FAQ

WHAT IS INFORMATION?

There is plenty of definitions for information in various fields raging from cognitive science to digital technology. Information is the application of data. Information is processed data. Information is objective reality. Its definition is broad, but I personally subscribe to the data-info-knowledge-wisdom hierarchy, in which information is formed from the building blocks of data. For instance, the word information is made up of data, or the letters spelling information in that sequence. Knowledge would then be the application of the word information in sentence.

WHAT IS ETHICS?

According to O'Leary's The Social Science Jargon-Buster (1st ed., pub. by Sage UK in 2007), ethics is a philosophical branch detailing right and wrong. Of course, the gray between right and wrong makes ethics difficult to pin down for each individual person. What we should do is contested by the situation, circumstance, personal beliefs, and perspective. Many forms of ethics as moral philosophy exists--for example, deontology, utilitarianism, & social relativism. I personally believe ethics is the application of morals, and that morals are fluid in circumstances and time. Life philosophies are what keep certain moral constants throughout one's life, but certainly, they could still change. My moral constant is education for all, so my ethics involve rights and wrongs for life-long learning. Like the definition of information, ethics deserves much more than a blog post.

WHAT IS THE ETHICAL USE OF INFORMATION?

Information ethics deals with topics involving the ethical use of information. Such concepts include censorship, privacy, access, data ownership, selection bias, intellectual property, and much more. Because ethics involves personal morality, there is no right or wrong way to use information. Ethical use is different from legal use, but the legal application of information (copyright, ownership, privacy) has been questioned in the advent of newer technologies, such as tracking one's digital footprint or the automatic review of digital materials for infringement.