The concept of information does not have a clear definition. The concepts of information given by various sciences

Existing definitions of the concept of "information" after careful analysis are usually recognized as unsatisfactory. Most often, these definitions consider information in a relatively narrow context. Attempts to give a broader definition introduce an element of ambiguity. Therefore, it is hardly possible to formulate one exact definition of this concept.

Quite common is the view of information as a resource similar to material, labor and monetary resources. This point of view is reflected in the following definition.

Information - new information that improves the processes associated with the transformation of matter, energy and information itself.

Information is inseparable from the process of informing, therefore, it is necessary to consider the source of information and consumers of information. The role of consumers of information is outlined in such a definition.

Information - new information accepted, understood and evaluated by the end user as useful.

Information is information that expands the stock of knowledge of the end user.

There are three phases of the existence of information.

1. Assimilated information - presentation of messages in the mind of a person, superimposed on the system of his concepts and assessments.

2. Documented information - information recorded in a symbolic form on some physical medium.

3. Transmitted information - information considered at the time of transmission of information from the source to the receiver.

In the future, we will consider only documented or transmitted information. The vast majority of information is collected, transmitted and processed using signs. Signs are signals that can transmit information if there is an agreement on their semantic content between sources and receivers of information. The set of characters for which this convention exists is called the sign system. Many sign systems, of course, cannot be clearly limited, however, when processing information on electronic computers(computer) the presence of an exact list of characters is required.

The correct perception of information by the end user can be difficult due to the presence of various interferences, called information noise.

There are three types of noise and, accordingly, three information filters that block this noise.

1. Syntax filter. In a sequence of characters stored on a medium or transmitted, sections may be found for which there is no agreement to give them meaning. These sections constitute syntactic noise and are recognized by the syntactic filter. The filter contains a set of decision rules that make it possible to distinguish between correct (meaningful) and incorrect (meaningless) character sequences.

2. Semantic filter. The first aspect of semantic noise is related to the lack of novelty in the received message. In other words, the message does not expand the knowledge of the consumer. The second aspect of semantic noise is related to the passage of a false message through a syntactic filter. Assume that the message “The stock of material with code 141672 is 956 tons” is twice distorted so that instead of 7, 4 is perceived and instead of 9, 3 is perceived. The first distortion can be registered by the syntax filter only if the material with code 141642 should not be stored at the enterprise , and the syntactic filter will not notice the second distortion.

Such distortions should be detected by a semantic filter. It verifies that the monitored message matches the information already available. If the enterprise in our example has determined that the stock of any material must exceed its monthly requirement, and for material 141672 it is 720 tons, then after correcting the first error, the semantic filter will detect the second error. Relationships that are essential for the semantic filter are also established by subject sciences, for example, accounting, economic statistics, etc.

3. The pragmatic filter, generally speaking, establishes the degree of value of information for the consumer. The elements of a pragmatic assessment usually cover the completeness of information (a comprehensive reflection of the phenomenon), its timeliness, compactness (a shorter message length is possible), usability (number of potential consumers) and accessibility.

Information on the way from the source to the consumer passes through a number of converters - encoding and decoding devices, a computer that processes information according to a certain algorithm, etc. At the intermediate stages of transformation, the semantic and pragmatic properties of messages recede into the background due to the remoteness of the consumer, so the concept information is replaced by the less restrictive term “data”.

Data is a set of statements, facts and/or figures that are lexically and syntactically interconnected.

Lexical relations (often called paradigmatic) reflect permanent connections in the structure of the language, for example, gender - species, whole - part. The connections between the individual parts of the message are reflected by syntactic (syntagmatic) relations. They are variables, for example, the position of the comma in the phrase “Execution cannot be pardoned” determines one or another of its meanings. The data is indifferent to the semantic and pragmatic filter. In cases where the distinction between information and data does not need to be emphasized, they are used as synonyms.

To define the concept of "economic information", it is necessary to outline the framework of economic processes. In the most general form, economic processes are the production, distribution, exchange and consumption of material goods. Information about these processes is called economic information.

The processing of economic information is characterized by relatively simple algorithms, the predominance of logical operations(ordering, selection, adjustment) over arithmetic, tabular form of presentation of initial and result data.

