sphere with the observed object in its center. Depending on the object (material or conceptual), from some viewpoints, one cannot see much, while from other points, as from a hilltop, one can see nearly everything. To discover the most fruitful perspective is an insight. There is only one chance in nearly infinity (nearly zero) of finding such a perspective. Endless confusions arise due to statements made from different perspectives without an explicit articulation of what their authors assume is the focus and the main points of reference. An example of this predicament is the domain of information and informing. Before going into this subject, an example of optical perspectives will be shown to demonstrate how deceptive human observations may be. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For the sake of simplicity, let us analyze the following. When the observed object happens to be a point, one literally sees nothing. …