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Informatics: a Dynamic Discipline with Impact on All Spheres of Human Activity

Informatics: a Dynamic Discipline with Impact on All Spheres of Human Activity

Studies. ISSN 2320 – 530X. Vol. 3, Issue 2 First Quarterly Issue. April – June, 2016. P 38-47

Informatics: A Dynamic Discipline with Impact on all Spheres of Human Activity

Ramina Mukundan

Abstract The article on ‘informatics’ in Wikipedia gives only a list of subjects that form part of informatics and has no details as of now. The present article attempts to define informatics, survey the subject areas that informatics as a subject encompasses, the role and position of the subjects that integrates into the discipline of informatics, and the emerging fields of specialization under informatics. It is intended to provide an outline of the areas that the journal - Informatics Studies - can cover as well as to give an idea to those who deal with knowledge and management about the rapidly expanding borderlines of this emerging discipline which remains so close to their profession.

Introduction or some processes or techniques related to it. Information being the important Man has always been attempting to unravel constituent of progress, techniques and the mysteries of nature. His desire to technologies for its management was also experiment and explore, communicate and present in our society from the dawn of conquer has motivated him to discover and civilization. The techniques and approaches invent. As a consequence, his attitude to life of information management are well tried and his standards of living have been and have evolved over centuries. Both the constantly changing, indirectly causing socio- primitive man who made pictures on his cave economic changes. Science and Technology wall and our colleague who burn pits using slowly started giving a new dimension to laser in the spiral path of silver disks have his living style and life process. The last the same objective of recording and storing century and in particular, the last few decades knowledge for the benefit of the society; the ushered in new discoveries. The pace of future generations. Along with the advancement was very fast which necessitated advancement of technology spectacular conservation and management of changes have occurred in the medium for knowledge already generated, its continuous storing and distributing knowledge. It updating, facilitating its dissemination, access changed from the static cave wall and through and processing. movable Sumerian Stone tablets and Indus So knowledge and information remained the valley seals, metal sheets, leather, dried leaves, most important constituent that enabled papyrus, cloth, audio and video tapes, micro progress since the origin of man. The word fiche and the like to the present UFO disk ‘informatics’ is mnemonic to information with a shape very similar to the Sumerian

38 Informatics Studies 3(2), April - June 2016 stone tablet but having unlimited space to Usage has since modified the definition in record knowledge. With computers in the three ways. First, the restriction to scientific market, his thought process, decision- information is removed, as in Sanskrit making and skills got updated. The field of informatics or legal informatics. Second, since ‘’ saw newer most information is now digitally stored, horizons and his pursuits and achievements computation is now central to informatics. in this direction were amazing. Third, the representation, processing and of information are added Definition and Nature of Informatics as objects of investigation, since they have In 1957 the German computer scientist Karl been recognized as fundamental to any Steinbuch coined the word Informatik from scientific account of information. Taking information + -ics; possibly influenced by information as the central focus of study, automation and automatic to mean then distinguishes informatics, which ‘Informatics: Automatic Information includes study of biological, social and Processing’. The term was coined as a linguistic mechanisms of information combination of ‘information’ and processing, from , where ‘automatic’ to describe the science of digital computation plays a distinguished automating information interactions. The central role. Similarly, in the study of morphology-informat-ion + -ics - uses ‘the representation and communication, accepted form for names of sciences, as informatics is indifferent to the substrate conics, linguistics, optics, or matters of that carries information. For example, it practice, as , politics, tactics’, and encompasses the study of communication so, linguistically, the meaning extends easily using gesture, speech and language, as well to encompass both the science of as digital and networking. information and the practice of information The University of Edinburgh in 1994 processing. introduced a broad interpretation of This new term was adopted across Western informatics, as ‘the study of the structure, Europe, and, except in English, developed a , behaviour, and interactions of meaning roughly translated by the English natural and artificial computational systems,’ ‘computer science’, or ‘computing science’. in 1994. Wikitionary defines informatics as ‘ Scientists from the field advocated the a branch of , and of Russian term ‘informatika’ (1966), and the computer science, that focuses on the study English ‘informatics’ (1967), as names for of , particularly in the theory of scientific information, and respect to systems integration and human argued for a broader meaning, including interactions with machine and data’. study of the use of Information Technology Based on the above, definition of informatics in various communities (for example, can be refined as ‘a discipline of science: that scientific) and of the interaction of focuses on the study of access, collection, technology and human organizational organization, processing, conservation, structures. retrieval and dissemination of information, Informatics came to be accepted as a that investigates the structure and discipline of science, which investigates the of information, its computer based structure, and properties (not specific content) processing, human interaction with machine of scientific information, as well as the data, regularities of information activity as regularities of scientific information activity, well as the theory, history and methodologies its theory, history, methodology and concerned. organization.

