Toward a New Science of Information

• Main Authors: D Doucette, R Bichler, W Hofkirchner, C Raff
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ubiquity Press 2007-04-01
• Series: Data Science Journal
• Subjects: Information; Science of Information; Information Society; Transdisciplinarity; Science of Information Institute (SOII); Foundations of Information Science (FIS)
• Online Access: http://datascience.codata.org/articles/407

The concept of information has become a crucial topic in several emerging scientific disciplines, as well as in organizations, in companies and in everyday life. Hence it is legitimate to speak of the so-called information society; but a scientific understanding of the Information Age has not had time to develop. Following this evolution we face the need of a new transdisciplinary understanding of information, encompassing many academic disciplines and new fields of interest. Therefore a Science of Information is required. The goal of this paper is to discuss the aims, the scope, and the tools of a Science of Information. Furthermore we describe the new Science of Information Institute (SOII), which will be established as an international and transdisciplinary organization that takes into consideration a larger perspective of information.