Principles of Information Systems
Session 02
Naming and Knowing
Naming and Knowing
Chapter 1
Overview
Learning objectives
1. Introduction
2. Names and identities
3. Naming and authority
4. Other ways of knowing
5. Meaning making - semiosis
6. How we know – epistemology and ontology
7. Summary
3
Learning objectives
• Explain why naming is a fundamental human activity
• Explain the difference between the name of something
and its identity
• Define essential and accidental attributes
• Explain what categories are, and describe how they
may be formed
• Explain how a framework of understanding is necessary
to knowing
4
Learning objectives
• Discuss the role of context, community and authority in
knowing.
• Give examples of communities that have their own
“ways of knowing”
• Outline the concept of semiosis
• Explain what epistemology and ontology are
5
Introduction
step
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
• What is this?
• How do I know?
• How can I describe it?
• Are there other things like it?
• What do you call it?
• Do we agree? If not, who decides? Why?
6
Introduction
Names and identities
Naming and authority
Other ways of knowing
Meaning making - semiosis
How we know –
epistemology and ontology
Summary
Introduction
•
•
•
•
The words for things,
the sets of things they belong to (or contrast with),
the precision with which they are defined,
and the people for whom they have meaning
… are all relevant in our daily life
Classification and naming are the basis of language, and
our ability to communicate
7
Why is this important in informatics?
• Because in informatics we often have to express ideas
in forms that will be processed by others we do not
know, or by computers
• So it is crucial that we can name things and ideas in a
way that lets us work purposively with them
8
Categories and distinctions
• Information is about categories and distinctions –
difference is the basis of information
• Making a distinction implies naming a new thing, or
category of thing
• Classification implies difference, and this difference
provides the basis for a decision
9
Categories and distinctions
• He is under 18 or he isn’t.
• “Now I know you are under 18 I can’t serve you”
• The ball is over the line or it is not.
• “Now the ball is out of play, we’ll start a new sequence
of play”
10
Recap
Naming is a fundamental human activity
that is required to describe information
and distinguish it from other
information.
11
Names and identities
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
• Is this the same one I saw yesterday?
• How do I know?
• It’s cute though - I think I’ll call it Brian
12
Introduction
Names and identities
Naming and authority
Other ways of knowing
Meaning making - semiosis
How we know –
epistemology and ontology
Summary
Names and identities
• Who are you? How are you known?
Are the answers the same?
• Your identity is who you are
- Your identity is real
• Your name is how you are known
- Your name is a symbol
13
Names and identities
• On your passport, student card, police record, social
security system and many other places your name
helps identify you as you and not someone else.
• But you can change your name, or be known by a
nickname, or have the same name as someone else.
You might have a stage name, a middle name, or a
shortened form.
• You would still be you though: the different symbolic
forms refer to the same identity.
14
Name and identity in informatics
• You will have your own ideas about “who you really are”
• Information systems however, fundamentally deal with the
symbolic names and identifiers
-What is known about you is the information the system has about
you, and how that information is used.
• So the information that is recorded makes a difference to
your identity in the system
15
Name and identity in informatics
• In informatics the association between name and distinct identity is
essential.
- Your name is not enough to identify you for the purposes of social
security, banking, immigration or student records.
- Other identifiers, usually numbers, associate you with your record in
some information system.
- Physical information, such as your gender, age, photo, signature,
fingerprints, scars or DNA also help to uniquely identify you for the
information purposes of immigration, police, access to buildings and the
like.
• Whatever remains true and unchanging despite time is the
basis of identity: labels and attributions are not.
16
Identity and change
• The notion of persistence through time, and the transformations
that occur to things is central to informatics and how things are
described and modelled
- For example, the mission or function of an organisation normally
remains fairly constant, although how it achieves that may change.
• Functional roles are likely to outlast the incumbents of those roles:
- The “head of marketing” or the “Manchester United goalkeeper” refers
to a role, or title
- The person actually in that role is replaced over time.