Informatics Studies 3(2), April - June 2016 39 Contributing Disciplines of current epoch of human history called the Informatics ‘Information Age’ and a driver of the Information Revolution, seen as the third The main aspect of informatics is to study major leap in human technological progress the nature of information in all its forms, after the Industrial Revolution and the which leads to the classification, organization, Agricultural Revolution. Its contributions representation, storage, retrieval, that are highly relevant to Informatics are understanding and use of information. ‘digital revolution’ which includes the current Therefore, developing information Information Age and the Internet. Major processing models of biological, physical, areas of computer science listed in Wikipedia economic and social aspects of the world are the following: would provide us with a better understanding of some situations or Theoretical computer science: Theory of phenomena, giving us the power to solve computation, information and coding problems that could not be solved before. theory, algorithms and data structures, programming language theory, and formal Different modes of formation of subject methods. can be identified in the evolution of informatics. Informatics and its various sub Applied computer science: Artificial disciplines have developed through the , computer architecture and mode of fusion in which two or more engineering, computer graphics and subjects are fused in such a way that each of visualization, computer security and them loses its individuality to form a cryptography, computational science, compound subject, which is the fused main computer networks, concurrent, parallel and subject. Examples are Biochemistry, Bio distributed systems, and informatics, and . And , software engineering through distillation mode Informatics has Information Science or Information evolved as a main subject, out of the Studies experiences in the appearance and action in diverse compound subjects going with most Information Science is an interdisciplinary basic subjects or occasionally even with host field primarily concerned with the analysis, compound subjects. collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval, and dissemination Informatics is a subject, which consists of of information. Practitioners within the field various aspects of computer science, study the application and usage of information science, information technology, knowledge in organizations, along with the knowledge management, statistics, interaction between people, organizations philosophy, linguistics, ontology and other and any existing information systems, with disciplines concerned with knowledge/ the aim of creating, replacing, improving, or information management. understanding information systems. Computer Science Information science cannot be considered as a branch of computer science. It is actually a Computer science is the study of complex broad, interdisciplinary field, incorporating systems, information and computation not only aspects of computer science, but using applied mathematics, electrical often diverse fields such as archival engineering and Software engineering science, , commerce, techniques. Computer science has made a communications, , , number of fundamental contributions to museology, management, mathematics, science and society - in fact, along with philosophy, public policy, and the social electronics, it is a founding science of the

40 Informatics Studies 3(2), April - June 2016 sciences. ‘Information science can be defined complex tasks, hardware and software in a as a discipline that investigates the properties sense, became information managers also. and behaviour of information, the forces In short, information management entails governing the flow of information, and the acquiring, organizing, securing, retrieving, and means of processing information for maintaining information. It is closely related optimum accessibility and usability’. to and overlapping with the practice of data The following are some of areas which management. information science investigate and develop. Knowledge Management (KM) Information Architecture Knowledge management comprises a range Information Architecture (IA) is the art and of strategies and practices used in an science of organizing and labelling websites, organization to identify, create, represent, intranets, online communities and software distribute, and enable adoption of insights to support usability. It is an emerging and experiences. Such insights and discipline and community of practice focused experiences comprise knowledge, either on bringing together principles of design embodied in individuals or embedded in and architecture to the digital landscape. organizations as processes or practices. Typically it involves a model or of Many large companies and non-profit information, which is used and applied to organizations have resources dedicated to activities that require explicit details of internal KM efforts, often as a part of their complex information systems. These business strategy, information technology, activities include library systems and or human resource management development, web sites, networks and departments. Knowledge management search mechanisms. efforts typically focus on organizational Information Management objectives such as improved performance, competitive advantage, innovation, the Information Management (IM) is the sharing of lessons learned, integration and collection and management of information continuous improvement of the from one or more sources and the organization. KM efforts overlap with distribution of that information to one or organizational , and may be more audiences. This sometimes involves distinguished from that by a greater focus those who have a stake in, or a right to that on the management of knowledge as a information. Management means the strategic asset and a focus on encouraging organization of and control over the the sharing of knowledge. It is seen as an structure, processing and delivery of enabler of organisational learning and a more information. Earlier this was largely limited concrete mechanism than the previous to files, file maintenance, and the life cycle abstract research. management of paper-based files, other media and records. With the proliferation Data Warehousing of information technology the job of Data warehousing is concerned with information management took on a new developing and maintaining subject oriented light, and also began to include the field of integrated non volatile, time variant, granular data maintenance. Information storage collection of data related to an organization shifted to electronic means, became more and in support of the organization. Present more complex and difficult. When developments in the area are electronic data information was disseminated across interchange (EDI), virtual systems and value computer networks and by other electronic added network (VAN) means, network managers, who look after