The most important features by which the classification of circulating economic information is usually carried out include:

1. Relation to a given control system. This feature allows you to divide messages into input, internal and output.

2. Sign of the times. Regarding time, messages are divided into promising (about future events) and retrospective. The first class includes planned and forecast information, the second - accounting data. According to the time of arrival, periodic and non-periodic messages are separated.

3. Functional features. A classification is formed according to the functional subsystems of the economic object. For example, information about labor resources, production processes, finances, etc., in another context - into planning, regulation, control, accounting and reporting data.

It must be stated that there is no measure of information that is equally applicable at all stages of information processing. The only possibility remains - to take into account the number of processed characters, that is, the amount of information. This value reflects, of course, only the external side of information processes.

There are many definitions and views on the concept of "information". The following definition is known: information (from the Latin informatio) is information, messages about an event, activity, etc.

In the most general sense, information is a designation of some form of connections or dependencies of objects, phenomena, mental processes. Information is a concept, an abstraction that refers to a certain class of patterns of the material world and its reflection in the human mind. Depending on the field in which the research is being conducted, and on the class of tasks for which the concept of information is introduced, researchers select various definitions for it.

For engineers, biologists, geneticists, psychologists, the concept of "information" is identified with those signals, impulses, codes that are observed in technical and biological systems. Radio engineers, telemechanics, programmers understand information as a working fluid that can be processed, transported, just like electricity in electrical engineering or liquid in hydraulics. This working body consists of ordered discrete or continuous signals with which information technology deals.

From a legal point of view, information is defined as "a set of various messages about events occurring in legal system society, its subsystems and elements and in the environment external to these legal information formations, about changes in the characteristics of information formations and the external environment, or as a measure of the organization of socio-economic, political, legal, spatial and temporal factors of an object. It eliminates uncertainty in legal information formations, phenomena and processes and is usually associated with new, previously unknown phenomena and facts" [Legal informatics and business management. M.M. Rassolov, V.D. Elkin, I.M. Rassolov Moscow: 1998].

Economists consider information as information in the field of the economy that must be recorded, transmitted, stored and processed for use in managing both the economy of the country as a whole and its individual objects. Information allows you to get a decision on how to organize the production of goods and services more efficiently and cost-effectively.

Economic information is mostly discrete and consists of separate messages, i.e. complexes of meanings that characterize specific facts, objects, phenomena, business transactions, etc. Each message can be represented as a series of pulses, letters, numbers, or other symbols.

Thus, from an economic point of view, information is a strategic resource, one of the main resources for increasing the productivity of an enterprise. Information is the basis of an entrepreneur's maneuver with matter and energy, since it is information that allows you to set the strategic goals and objectives of the enterprise and use the opportunities that open up; make informed and timely management decisions; coordinate the actions of various departments, directing their efforts to achieve common goals. For example, marketers R.D. Basel, D.F. Cox, R.V. Brown define the concept of "information" as follows: "information consists of all objective facts and all assumptions that affect the decision maker's perception of the nature and degree of uncertainty associated with a given problem or opportunity (in the process of management). Everything that is potentially will reduce the degree of uncertainty, whether it be facts, estimates, forecasts, generalized connections or rumors, should be considered information.

In management, information is understood as information about the control object, environmental phenomena, their parameters, properties and state at a particular point in time. Information is the subject of managerial work, a means of substantiating managerial decisions, without which the process of influence of the control subsystem on the controlled one and their interaction is impossible. In this sense, information is the fundamental basis of the management process.

Information is:

data organized in a certain way, having meaning, significance and value for its consumer and necessary for making decisions, as well as for the implementation of other functions and actions;

a body of knowledge about actual data and the dependencies between them, which are one of the types of resources used by a person in work and life;

information about persons, objects, facts, events, phenomena and processes, regardless of the form of representation;

information that was not known before it was received;

the value assigned to the data;

· Means and Form of transfer of knowledge and experience, reducing uncertainty and randomness and ignorance;

· a generic term referring to any signals, sounds, signs, etc. that may be transmitted, received, recorded and/or stored.