• So the dynamic nature of things must also be taken into account
when trying to describe something that is intended to remain useful
for some period of time.
17
Recap
The name of something allows it to be
labelled and located.
Its identity is what makes it different
from something else
and is what persists through time.
18
Entities and attributes
• In informatics the technical word for a thing is an
entity
-A person
-A business
-A receipt
• Each entity will have properties or attributes that are
of interest in a given situation.
-Person entity might have Age, height, and nationality of birth
attributes
-Receipt entity might have Amount, description of items and
date attributes
19
Recap
All entities (things) have
properties or attributes that
describe them.
20
Entities & Attributes in information systems
• Informatics involves defining entities, their specific
properties, or attributes, and the things they relate to
• When describing something for use in an information
system it becomes important to identify what is essential
and what is optional
21
Essential and accidental attributes
• Some attributes are essential to identity, others are
accidental.
• Essential attributes are those that are indispensable for
something to have its particular nature.
-Solidity is an essential property of a brick
• Accidental attributes are those that may or may not
apply, and are thus not essential to a thing’s nature.
-A brick may be red or yellow, indented or plain but these
properties are only accidentally true of a particular brick.
22
Attributes in information systems
• What would be essential attributes to include in an
information system about:
- Students and the courses they take?
- People and their banking transactions?
• What attributes might be optional (accidental) in each
case? Why might you include these?
23
Recap
Essential attributes are those that
are indispensable for something to
have its particular nature.
Accidental attributes are those that
may or may not apply, and are thus
not essential to a thing’s nature
24
Categories
• Most of what we describe, represent and think we know
is defined using categories
• Categories are used to identify distinctions of interest
• The idea of categories is that we can define classes or
sets of similar things, which can be named by the same
word
-Duck
-Australian
-Red
25
There are two types of people in the
world. Those that think the world can
be divided into two types of people
and those that don’t.
Defining categories –
necessary and sufficient features
• The classical theory of necessary and sufficient defining
features might be one basis
- Birds fly and nest in trees - except that emus, kiwis and ostriches don’t.
• The problem is that the actual things referred to rarely fit
any definition exactly, and there can be many
exceptions
26
Defining categories - Prototypes
• Prototypes are those members of a category that are
most representative of that concept
- A mid sized, four legged, devoted, hairy dog is prototypical of the
class of dogs
• Individuals can be compared with the prototype to see
how well they fit the category
- This is their degree of membership of the category
27
Defining categories - Level of categories
• What level of abstraction should be chosen?
- Too specific, too general are both not useful
• Trade off amount of detail to be sufficiently informative,
without having unnecessary distinctions in the context
28
Defining categories - Theories
POISONOUS
scorpions
wasps
shrimps
moths
spiders
29
SAFE
crabs
grasshoppers
view
Defining categories - Theories
scorpions
wasps
shrimps
moths
grasshoppers
crabs
spiders
30
AIR
SEA
LAND
view
Defining categories - Framing
BUILDING
skyscraper
prayer
RELIGION
31
cathedral
temple
temple
cathedral
prayer
skyscraper
view
Defining categories – Framing
Philosophers or Brazilian soccer players?
Plato
Pele
32
Socrates
Leonardo
Leonardo
Pele
Socrates
Plato
Recap
Categories are a way of distinguishing
between different things that enable
the things in the world to be classified
and named.
Categories group items together
according to some theory or context for
defining their similarity.
33
Naming and hierarchy
• Choosing the level to describe things at is an
important decision to make:
- When giving a romantic gift, knowing that a given flower is “a
rose” may be enough – its scientific name and relationship to
other flowers isn’t relevant
- For other purposes, such as professional rose cultivation, these
details do matter, and relate to knowledge of other things such as
soils, breeding and markets
34
Granularity
• Granularity is the term used to describe the level of
detail at which something is defined or described, and is
an important concept in informatics
- Your purpose determines
how much detail you go into
and where you draw the
boundary between what is
included and what is
excluded.