Informatics Studies 3(2), April - June 2016 41 Information seeking is related to, but different from, information retrieval (IR). Data mining is analysing massive quantum Much library and information science (LIS) of data already warehoused to observe research has focused on the information- patterns, which may assist in decision seeking practices of practitioners within making. It helps in extracting meaningful new various fields of professional work. Studies patterns that cannot be found by merely have been carried out into the information- querying or processing data or metadata in a seeking behaviour of librarians, academics, data warehouse. Data mining is also closely medical professionals, engineers, and connected to Knowledge Discovery process, others. which comprises cleansing, enrichment, transformation or encoding, discovery and Information Access presentation of the discovered information. Information access is an area of research at Information Retrieval the intersection of informatics, information science, information security, language Information retrieval (IR) is the activity of technology, computer science, and library obtaining information resources relevant to science. The objective of the various research an information need from a collection of efforts in information access is to simplify information resources. Searches can be based and make effective for human users to access on metadata or on full-text indexing. An and further process large and unwieldy information retrieval process begins when a amounts of data and information. user enters a query into the system. Queries Technologies applicable to the general area are formal statements of information needs, are e.g. information retrieval, text mining, for example search strings in web search machine translation, and text . engines. In information retrieval a query does In discussions on information policy, not uniquely identify a single object in the information access is concerned with collection. Instead, several objects may match ensuring free and open access to information. the query, perhaps with different degrees of Information access covers many issues 12 relevancy. An object is an entity that is represented by information in a database. open source, open access, privacy, and User queries are matched against the database security. information. Depending on the application Information Society the data objects may be, for example, text documents, images, audio, maps or An information society is a society where the videos. Often the documents themselves are creation, distribution, diffusion, use, not kept or stored directly in the IR system, integration and manipulation of but are instead represented in the system by information are a significant economic, document surrogates or metadata. Most IR political, and cultural activity. The aim of an systems compute a numeric score on how information society is to gain competitive well each object in the database match the advantage internationally, through using IT query, and rank the objects according to this in a creative and productive way. The value. The top ranking objects are then shown knowledge economy is its economic to the user. The process may then be iterated counterpart, whereby wealth is created if the user wishes to refine the query. through the economic exploitation of understanding. People who have the means Information Seeking to partake in this form of society are Information seeking is the process or activity sometimes called digital citizens. Basically, an of attempting to obtain information in information society is the means of getting both human and technological contexts. information from one place to another. As