The data is:

Facts, figures, and other information about real and abstract persons, objects, objects, phenomena and events corresponding to a specific subject area, presented in digital, symbolic, graphic, sound and any other format (subject (or application) area - a segment of the information space, reflecting a certain part of the real world and representing a collection of information about real and abstract objects and concepts, their connections and features);

information presented in a form suitable for its transmission and processing by automatic means, with the possible participation of automated means with a person;

· factual material, presented in the form of information, numbers, symbols, or letters, used to describe persons, objects, situations, or other concepts for the purpose of subsequent analysis, discussion, or appropriate decision making.

Of all the variety of approaches to the definition of the concept of "data", in our opinion, the one that says that data carries information about events that have occurred in the material world is true, since they are the registration of signals that arose as a result of these events. However, data is not the same as information. Whether data becomes information depends on whether the method of transforming the data into known concepts is known. That is, in order to extract information from the data, it is necessary to select an adequate method for obtaining information corresponding to the form of the data. The data that constitutes information has properties that unambiguously determine an adequate method for obtaining this information. Moreover, it is necessary to take into account the fact that information is not a static object - it changes dynamically and exists only at the moment of interaction between data and methods. At all other times it is in the data state. Information exists only at the time of the information process. The rest of the time it is contained in the form of data.

The same data may present different information at the time of consumption, depending on the degree of adequacy of the methods interacting with them.

By its nature, data is objective, as it is the result of registration of objectively existing signals caused by changes in material bodies or fields. Methods are subjective. Artificial methods are based on algorithms (ordered sequences of commands) compiled and prepared by people (subjects). At the core natural methods lie the biological properties of the subjects of the information process. Thus, information arises and exists at the moment of dialectical interaction of objective data and subjective methods.

Knowledge is:

type of information reflecting the knowledge, experience and perception of a person - a specialist (expert) in a particular subject area;

· the set of all current situations in objects of a given type and ways of transition from one object description to another;

understanding and interpretation of certain information, taking into account the ways of its best use to achieve specific goals, the characteristics of knowledge are: internal interpretability, structurability, coherence and activity. According to [Information systems in the economy. A.V. Khoroshilov et al. Moscow: MESI, 1998], "knowledge is facts plus beliefs plus rules".

Based on the above interpretations of the concepts under consideration, we can state the fact that knowledge is information, but not all information is knowledge. Information acts as knowledge alienated from its carriers and socialized for general use. In other words, information is a transformed form of knowledge that ensures its dissemination and social functioning. Receiving information, the user turns it through intellectual assimilation into his personal knowledge. Here we are dealing with the so-called information-cognitive processes associated with the representation of personal knowledge in the form of information and the reconstruction of this knowledge based on information.

The transformation of information into knowledge involves a number of patterns that regulate the activity of the brain, and various mental processes, as well as various rules that include knowledge of the system of social relations - the cultural context of a certain era. Thanks to this, knowledge becomes the property of society, and not just individual individuals. There is a gap between information and knowledge. A person must creatively process information in order to gain new knowledge.

Thus, given the above, we can conclude that the recorded perceived facts of the world around us are data. When using data in the process of solving specific problems, information appears. The results of solving problems, true, verified information (information), generalized in the form of laws, theories, sets of views and ideas is knowledge [Romanov, Mayorov].

Those objects or devices from which a person can receive information are called sources of information.

Those objects or devices that can receive information are called information receivers.

The concept of information

In concept "information"(from lat. information- information, clarification, presentation) a different meaning is invested according to the industry where this concept is considered: in science, technology, everyday life, etc. Usually, information means any data or information that is of interest to someone (a message about any events, about someone's activities, etc.).

There are many definitions of the term in the literature. "information", which reflect different approaches to his interpretation:

Definition 1

Information- information (messages, data) regardless of the form of their presentation (“Federal Law of the Russian Federation of $ 27.07.2006 $ 149 $-FZ On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection”);
Information- information about the surrounding world and the processes taking place in it, perceived by a person or a special device (Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language).

Speaking about computer data processing, information is understood as a certain sequence of symbols or signs (letters, numbers, encoded graphic images and sounds, etc.), which carries a semantic load and is presented in a form understandable to a computer.

In computer science, the most commonly used definition of this term is:

Definition 2

Information- this is conscious information (knowledge expressed in signals, messages, news, notifications, etc.) about the world, which is the object of storage, transformation, transmission and use.