35
Naming and hierarchy
• Entities are not only characterised by their properties,
but also in their relationships to other entities
-Every mother is also a daughter. A woman in one context may
behave as a daughter, and in another behave as a mother.
-A rose is a type of flower, which is a type of plant, and different
roses can be specified by variety
• These relationships suggest an order of things, a
hierarchy, or a taxonomy
36
Taxonomy
• A taxonomy is a hierarchical
structure of names and ideas
- More abstract or general concepts
are found at the top, and more
specific ones lower down
37
Systematisation and informatics
• These general principles of object identification,
abstraction and specification apply in all areas of
informatics, and have been explored formally for some
time
• Systematic organisation of ideas is essential in any
discipline, and categorisation can provide the means
of organisation
38
Branding – a particular type of naming
• In branding, names
have powerful
connotations – the
name of an organisation
or brand is important in
the public’s perception
of it, and its value.
Table 1.1 Brand name types
Surname:
Descriptive:
Invented:
Connotative:
Bridge:
Arbitrary:
Dell
Pizza Hut
Xerox
Duracell
DaimlerChrysler
Yahoo!
Adapted from: Lippincott-Mercer. Name Types and Functions. 2006.
Available from [www.lippincottmercer.com/services/name-types.shtml].
39
Referencing
• Naming is our basic categorising act, since in
informatics we have to symbolise ideas about things in
the world
• Names signify or refer to something in the outside world
-The same name can refer to two different things, and different
names can refer to the same thing
• Referencing makes the link between a word and its
object
40
Names and things
geometric
shape
living
carrot
rectangle
yellow
circle
edible
animal
41
vegetable
Referencing
carrot
rectangle
geometric
shape
vegetable
yellow
animal
edible
living
42
Intensional and extensional
definitions of categories
• An intensional definition describes the essential
definitional requirement for the category:
-e.g. students are those enrolled at a place of learning (by
definition).
• An extensional definition involves “pointing to” every
member that the definition refers to
-e.g. we may define the category “the World’s strongest man”
Logically, only one person can be the “world’s strongest man”
but who that person physically is varies over time
43
Logical requirements and physical
instances
• In informatics, we see the
idea of intensional and
extensional definition in the
concept of logical
requirements
vs physical instantiation
44
Community naming and knowing
• Real knowledge is not private but is understood
communally
• Naming and definition must pass social acceptance –
the terms consistently used by that community to refer
to the objects and concepts recognised by it
• This itself has levels of granularity, from universal
concepts, to culturally-specific terms, to idiolects
understood by only couples or individuals
45
Localisation of concepts within
different sizes of communities
UNIVERSALS
The sun lights up the sky
CULTURAL IDEAS
SUB-CULTURAL JARGON
FAMILY TALES
PRIVATE
46
view
What we wear at funerals
Ogdoads have eight elements
Uncle Ted and the brown ale
I love you, punkin!
Frameworks of understanding
• Cultures establish ways of understanding things that are
meaningful to them
-In some cultures black implies mourning, in others white does
• Cultures and communities have their own languages
and names for things, as well as conventions for
speaking and behaving
-A meaning or truth for one person or culture may not be true for
another
• Culture provides a framework of understanding that
makes something meaningful or otherwise to its
adherents
47
step
Frameworks of understanding
•
•
•
•
48
An aerial view of buildings? (to a househunter)
Trees and rocks reflected in water? (to a photographer)
Abstract art? (to a graphic designer)
…? (to you)
Seeing
view
B?
and Seeing-As
13?
49
Seeing
Quack!
view
Duck
and Seeing-As
Rabbit
50
Frameworks of understanding and
the interpretation of data
• The framework of understanding we bring to the interpretation of
data determines what we see it as
• What we see it as depends on the context in which we see it. Some
of this context is given by surrounding information, and some is
provided by our own expectations.