42 Informatics Studies 3(2), April - June 2016 technology has become more advanced over certain exclusive rights to a variety of time so too has the way we have adapted in intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and sharing information with each other. artistic works; discoveries and inventions; Information society theory discusses the role and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. of information and information technology Common types of intellectual rights in society and the questions on key include copyright, trademarks, patents, shall be used for characterizing contemporary industrial design rights and in some society, and how to define such concepts. It jurisdictions trade secrets. has become a specific branch of Information Technology (IT) contemporary sociology. Information technology (IT) is the Philosophy of Information application of computers and Philosophy of Information (PI) studies equipment to store, conceptual issues arising at the intersection retrieve, transmit and manipulate data, often of computer science, Information in the context of a business or other technology, and philosophy. It includes the enterprise. But now it is closely tied up with investigation of the conceptual nature and knowledge and information management. basic principles of information, including its It is the area of managing technology and dynamics, utilisation and sciences, as well as spans wide variety of areas that include but the elaboration and application of are not limited to things such as processes, information - theoretic and computational computer software and hardware, methodologies to its philosophical information systems, programming problems. The philosophy of information languages, and data constructs. In short, (PI) has evolved from the philosophy of anything that renders data, information or , logic of information, perceived knowledge in any visual format cybernetics, social theory, ethics and the study whatsoever, via any multimedia distribution of language and information. Recent creative mechanism, is considered part of the advances and efforts in informatics, such as domain space known as information semantic web, ontology engineering, technology (IT). knowledge engineering, and modern artificial Communications Technology intelligence provide fertile notions, new and evolving subject matters, methodologies, It is the principles involved in how computer and models for philosophical inquiry. While systems communicate with each other and the informatics and computer science brings new standards, protocols, and conventions that opportunities and challenges to traditional determine how such systems communicate philosophical studies, and changes the ways and MISSING mechanisms. This generally philosophers understand foundational involves data transfer from one computer to concepts in philosophy, further major another through a telephone, physical cable, progress in computer science would only be microwave relay or satellite link or a feasible when philosophy provides sound combination of them. Connection of foundations for areas such as bio computers is generally through the linking informatics, software engineering, of workstations by cables in a network, knowledge engineering, and ontology. through the public telephone service, the use of leased line or wireless. Intellectual Property (IP) Information and Communications Intellectual property (IP) is a legal concept, Technology which refers to creations of the mind for which exclusive rights are recognized. Under Information and Communications intellectual property law, owners are granted Technology usually called ICT is the term

Informatics Studies 3(2), April - June 2016 43 that encompasses all forms of technology a major tool for knowledge management it used for creation, acquisition, processing, is now very closely tied to research on the storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, standardization of script according to textual and numerical information by Unicode and various aspects of languages. microelectronics-based combination of Language technology is often called human computing and telecommunications. It is language technology (HLT) or natural often used as an extended synonym for language processing (NLP) and consists of information technology (IT) but is usually a computational linguistics (CL) and speech more general term that stresses the role of technology as its core but includes also many unified communications and the integration application-oriented aspects related to them. of telecommunications (telephone lines and Language technology is closely connected to wireless signals), intelligent knowledge computer science and general linguistics. In management systems and audio-visual machine learning, pattern recognition is the systems in modern information technology. assignment of some sort of output value ICT consists of all technical means used to (or label) to a given input value (or instance), handle information and aid communication, according to some specific . An including computer and network hardware, example of pattern recognition is communication middleware as well as classification, which attempts to assign each necessary software. input value to one of a given set of classes (for example, determine whether a given Ontology email is ‘spam’ or ‘non-spam’). The language In computer science and information science, technology will also cover standards like ontology formally represents knowledge as Unicode. Unicode is a character coding system a set of concepts within a domain, and the designed to support worldwide interchange, relationships between pairs of concepts. It processing and display of the written texts can be used to model a domain and support of the diverse languages. It supports most reasoning about entities. In theory, ontology of the ancient languages as well as scripts is a ‘formal, explicit specification of a shared used in different stages of the development conceptualisation’. Ontology renders shared of classical languages. vocabulary and taxonomy, which models a Knowledge Organization domain with the definition of objects and/ or concepts and their properties and The term knowledge organization (KO) (or relations. Ontologies are the structural ‘organization of knowledge’, ‘organization frameworks for organizing information and of information’ or ‘information are used in artificial intelligence, the Semantic organization’) designates a field of study Web, systems engineering, software related to library and information science engineering, biomedical informatics, library (LIS). In this meaning, KO is about activities science, enterprise book marking, and such as document description, indexing and information architecture as a form of classification performed in libraries, knowledge representation about the word databases, archives etc. These activities are or some part of it. The creation of domain done by librarians, archivists, and subject ontology is also fundamental to the specialists as well as by computer algorithms. definition and use of an enterprise KO as a field of study is concerned with the architecture framework. nature and quality of such knowledge organizing processes (KOP) as well as the Language Technology knowledge organizing systems (KOS) used Informatics has a significant impact on to organize documents, document linguistics, and vice versa. Informatics being representations and concepts.

