Armando Malheiro da Silva

Documentation / Information and Their Paradigms: Characterization and Importance in Research, Education, and Professional Practice

Since 2004 the authors began to design a proposal of paradigms for the documentation/information field, which starts from a wide meaning for the concept and it is based on the identification of the force of a custodial, cultural, historicist/humanist and technicist paradigm, that shaped the professional activity, the education and the public policies of archival, librarian and museologist universe, since 19th century until the middle of 20th century. It also consists in pointing out the emergence of a new paradigm, postcustodial, informational and scientific, generated by the deep changes in course at world level, that are summarized in strong but too much generic expressions as Information Era or Globalization. In this paper it is made the characterization of the two paradigms proposed, referring the factors that were in their origin and the contexts of their appearance, identifying their dominant features and showing their operative importance for education, research and professional practice.

Information Science and Philosophy of Information: Approaches and Differences

In this text we explore, in a brief and systematic way, the epistemological and theoretical groundings of Information Science (IS), understood as a transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary field, which is being developed and taught at the University of Porto over the last decade. IS’s object of study – information – is also characterized, as well as its non-symmetrical, yet complementary and elementary relationship with communication. From that basis, the points of convergence and divergence with Philosophy of Information, as it is conceived and discussed by Luciano Floridi, are put in debate.

Lessons on Information Literacy Research: A Portuguese Experience

From 2007 to 2010 we conducted a project titled Information Literacy in the European Higher Education Area: Study of Information Skills in Portugal (eLit.pt) that was funded by the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation and coordinated by the University of Porto. The aim of the project was to understand how the university students face the information competences required by the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Another aim was to understand the connection between information literacy and information behavior. Thus, we designed a theoretical model (e-lit model) which was the base for planning a survey. The study was performed on a national scale, allowing to compare regions with different levels of development. The sample, approximately 2000 students from high school and university, allowed comparing their informational competences. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. In this paper we present our experience emphasizing the importance of developing effective methods for IL research.

Information Science and Cognitive Psychology: A Theoretical Approach

Information, as a human and social phenomenon, is the object of study of an emergent scientific field named Information Science (IS), which we put forward as unitary and transdisciplinary and open to a rich interdisciplinarity with other fields of knowledge. In face of the new reality, baptized the ‘Information Society’, and the emergence of a new paradigm, that we name “post-custodial, scientific and informational”, as opposed to the previous one, “historicist, custodial and technicist”, it is urgent to consolidate the theoretical and methodological foundations of IS in order to develop research, both pure and applied, and to contribute to a definition of its boundaries as a scientific area, in the scope of Social Sciences. Starting from an operative definition of Information, this paper aims to discuss the cognitive and emotional dimension of the info-communicational phenomenon and, for that, it is crucial to start a profound and hard dialogue with Cognitive Sciences. The label of ‘cognitivist’ given, in IS literature, to some authors like Bertram Brookes, because of the emphasis he put on the passage from a state of knowledge to a new state through an addition of knowledge coming from an increase of information, sounds quite equivocal, because knowledge and cognition are not synonymous and cognitive and emotional activity is not reducible to formalities. It is necessary to compare concepts and to understand the neuropsychological roots of the production, the organization and the info-communicational behaviour, so the contribution of Neurosciences and Cognitive Sciences, namely Cognitive Psychology, is indispensable.

The Epistemological Maturity of Information Science and the Debate Around Paradigms

Rafael Capurro, in a paper entitled Epistemologia e Ciencia da Informacao (2003), presented at the V ENANCIB – Encontro Nacional de Pesquisa em Pos-Graduacao em Ciencia da Informacao (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) put forward an innovative proposal for information science, which defended the existence of four paradigms and condensed and illustrated the evolution of documentation/information science by Paul Otlet This contribution inspired the authors of this text—who had already formulated an initial approach that established three phases (syncretic, custodial and post-custodial), while pursuing a different path and situated in the Portuguese context, to observe two paradigms: the custodial, historicist, patrimonial and technical (between the 18th and mid-20th century) and the post-custodial, informational and scientific (from the mid-20th century) This paper aims to establish a constructive and critical confrontation of Capurro and Izquierdo Arroyo’s proposals that are rooted in different but complementary epistemological conceptions

Exploring Psychedelic Trance and Electronic Dance Music in Modern Culture

Exploring Psychedelic Trance and Electronic Dance Music in Modern Culture investigates the expansive scope of Electronic Music Dance Culture (EMDC), the rise of Psychedelic Trance culture, and their relationship with new digital platforms. Drawing from perspectives in sociology, anthropology, psychology, aesthetics and the arts, religious studies, information technologies, multimedia communication, shamanism, and ritualism, this book analyzes the impact of new technologies on individual and collective behaviors in cyberspace.