- We always have a background of experience and understanding which
is brought to new data, whether a picture or a symbol
• A common difficulty in informatics is that “seeing as” is taken to be
the same as seeing, and the world or data gets described in one
way only, when
there might be other interpretations
possible
Image from http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~kihlstrm/JastrowDuck.htm
51
Paradigms
• In science and elsewhere the concept of framework of
understanding is called a paradigm
• A paradigm is the prevailing view in the field that gives
meaning to data and appearances
-Early astronomers operated within the paradigm that the Earth
was the centre of the universe, and their calculations and
explanations were based on that. The later view, that the Sun is
at the centre of the Solar system, was a paradigm shift.
• Theories, observations and what people thought they
knew get discarded or revised in the new framework of
understanding
52
Informatics and paradigm shifts
• Informatics is involved in paradigm shifts happening in
business, government, research, art and health, e.g.
-Skilled typists and word processing
-The music industry and digital recordings and filesharing
• Introducing information systems into any workplace or
industry is disruptive
-The paradigm of work and knowledge often changes, with what
was valued and known becoming irrelevant
-Frameworks of understanding can become radically changed
through informatics
53
Recap
We bring a
framework of understanding
made up of our background,
assumptions, biases and preferences
to our interpretation of anything.
54
Naming and authority
• To be useful, information must be reliable
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Introduction
Names and identities
Naming and authority
Other ways of knowing
Meaning making - semiosis
How we know –
epistemology and ontology
Summary
• The recipient’s beliefs will determine how much they
trust the information to be reliable
• Trust is influenced by:
-Provenance
- Is the source qualified to provide the information?
-Mediation
- Is the information first hand or passed through other recipients?
• Trust, and the qualifications required to be trusted,
become more important as information becomes
mediated remotely, such as in online commerce.
55
Choosing names
• Politics and policy often affect choice of names
-e.g. Cape Canaveral and Cape Kennedy
• Nomenclature boards or conventions are required in
many fields, to ensure consistent, agreed and
appropriate naming
-e.g. the International Astronomical Union Recommendations for
Nomenclature provides “Specifications concerning designations
for astronomical radiation sources outside the solar system”
56
Community, authority & knowledge
• Who is allowed to define concepts in a community?
• Encyclopaedias are considered as authoritative guides to
socially accepted knowledge
-Authored by qualified experts, backed by research and quality
control processes
• Community-based encyclopaedias such as Wikipedia are
written and maintained by users
-Community consensus should prevail
-Primary sources should be verifiable
-Revisions are possible as information changes
-Spin and bias also possible
57
Community tagging at flickr.com
58
Recap
While the principles of naming and
knowing are general,
they apply differently across different
communities, are authorised in various
ways and are related in different
systems of meaning.
59
Other ways of knowing
• The world of informatics is one of symbols
and symbolised ideas
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Introduction
Names and identities
Naming and authority
Other ways of knowing
Meaning making - semiosis
How we know –
epistemology and ontology
Summary
• Inherent in naming is a separation between subject and
object, characteristic of Western science, and which is
assumed in mainstream informatics
• Other ways of knowing exist that do not assume this
worldview
-many Indigenous traditions
-“women’s ways of knowing”
60
Other ways of knowing
• One way of understanding reality is through being a part
of it, rather than being separate from it.
• Rather than observing nature from a detached
viewpoint, identification with it occurs, a participatory
consciousness of being involved.
61
Participatory consciousness in informatics
• Being involved rather than observing is like the
difference between studying a foreign tribe
(a) using the standards of your own society to interpret
what people do, and
(b) living as one of them, “going native” so you can
understand them from the inside.
• To design an information system for people in
an organisation to work with and live with, you
have to understand how that work and life really
is for that “tribe”.
-Much of the current work in information systems uses
methods from anthropology, particularly ethnography,
to try to get this inside view.
62
Women’s ways of knowing
• “Women’s ways of knowing” refers to the position
that women know in ways characteristically different
from men, and in ways that differ from the masculine
values entrenched in much modern science.