44 Informatics Studies 3(2), April - June 2016 Bibliometric/Informetric Studies Library Science Bibliometrics is a set of methods to Library science and Information Studies are quantitatively analyze scientific and two closely related and often intersecting technological literature. Alan Pritchard disciplines that deal primarily with the defined the term as ‘the application of organization and retrieval of information. mathematics and statistical methods to Library Science is an interdisciplinary social books and other media of communication’. science incorporating the humanities, law and Citation analysis and content analysis are applied science and studying topics related commonly used bibliometric methods. to libraries; the collection, organization and While bibliometric methods are most often dissemination of information resources; used in the field of library and information and the political economy of information. science, bibliometrics have wide applications Library science has also historically included in other areas. In fact, many research fields archival science, although a conceptual use bibliometric methods to explore the distinction between libraries and archives has impact of their field, the impact of a set of evolved over time. researchers, or the impact of a particular paper. Bibliometrics are now used in Amongst the varied topics of study that fall quantitative research assessment exercises of within library science: how information academic output, which is starting to threaten resources are organized to serve the needs practice-based research. Advanced countries of select user groups; how people interact are considering using bibliometrics as a with classification systems and technology; possible auxiliary tool in its Research how information is acquired, evaluated and Excellence Framework, a process which will applied by people in and outside of libraries assess the quality of the research output of as well as cross-culturally; how people are the universities of a country and on the basis trained and educated for careers in libraries; of the assessment results, allocate research the ethics that guide library service and funding. Other bibliometrics applications organization; the legal status of libraries and include: creating thesauri; measuring term information resources, and the applied frequencies; exploring grammatical and science of computer technology used in syntactical structures of texts; measuring documentation and records management. usage by readers library science is constantly evolving, incorporating new topics like database Other related discipline is Informetrics, management, information architecture and which is the study of quantitative aspects of knowledge management. information. This includes the production, dissemination and use of all forms of Application of Informatics information, regardless of its form or origin. Informatics has found applications in many As such, informetrics encompasses the fields academic and professional areas. Some of disciplines have closely merged with • scientometrics, which studies informatics and have become its sub quantitative aspects of science; disciplines. Various sub areas/application of informatics listed by the Wikipedia are : • webometrics, which studies quantitative archival informatics, bio informatics, bio aspects of the World Wide Web; image informatics, biodiversity informatics, • cybermetrics, which is similar business informatics, , to webometrics, but broadens its , computational definition to include electronic resources informatics, development informatics, disease informatics, ecoinformatics,

Informatics Studies 3(2), April - June 2016 45 informatics, engineering rights, skills, and training in concerned areas informatics, environmental informatics, as well as interdisciplinary and international evolutionary informatics, , perspectives on these issues. geo informatics, health informatics, Ranganathan has remarked that universe of consumer health informatics, imaging subjects is not static; it is a dynamic informatics, public health informatics, hydro continuum. Its structure is therefore ever informatics, irrigation informatics, changing. It is potentially infinite; between laboratory informatics, legal informatics, any two points an indefinite number of new materials informatics, medical informatics, points may come up. And knowledge being music informatics, computational linguistics, multidimensional, the interconnections of Sanskrit informatics, neuro informatics, ideas spread out in many directions, and pervasive informatics, , usually a subject is a synthesis of such multi- technical informatics, translational research connected and many directional ideas. As informatics etc. informatics and computers are influencing Dynamic Continuum each and every sphere of activity numerous new subjects like Sanskrit informatics, music Present research in Knowledge Management informatics, etc will go on emerging by as well as information, library and archival dissection, denudation, lamination, sciences mainly concentrate on traditional distillation, partial comprehension and systems and procedures and their bundling of subjects. So all the areas specified automation. The journal Informatics above as well as newly emerging areas related Studies (IS) states its objective as ‘to to informatics can be the subjects dealt by promote research on technologies that can Informatics Studies. transfer existing knowledge resources from traditional systems to future proof systems The sages of and teachers of Red for the networked society as well as extension Indian tribes of South America and many of access to it in an equitable way, which has ancient cultures have emphasized the become essential to keep research in the field inherent, though hidden unity of the technologically viable and relevant to society’. phenomenal world. This mystic experience had occurred also to Francis Thomson who The subjects it specified as its areas of concern states in his Mistress Vision that: are those coming under knowledge management, information science, library All things by immortal power science, and archival sciences which may Near or far, hiddenly, to each other linked are include new methods for the creation, organization, management, dissemination That thou canst not stir a flower and exchange of information; scholarly Without troubling a star. communication, open access, emerging modes and genres of publication, policy In the intellectual recorded universe of issues like publishing/deposit mandates, knowledge, this phenomenon of impact of governmental or institutional inextricable interrelation is denoted by the policy, institutional and discipline-specific term ‘Ekavakyata’. It emphasises that repositories, digital curation, special packages, whatever the atomising mind might do, no language technologies, search and subject can be developed without its calling information retrieval mechanisms, world for some development in every other subject wide web, knowledge warehousing, sooner or later; in other words, the universe knowledge mining, standards, information of knowledge is a continuum. The present infrastructures, resource sharing, organized research in series is producing a information economics, intellectual property continuous cascade of new micro-thoughts,

