Figure 7. Context with propositions
Assignment
Information
object
Warrant
Actor
Domain
Result
Functionality
Technology
Because of all the steps; parking, preparing the financial transaction, filling the
tank and paying and getting a receipt, one could say this is a process. The other
actors, the supplier, the oil company and the bank were not present in person, but
they communicated through the ticket machine, the pump, and the display of the
pump. The system of the gas station included the functionality to perform a
financial transaction, to supply the necessary process information and of course the
fuel. Display and receipt are examples of information objects. The pump and the
ticket machine where both part of technology. Not visible, but certainly present was
the technology of sending and receiving messages between the pump, the ticket
machine and the systems of the supplier and the bank. As a client, I believed the
whole transaction was trustworthy.
rienk jonker a perfect match? connecting partners in the labyrinth of information
The information objects
Document
This part describes in what way information is recorded, structured and
(sometimes) fixated. As a matter of fact, the word document can be used as a
synonym for the concept information object. According to InterPares, a document
is an indivisible unit of information constituted by a message affixed to a medium
(recorded) in a stable syntactic manner. A document has a fixed form and stable
content (Duranti Preston, 2008). A document can be classified on the level of
document types defined by its use or function e.g. evidential, informational,
transactional.
A user experiences a document in the manner that this document is presented. It is a
simple and unobtrusive object for the user. He sees it on his screen, he takes it out of
the printer and holds the paper in his hands. What the user will probably not realise
is that each document, both paper and digital, exists as an object of different ways of
materialisation, techniques and dimensions or layers. For the user, a text and/or
image in a document and the data carrier seem to be an inseparable unit, but they
are not. What he does not realise is that a display on a fuel pump (or other devices)
is in a broad sense also an information object i.e. document. In a sense he must be
aware that information and carrier are detached. Knowing this he can focus on what
is important: the information. The carriers are just the means to convey the
messages.
A paper document can be copied to a digital image (scan), which still appears to be
the same on the screen but is of a completely different order technically. For the user
the text remains the same. The digitised text can be found via text recognition
(OCR) and made digital as text and therefore usable for different operations. For
example, by copying the recognised text to other documents.
This is possible because in fact, each document is composed of five characteristic
elements. These elements are, (1) content, (2) structure, (3) context, (4) behaviour
and (5) technology.
These five main elements are meant to hold information and convey a message.
The intention of a message always depends on the context that is used within the
object and the typology of the document. This typology itself is determined by the
archives in liquid times
for
performed by
performed in
part of
delivers
creates
to process
recorded in
recorded in
delivers
exists by using
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Element
Meaning
1) Content
The message/information to be conveyed by the object.
2) Structure
The form of the message/information.
3) Context
The setting in which the object has a function and which is implicitly and
or explicitly present in the information object only.
This context is therefore the result of the content and structure, and partly also the
behaviour and technique.
4) Behaviour
Functionalities that must be executed to convey the message/information.
5) Technology
The tools needed to sustain the functionality and the information object and also
to maintain and preserve the object.
It consists of three main layers.
Table 2. Information object - Elements
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