• In “Knowing woman” by de Castilljo this is
characterised as…
a diffused awareness of relationship and the “unity
of all life” characteristic in feminine consciousness,
versus a more focussed, “divide-and-conquer”, or
analytic consciousness in masculine psychology.
-(note that these are qualities available to both sexes, with one
or other type prominent and the other in shadow)
63
Women’s ways of knowing
“In the middle of the block, next to the red house.
East Union St.
1409
1411
1413
“Number 1411 East Union Street”
64
1415
Women’s ways of knowing - Belenky
1.Silence
• following authority blindly
2.Received knowledge
• received from other, outside voices
3.Subjective knowledge
• where their own ideas are listened for and accepted, and external authorities lose
some of their power. Each person’s experience and knowledge is unique
4.Procedural knowledge
• comprises both connected knowing and separate knowing. Connected knowing is
grounded in direct, specific experience and involves personal feelings, listening
and empathy, as opposed to the separate knowing which is rational and ignores
feelings.
5.Constructed knowledge
• an integration of personal understandings with rationality and the outside world.
Theories are not “true” but are instead a model that approximates experience,
which can be revised as things change.
65
Informatics & other ways of knowing
• Some of the ideas of ‘women’s ways of knowing’ are
now common in information systems thinking
• Informatics involves designing systems for people to
use and reason with, and these do embody a view of
the world and a commitment to ways of seeing things
• However, many information systems are potentially
open to different viewpoints and values
• There are practical approaches to integrating these into
informatics processes
66
Recap
Many cultures have their own
characteristic ‘ways of knowing’ that
differ from those assumed by mainstream
western science.
Some of these ideas are becoming
incorporated into informatics.
67
Meaning-making – semiosis
• Names work because they are based
in signification
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Introduction
Names and identities
Naming and authority
Other ways of knowing
Meaning making - semiosis
How we know – epistemology
and ontology
Summary
-Signs or representations that can symbolically stand for
something held to exist in a reality outside the system
-Experience is what gives the “ground truth” of something,
which can be named in many different ways
-Semiotics is the study of signification
• Naming is thus part of a more general
process of meaning-making or semiosis
68
Semiotics in information systems
• A medical record of a patient will contain details such as
name, address, birthdate, blood group type and information
more specific to their unique medical history.
• The words, descriptions, codes and symbols used in this
record are assumed to map directly to an actual person.
• The meaning of the things signified will operate within the use
of the system
-for example, it implies that a blood transfusion using the blood group
indicated on the record will not prove medically adverse.
• The information selected and represented about the person
reduces them to specific and restricted, but useful categories
69
Recap
Naming is part of a general process of
meaning-making or semiosis.
Names are types of signs or symbols
that are used to refer to things that
have meaning in the world.
This field of study is called semiotics
70
How do we know?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Introduction
Names and identities
Naming and authority
Other ways of knowing
Meaning making - semiosis
How we know –
epistemology and ontology
Summary
• We have seen that some of the most basic
questions in informatics include:
-What do we call things?
-How do we categorise things?
-If you and I have different classifications, how do we know
anything? Does it make a difference?
• Fundamentally, these raise the question of how
we know anything at all
71
What is a bed?
• The following definition is
from the UK National Health
Service official definition of
a bed*
• It illustrates how things can
be classified or categorised
according to context, and
how subjective any
definition may be
* source: http://web.archive.org/
web/20050320002024/http://www.nhsia.nhs.uk/datastandards/pages/helpdesk/hd1211.asp
72
What is a bed?
A bed includes any device that may be used to permit a PATIENT to lie down when the need to do so is as a
consequence of the PATIENT's condition rather than the need for active intervention such as examination,
diagnostic investigation, manipulation/treatment, or transport. Cots should be included in statistics about
beds where appropriate. It should be noted that:
a.