46 Informatics Studies 3(2), April - June 2016 each stimulating another in succession in Ellis, D., Allen, D. and Wilson, T (1999). every region of knowledge. The cascade Information science and information systems: makes the universe of knowledge a dynamic Conjunct subjects disjunct disciplines. continuum. Retrieved: May 25, 2013. http://www.cais- acsi.ca/ proceedings/ 2000/ References monarch_2000.pdf ) Arvidson, F and Flycht-Eriksson, A. (2012). Gopinath, MA and Seetharaman, S (1975). Ontologies. Retrieved: May 25, 2013. http:// Interdisciplinary subjects and their www.ida.liu.se/ ~janma/SemWeb/ Slides/ classification. Third International Study ontologies1.pdf. Conference on Classification Research. Bombay. Bavadkar Et al (1967). Role of development Luciano Floridi (2002). What is the of universe of subjects and the design of Philosophy of Information?. Metaphilosophy. scheme of classification. DRTC Annual 33(1-2). Seminar. Bangalore: DRTC. Raman Nair, R and Sulochana Devi, L Beynon-Davies P. (2002). Information (2011). Sanskrit Informatics. Trivandrum: Systems: An introduction to informatics in CIRD: 2011. organisations. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave. Ranaganathan, SR (1967). Prolegomena to Blackwell, K G (1968). Classification and Library Classification. Bombay, Asia. information retrieval. Bombay: Asia. Ranganathan, S R (1967). Colon Borko, H. (1968). Information Science: What Classification. Bangalore, SRELIS. is it? American Documentation, 19(1). Vickery, B. C (1973). Information Systems. Buckland, Michael (2011). What kind of London: Butterworth. science can information science be? Journal of Wikipedia (2013). Retrieved: May 25, 2013. the American Society for Information Science and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Technology. Information_science Day, Ronald (2001). Modern invention of Wikipedia (2013). Retrieved: May 25, 2013. information. Carbondale: Southern Illinois http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal: University Press. Library_and_information_science

FORM IV Statement About Ownership and Other Particulars About Informatics Studies 1. Place of Gayathri, Kudappnakunnu P.O, Publication : Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala – 695043, India 2. Periodicity of its Publication : QUARTERLY 3. Printer’s Name : Dr. R. Raman Nair Nationality : Indian Address : Gayathri, Kudappnakunnu P.O, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala - 695043, India 4. Publisher’s Name : Dr. R. Raman Nair Nationality : Indian Address : Gayathri, Kudappnakunnu P.O, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala - 695043, India 5 Editor’s Name. : Dr. R. Raman Nair Nationality : Indian Address : Gayathri, Kudappnakunnu P.O, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala - 695043 6 Name and address of the individuals who own the newspaper and partners or shareholders holding more than one per cent of the total capita. Dr. R. Raman Nair, Gayathri, Kudappnakunnu P.O, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala - 695043, India I, Dr. R. Raman Nair hereby declare that the particulars given above are true to the best of my knowledge and belief. Date; 01.04.2015 Sd/- (Dr.R. Raman Nair) Publisher.

