Contact:cdent@burningchrome.com
Raskin, Jef. (1999). Presenting Information. In R. Jacobson (Ed.),
_Information design_, (p. 341-348). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Frames the field of Information Design by recasting it as Designing
Information Representation. Common myths about information and other
associated terms are debunked and then given definitions of which the
author approves. A path, with unconscious knowledge of formal language
and methodology as the goal, for the apprentice designer of
information representation is suggested. -cjd
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First reaction: Who is this Jef Raskin guy? So I went to find out.
Okay, he has the credentials to support his tone.
Second reaction: Interesting, how is it that so many authors writing
in Information Science are able to contradict so many other authors
writing in Information Science about the definition of information?
Raskin, at least, attempts to provide a definite definition on which
to hang the rest of his discussion. He leaves little room for doubt.
I believe this is a mistake. Presenting information as a definite
thing which can be measured belittles the importance of perspective
and context in the conception of information. We can discuss
information as thing, and can even state unequivocally that it is some
thing, but perhaps we are better off to instead list all that it can
be in its many incarnations as thing, relationship, process and network.
Freeing information in this way, though, leads to exactly the sort of
draping "in the mantle of technological modernity" that Raskin
complains about. So be it: an unconstrained definition of information
can lead to the creation of more thought and thus more information,
about information.
The key is representing all that information about information in
effective ways that provide launching points for learning.
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