A couch or trolley should be considered as a bed provided it is used regularly to permit a PATIENT to lie
down rather than for merely examination or transport. An example of such an arrangement is a day surgery
ward furnished with trolleys
b.
A PATIENT may need to use a bed, couch or trolley whilst attending for a specific short procedure taking an
hour or less, such as an endoscopy. If such devices are being used only because of the active intervention
and not because of the PATIENT'S condition, they should NOT be counted as beds for statistical purposes
c.
A PATIENT needing a lengthy procedure such as renal dialysis may use a bed or other means of support
such as a couch or special chair. Whatever the device used it should be counted as a bed if used regularly
for this purpose
d.
Some procedures require narcosis. If this necessitates the PATIENT to lie down, the bed, couch or trolley
can be counted as a hospital bed if used regularly for this purpose
e.
A device specifically and solely for the purpose of delivery should not be counted as a bed if another device
is normally reserved for antenatal and postnatal care. Details of the facilities available for delivery in a
maternity ward should be included in a ward inventory”
73
Epistemology
• From the beginning there are basic questions including:
- What is the world?
- What types of things does it contain?
- What are the things called?
- How do they relate to each other?
- What are they for?
- How do I know they exist?
- Are they real for other people too?
• These questions have to be answered at least practically, because our
social systems depend on some common understandings about what is
normal.
• Debate over centuries has identified some common positions that can
be taken as to how you know, and which provide a basis for deciding
what is “really” true.
• A position on the basis for knowledge is known as an epistemology.
74
Some epistemological positions
The world I see out there is made of solid stuff and there is
one correct and true description of it that science can find out
objectively.
We all see the world from a
different point of view so
no single description can
be true.
The world I think I see out there is made purely of
ideas and is nothing but a projection from my mind.
There is a world out there, but all I can know is what my brain tells
me it saw, I cannot know it directly.
The physical world exists sure enough,
and can’t be destroyed but the social
world is only made up of the most popular
ideas at the time.
75
Both the physical and social world
are made up of pre-existing
structures that we are thrown into
at birth.
Ontology
• Once you have an epistemology, an ontology
can follow
• Ontology simply means the things that can exist
in that world
-In the world of health informatics, doctors and patients are
typical ontological categories.
-In the world of Harry Potter, unicorns and hippogriffs exist.
Unicorns are an ontological category in an imaginary world
76
Norms
• Informatics deals not with things, but with the names of
the things. The name symbolises the idea of the thing.
• When we use different names, there is a potential for
misunderstanding.
• Norms are commonly understood concepts, rules, and
ways of doing things.
-e.g. the health system, the legal system and the business world
each have their own norms
77
Norms
• Informatics professionals need to find agreed names for
the distinct things in their world, and to construct some
design that organises them.
• Information systems can then be constructed around
those ideas and their perceived relationships to one
another:
-The business world consists of goods and services, supplies,
bills, accounts, markets, payments…
-Health informatics is concerned with patients, doctors, beds,
diseases….
78
Relationships among some ideas
in health systems
79
Recap
An epistemology is a theory of knowledge
that takes a position on what can be known
and how it can be known.
An ontology is a shared set of terms and
relationships among them that are used to
describe a world.
80
Summary
• The activities of distinguishing, categorising and naming things are
fundamental to all different forms of information, and the field of
informatics deals with the information that gets described
• Names are labels or symbols given to a thing to distinguish it from
other things.
• Identity is what is true of a thing that persists through time
• Categories allow us to classify things into sets that are similar to
one another
• We bring a framework of understanding to our interpretation of
anything, determined by our background, community and culture
81
Summary
• Different approaches to naming and knowing exist in
different cultures and these have implications for
informatics practice
• Naming is part of a general process of meaning-making
or semiosis
• Informatics deals with symbols rather than reality so it
is crucial that the symbols provide the information
needed for the particular application
• Epistemology and ontology provide the underlying
philosophical tools for how we can know and describe
anything at all
82
83