Informatics Studies 3(2), April - June 2016 47 Informatics Studies. ISSN 2320 – 530X. Vol. 3, Issue 2 First Quarterly Issue. April – June, 2016. P 60-61

Contributors

Bino Jose: is a gold medallist for MLISc of and Tanzania. The challenges surrounding Guru Ghasidas University in Bilaspur, how knowledge is produced, shared, and obtained PhD from Berhampur University used, led him to focus on knowledge in Orissa, started career teaching at Mahatma mobilisation at Institute of Development Gandhi Chitrakoot Gramoday University in Studies, UK where he currently leads a Madhya Pradesh, later moving to Allahabad Knowledge Mobilisation and Impact unit Agricultural University and established the that works globally to strengthen use of Dept of Information Science there, worked evidence in policy and practice, and to with JIIT and Shiv Nadar University in understand the impact that knowledge Noida, GLAITM in Mathura, Wipro regimes and knowledge work have on Technologies in Bangalore, and Asia Pacific development. Institute of Management in Delhi. Is Jon Gregson, has tutored and jointly presently with XLRI Jamshadpur. Areas of authored the SOAS postgraduate distance interest include Library Automation, User learning course on ‘Managing Knowledge Studies, IPR and . and Communication for Development’ and previously tutored their courses on ‘ICTs for Jasimudeen S: Completed Post Graduation Development (ICT4D)’ and ‘NGO in Library and Information Science from Management’. Until 2014 he headed up the University of Kerala with First Rank, has Knowledge Services Department at Institute qualifications in radiological technology, of , UK and was broadcasting, journalism and computer involved in a wide range of Knowledge applications. Worked with Kerala Management and ICT4D capacity Government as Medical Imaging/ development projects in Africa and Asia Radiotherapy Technologist, as Professional including the DFID funded ‘Mobilising Assistant at Digitization/ICT Lab in Knowledge for Development’ and ‘Global Mahatma Gandhi University, was team Open Knowledge Hub’ projects for which member of mgutheses.org project and has he was Programme Director. Prior to that to his credit numerous published papers he was ‘Director of Global Networks and and seminar presentations, is a blogger and Communities’ for the University of London peer reviewer for journals. Is presently International Academy. Librarian at St.Stephens College, Kottayam Nason Bimbe is a software engineer and is doing research for PhD on Health currently employed as Information Systems Literacy Programmes. Manager at Institute of Development John Brownlee has worked for over a decade Studies, UK with over 15 years’ experience on a range of development programmes on in ICT with specialisation in web, governance, political participation, and civil information and knowledge management. society strengthening in Latin America, Has also worked at Betenoir, Tech-Connect , Indonesia, Philippines, India, Limited, Publishing Power Limited, Nepal, Zambia, Rwanda, Botswana, Nigeria, American Express Limited, and Ministry of

60 Informatics Studies 3(2), April - June 2016 Finance, Government of Zambia. In his Networking. Has served at Cochin University current role, he is responsible for all ICT of Science and Technology, Cochin Refineries Management and support for British Library School, Cambridge English School in for Development Studies, and works on Kuwait and Gulf University of Science and projects in Africa on Open Technology. Has worked with ILS like Access, digital repositories and FOSS for KOHA, DSpace, Horizon, Follette System, libraries since 2011. Alice for windows and Libsys, Has developed web blogs and resources for Rachel Playforth is a librarian and children, and effectively incorporated Web 2.0 information specialist with 15 years in library websites. combined experience in managing learning Tomy Varghese: has post graduation in resources in higher education, cataloguing, Botany and Library and Information Science. and managing digital repositories at Institute Is a biotechnologist with specialization in of Development Studies, UK. She is a poet, plant tissue culture and has developed reviewer and freelance editor and is a frequent effective protocols and practices on somatic contributor of papers, articles, blogs, and embryogenic micro-propagation of Date conference presentations on a range of Palms (Phoenix dactylifera spp). Has served for information and library science topics from decades as librarian in engineering and Open Access advocacy and practice through technology colleges and is presently Librarian improving visibility and access to research at Muthoot Institute of Technology and from Southern countries. She is currently Science, Cochin, Kerala. Is also a mofussil Assistant Librarian at Brighton and Sussex reporter for Mathrubhumi Daily - the second University Hospitals NHS Trust, UK. most circulated Malaylam newspaper. Has published several stories and news features Ramina Mukundan: has Masters in Library and is an active blogger, with 1000+ and Information science, and Postgraduate followers. Diploma in Library Automation and

Informatics Studies: Author Guidelines

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