COMPORTAMENTO INFOCOMUNICACIONAL EM CONTEXTOS DE REDES SOCIAIS ONLINE: PROPOSTA DE INVESTIGAÇÃO

O presente trabalho propoe a realizacao de uma investigacao sobre comportamento infocomunicacional em contextos de Rede Sociais Online (RSO) no âmbito da Ciencia da Informacao. As RSO tem-se destacado como ambiente infocomunicacional, confirmando as mudancas sociais potencializadas pelas redes telematicas e pelo acesso movel a conteudos, conforme indicado pelos principais teoricos da contemporaneidade. Nos estudos de usuarios em Ciencia da Informacao e necessaria uma abordagem cognitiva e social, bem como compreender a cultura que influencia os seus comportamentos. Deste modo, a proposta deste artigo e propor uma abordagem de pesquisa que auxilie a identificacao e explicacao dos comportamentos infocomunicacionais que podem ser percebidos a partir das situacoes online, guardadas ao longo do tempo, nos contextos de RSO. Esta proposta concentrou-se num estudo exploratorio e de revisao da literatura. Com esta abordagem de investigacao sera possivel o estudo de tres contextos online. A partir das informacoes coletadas destes contextos serao realizados experimentos combinando as tecnicas de analise de rede social para perceber o comportamento infocomunicacional dos atores sociais.

O Tomador de Decisão no Cluster Têxtil de Santa Catarina: subsídios para o Modelo Integrador e Sistêmico

Companies do not have tools which allow tacit knowledge employed by managers in strategic decision making to be stored and reused in order to automate strategic decisions. Thus, the objective of this work is the draft of a decision maker model from the integration of Competitive Intelligence with Information and Knowledge Management. The draft of this model aims to bring together concepts that can be applied to automate decision-making at a strategic level. As for the methods was applied a questionnaire with closed and one open question to information technology managers of large textile companies in the state of Santa Catarina (Brazil) to raise their understanding in relation to Competitive Intelligence, Information Management, Knowledge Management and Decision Making. Yet, the questionnaire aimed to survey the rules used by managers in decision-making to support the outline of the proposed decision-maker model. As a contribution this work presents a small result in the potential automation of strategic level decision-making within organizations.

SERVICE QUALITY AND E-GOVERNMENT: METHODOLOGY BASIS ANDOBJECTIVES FOR THE ANALYSIS AND APPROVAL OF REALESTATE UNDERTAKINGS- COMAPRO/INDAIATUBA

COMAPRO aims to streamline and reduce time on administrative procedures for the analysis and approval for real-estate undertakings, in Indaiatuba municipality urban areas. It is a pioneer proposal, at municipality level, which is based on and also aligned with the methodology created by Sao Paulo State Secretary for Housing (GRAPROHAB). This proposal provides, for both the undertaker and the municipality administration, the systematized orientation in respect of all the procedures that meets the complexity inherent to current laws and technical rules, in federal, state and municipality levels. The Orientation Manual, which is available on Indaiatuba Mayor Hall web site, defines and determines the assignments, scopes and responsibilities, for both the undertaker and the members of the Committee, as well as the procedures under current laws and rules, the work flows for the necessary steps, the terms and the models for the documents and forms, which also shall be followed and/or filled-in for both, and must be compiled in the administrative process until the delivery of the undertaking to the Municipality. COMAPRO, due to significant improvements in controls related to information flows and to its effective symbiosis with the organic and functional structure, reduces process lengths, shortens terms and provides higher transparency to administration, increasing quality and productivity to governmental services and integration with electronic government.