Introduction: Rolf Landauer declared in 1991 that "information is physical". Since then, information has come to be seen by many physicists as a fundamental component of the physical world; indeed by some as the physical component. This idea is now gaining currency in popular science communication. However, it is often far from clear…

Discusses the minimum average codeword length coding under the constraint that the codewords are monotonically nondecreasing in length. Bounds on the average length of an optimal monotonic code are derived, and sufficient conditions are given such that algorithms for optimal alphabetic codes can be used to find the optimal monotonic code. (six…

Discusses the adaptive compression of computer files of numerical data whose statistical properties are not given in advance. A new lossless coding method for this purpose, which utilizes Adelson-Velskii and Landis (AVL) trees, is proposed. The method is effective to any word length. Its application to the lossless compression of gray-scale images…

Understanding of the communications process centers generally around the conduct of the process rather than the content, and particularly the establishment of communication channels. The communications model has three generally agreed upon components: source, channel, and destination. Destination may include questions about the nature of things,…

Marshall McLuhan's thesis that the "media is the message" can be criticized from two perspectives: that communication can be divided into content and media, and that media is the element that most affects human consciousness. The weight of numerous illustrations are to the contrary. Furthermore, the assertion is so broad that there is no…

Theory-building in any field of inquiry is essential and utilitarian. This paper argues two points: that a concern for theory could redirect some of our typical approaches to rhetorical criticism; and that generic criticism must, by its nature, fully respond to this call for theory-building. Four important areas of rhetorical criticism are…

For most of the 20th century, Roman Jakobson's name will have been synonymous with the definition of communication as a human science, i.e., communicology. Jakobson is the modern source of most of what communication scholars theorize about and practice as human communication, and he will be the source of how communication scholars shall come to…

Postwar librarians have sacrificed the humanistic basis of librarianship and regard the use of science in librarianship as a settled issue. American librarianship is currently dominated by the physical thinking of scientific systems theory, which includes Bertalanffy's general system theory, Wiener's cybernetics, and the Hartley-Shannon theory of…

This paper asks in turn: (1) What is phenomenology? (2) What is a phenomenology of communication? and (3) What is a phenomenology of human communication? The progressive application of the three questions represents an explicit use of the phenomenological method, involving description, reduction and interpretation. The phenomenological reduction…

This essay distinguishes several different kinds of measures of information from each other, noting that differences between them show that our pretheoretical concept of information is multiply ambiguous. Incremental information, conditional information, transmitted information, expected information, and deductive information are discussed. Ten…

Examines two models to study the consequences for coding efficiency of sample fluctuations, a specific type of error in the statistics on which data compression codes are based. The possibility that random fluctuation can be exploited for data compression is discussed. (six references) (KRN)

This paper identifies the need for a new theory of information and develops a mathematical model which distinguishes between: (1) data, as directly observable facts; (2) information, as structured collections of data; and (3) knowledge, as methods of using information. The model is based on the ideas of the binary relational model and uses the…

Addressing the problem of protecting confidential information and data stored in computer databases from access by unauthorized parties, this paper details coding schemes which present such astronomical work factors to potential code breakers that security breaches are hopeless in any practical sense. Two procedures which can be used to encode for…

If information science is to be considered a "science" in the true sense of the word, a set of general concepts and analytical expressions must be developed. Fundamental to this development is a rigorous and quantifiable measure of information. In previous papers a general framework, called a generalized information system, is suggested…

Noting that the introduction of Videotex into the United States might precipitate significant public policy choices, this paper argues for a systematic assessment of the new technology and presents a methodological framework for dealing with its social impact. It then discusses 12 preliminary public policy concerns: (1) economic barriers to entry,…