At the dawn of the information age, a proper understanding of information and how it relates to matter and energy is of utmost importance for the survival of civilisation. Yet, attempts to reconcile information concepts underlying science and technology with those en vogue in social science, humanities, and arts are rather rare. This book offers a new approach, departing from fragmented information concepts.Many academics refrain from undergoing unifications, as most undertakings are reductionistic. This book contends that it is the noble task of an as-yet-to-be-developed science of information to go one step in the direction of a unified theory of information without falling back into neither reduction nor anthropomorphisation.To be able to succeed in an ambitious task like this, the book advocates the application of complex systems theory and its philosophical underpinnings. Information needs to be interpreted in terms of self-organisation to do justice to the richness of its manifestations. The way the book does so will provide the reader with a deep insight into a basic feature of our world.The following are discussed in the volume: A Science of Information; A New Way of Thinking; Praxio-Onto-Epistemology; Evolutionary Systems Design; Evolutionary Systems Ontology; Evolutionary Systems Methodology; Capurro's Information Concept Trilemma; A Multi-Stage Model of Evolutionary Types of Information: Pattern Formation, Code-Making, and Constituting Sense; A Triple-C Model of Systemic Functions of Information: Cognising, Communicating, and Co-Operating; Nine Categories of Information Capabilities: Reflectivity (physical), Psyche (biotic), Consciousness (human); Connectivity (physical), Signalability (biotic), Languageability (human); Cohesiveness (physical), Coherency (biotic), Communitarity (human); Nine Categories of Information: Response (physical), Flexible Response (biotic), Reflexion (human); Correspondences (physical), Signals (biotic), Symbolic Acts (human); Assemblage (physical), Assignment (biotic), Association (human); A Unified Theory of Information for, about, and by means of the Information Society.

Explores both counter-terrorism and enabling policy dimensions of emerging information technologies in national security After the September 11th attacks, "connecting the dots" has become the watchword for using information and intelligence to protect the United States from future terrorist attacks. Advanced and emerging information technologies offer key assets in confronting a secretive, asymmetric, and networked enemy. Yet, in a free and open society, policies must ensure that these powerful technologies are used responsibly, and that privacy and civil liberties remain protected. Emergent Information Technologies and Enabling Policies for Counter-Terrorism provides a unique, integrated treatment of cutting-edge counter-terrorism technologies and their corresponding policy options. Featuring contributions from nationally recognized authorities and experts, this book brings together a diverse knowledge base for those charged with protecting our nation from terrorist attacks while preserving our civil liberties. Topics covered include: Counter-terrorism modeling Quantitative and computational social science Signal processing and information management techniques Semantic Web and knowledge management technologies Information and intelligence sharing technologies Text/data processing and language translation technologies Social network analysis Legal standards for data mining Potential structures for enabling policies Technical system design to support policy Countering terrorism in today's world requires innovative technologies and corresponding creative policies; the two cannot be practically and realistically addressed separately. Emergent Information Technologies and Enabling Policies for Counter-Terrorism offers a comprehensive examination of both areas, serving as an essential resource for students, practitioners, researchers, developers, and decision-makers.

There is a struggle over governance of the global information network among national governments and international organizations, corporations and NGOs, elites and civil society. The outcome will determine how we communicate, the extent of our civil liberties and human rights, the profitability of e-commerce, and the richness of cultural expression. This collection looks at the processes by which the global information policy regime is being formed - themselves in conflict - as a foundation for understanding its emergent features.

Social researchers increasingly find themselves looking beyond conventional methods to address complex research questions. This is the first book to comprehensively examine emergent qualitative and quantitative theories and methods across the social and behavioral sciences. Providing scholars and students with a way to retool their research choices, the volume presents cutting-edge approaches to data collection, analysis, and representation. Leading researchers describe alternative uses of traditional quantitative and qualitative tools; innovative hybrid or mixed methods; and new techniques facilitated by technological advances. Consistently formatted chapters explore the strengths and limitations of each method for studying different types of research questions and offer practical, in-depth examples.

In the tradition of Octavia Butler, here is radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help to shape the futures we want. Change is constant. The world, our bodies, and our minds are in a constant state of flux. They are a stream of ever-mutating, emergent patterns. Rather than steel ourselves against such change, Emergent Strategy teaches us to map and assess the swirling structures and to read them as they happen, all the better to shape that which ultimately shapes us, personally and politically. A resolutely materialist spirituality based equally on science and science fiction: a wild feminist and afro-futurist ride! adrienne maree brown, co-editor of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction from Social Justice Movements, is a social justice facilitator, healer, and doula living in Detroit.

Explores both counter-terrorism and enabling policy dimensions of emerging information technologies in national security After the September 11th attacks, "connecting the dots" has become the watchword for using information and intelligence to protect the United States from future terrorist attacks. Advanced and emerging information technologies offer key assets in confronting a secretive, asymmetric, and networked enemy. Yet, in a free and open society, policies must ensure that these powerful technologies are used responsibly, and that privacy and civil liberties remain protected. Emergent Information Technologies and Enabling Policies for Counter-Terrorism provides a unique, integrated treatment of cutting-edge counter-terrorism technologies and their corresponding policy options. Featuring contributions from nationally recognized authorities and experts, this book brings together a diverse knowledge base for those charged with protecting our nation from terrorist attacks while preserving our civil liberties. Topics covered include: Counter-terrorism modeling Quantitative and computational social science Signal processing and information management techniques Semantic Web and knowledge management technologies Information and intelligence sharing technologies Text/data processing and language translation technologies Social network analysis Legal standards for data mining Potential structures for enabling policies Technical system design to support policy Countering terrorism in today's world requires innovative technologies and corresponding creative policies; the two cannot be practically and realistically addressed separately. Emergent Information Technologies and Enabling Policies for Counter-Terrorism offers a comprehensive examination of both areas, serving as an essential resource for students, practitioners, researchers, developers, and decision-makers.

The nature of higher education is by no means fixed: it has evolved over time; different models of higher education co-exist alongside each other at present; and, worldwide, there are demands for higher education to change to better help support economic growth and to better fit chagning social and economic circumstances. This book examines, from an Asian perspective, the debates about how higher education should change. It considers questions of funding, and of who will attend universities, and the fundamental question of what universities are for, especially as the three key funcations of universities - knowledge creation through research, knowledge dissemination through teaching and service, and knowledge conservation through libraries, the disciplinary structuring of knowledge and in other ways - are increasingly being carried out much more widely outside universities in the new "knowledge society". Throughout, the book discusses the extent to which the countries of East Asia are developing new models of higher education, thereby better preparing themselves for the "new "knowledge society", rather than simply following old Western models.