Information Ecology

Week two's reading:
Stalder, F. (2005) 'Information Ecology'. In Open Cultures and the Nature of Networks pp. 62-66  
[ URL: http://felix.openflows.com/pdf/Notebook_eng.pdf ]

"Information Ecology" discusses the environment of the intangible flows of information through digital media. We get information from cyberspace because nodes and flows do their jobs. Nodes carry information and flows within the cyberspace environment and we receive the information from "nodes". It also tells, we use information to communicate with other people across time and distances, and we check and re-evaluate those obtained information then, produce more information. That is the way networks grow. 

Basically, the author divided information ecology into 4 dimensions: interdependency, change, time-boudness, and differentiation.

1. Interdependency

It refers to the networks flow the information by connected nodes and all these nodes are mutually dependent to each other. According the the article, there are two elements work for the networks' environment: flows and nodes. "Flows without elements of structure would be noise and nodes without flows would be dead", quoted. Since the environment is related the process of delivering information (information flow), each nodes attach with the flows and information pass through the nodes then "flow" to the other nodes. Nodes must work with flows, nodes would do nothing if there are no flows. Therefore, two or more nodes are linked together just to let the information flow. 

2. Change

What does the "change" mean? It is about the changes in information flows. The environment of networks is information flows and the environment is full with nodes and flows. Then, "The interdependence of the nodes can travel through the whole environment and, according to the way it is reshaped in each node; it grows or decreases in relevance and speed". Information could flow in any ways within networks therefore, cyberspace or networks optimize the information sharing process and not only one-to-one sharing only but various parties.

3. Time-boudness

According to the reading "Information flows very quickly, at the speed of light through computer networks, and the new interrelations are born as fast as old connections die time is a supreme factor". Yes, time-boundness refers to the speed of information flows is very fast just like the speed of light. We do not really can see or test how fast the information flows within the networks by our own eye sights. Moreover, we experience the speedy information flows when we use the Internet. For example, instant messaging, we chat with friend who is staying at United States but we are at Malaysia. The conversation (information) can be sent to the friend immediately and we can receive direct respond from him even our geographical distance is far. However, the speed of information flows would be different due to the relationship between nodes and flows are changed. The information could take a longer time to reach the other nodes if the flows are slower such as Internet connection has technical problem.

4. Differentiation

"Information is difference and the nodes survive as long as they can make a difference, which is for as long as they can produce information that is valid for others. In information ecology the basis for cooperation and survival is differentiation and not similarity", quoted. Many nodes carry different information to be flowed within the cyberspace environment then, certain nodes with same information would be eliminate and only keep one node only because one node can "produce" information. Let's say node A carries the information of "how to bake a cheese cake" and node B carries the same information then, either node A or node B would be eliminate or would not be existed within the networks. Furthermore, if node A is survived, node A can flow the information to different nodes and "produsers" could change the information to "how to bake a marble cheese cake" and node carries different information again. Thus, nodes carry different information and they flows at the same time.

In conclusion, the environment of cyberspace is full of many nodes, which carry different information then, these information flows to other nodes for information transferring or sharing. Nodes are not stand alone; they need flows to pass the information to other nodes. We can imagine the environment like snail mailing system. We want to send one letter (information) from Subang Jaya to Port Dickson, we have to post the letter to the district post office (node 1) then, the letter needs to be passed to Selangor state post office (node 2) for sorting. After that, it will be delivered to the destination's state post office, Seremban (node 3) and at the end it arrives at Port Dickson, the district post office (node 4). The process of delivery is flow and all the post offices are nodes. That is how information flows within the networks.