Same Announcement(an article in a magazine, an ad, a story, a letter, a reference, a photograph, a TV show, etc.) can carry a different amount and content of information for different people, depending on their accumulated knowledge, on the level of accessibility of this message and on the level of interest in it . For example, news written in Chinese does not carry any information to a person who does not know this language, but may be useful to a person who knows Chinese. No new information will be contained in the news presented in a familiar language, if its content is not clear or is already known.

Information is considered as a characteristic not of a message, but of the relationship between the message and its recipient.

Types of information

Information can exist in various types:

text, drawings, drawings, photographs;
light or sound signals;
radio waves;
electrical and nerve impulses;
magnetic records;
gestures and facial expressions;
smells and taste sensations;
chromosomes through which the traits and properties of organisms are inherited, etc.

Distinguish main types of information, which are classified according to its form of presentation, methods of its encoding and storage:

graphic- one of the oldest types, with the help of which they stored information about the world around them in the form of rock paintings, and then in the form of paintings, photographs, diagrams, drawings on various materials (paper, canvas, marble, etc.), which depict pictures of the real world;
sound(acoustic) - for storage sound information in $1877, a sound recording device was invented, and for musical information, a coding method was developed using special characters, which makes it possible to store it as graphic information;
textual- encodes a person's speech using special characters - letters (each nation has its own); paper is used for storage (notes in notebooks, typography, etc.);
numerical- encodes a quantitative measure of objects and their properties in the surrounding world using special symbols - numbers (each coding system has its own); became especially important with the development of trade, economy and money exchange;
video information- a way of storing "live" pictures of the world, which appeared with the invention of cinema.

There are also types of information for which encoding and storage methods have not yet been invented - tactile information, organoleptic and etc.

Initially, information was transmitted over long distances using coded light signals, after the invention of electricity - the transmission of a signal encoded in a certain way over wires, later - using radio waves.

Remark 1

Claude Shannon is considered the founder of the general information theory, who also laid the foundation for digital communication, writing the book "Mathematical Theory of Communication" in $1948, in which he first substantiated the possibility of using a binary code to transmit information.

The first computers were a means for processing numerical information. With the development of computer technology, PCs began to be used for storing, processing, and transmitting various types of information (text, numerical, graphic, audio, and video information).

You can store information using a PC on magnetic disks or tapes, on laser disks (CDs and DVDs), special non-volatile memory devices (flash memory, etc.). These methods are constantly being improved, and information carriers are being invented. All actions with information are performed by the central processor of the PC.

Objects, processes, phenomena of the material or non-material world, if they are considered from the point of view of their information properties, are called information objects.

Information can be performed great amount various information processes, including:

creation;
reception;
combination;
storage;
broadcast;
copying;
treatment;
Search;
perception;
formalization;
division into parts;
measurement;
usage;
Spread;
simplification;
destruction;
memorization;
transformation;

Information properties

Information, like any object, has properties, the most important of which, from the point of view of informatics, are:

Objectivity. Objective information - existing independently of human consciousness, methods of fixing it, someone's opinion or attitude.
Reliability. Information reflecting the true state of affairs is reliable. Inaccurate information most often leads to misunderstandings or poor decision making. The obsolescence of information can turn reliable information into unreliable information, because it will no longer be a reflection of the true state of affairs.
Completeness. Information is complete if it is sufficient for understanding and decision making. Incomplete or redundant information may lead to a delay in decision making or an error.
Information Accuracy - the degree of its proximity to the real state of the object, process, phenomenon, etc.
The value of information depends on its importance for decision-making, problem solving and further applicability in any kind of human activity.
Relevance. Only the timely receipt of information can lead to the expected result.
Clarity. If valuable and timely information is unclear, then it is likely to become useless. Information will be understandable when it is, at a minimum, expressed in a language understandable to the recipient.
Availability. The information must correspond to the level of perception of the recipient. For example, the same questions are presented differently in school and university textbooks.
brevity. Information is perceived much better if it is not presented in detail and verbose, but with an acceptable degree of conciseness, without unnecessary details. The brevity of information is indispensable in reference books, encyclopedias, instructions. Logic, compactness, convenient form of presentation facilitates the understanding and assimilation of information.

The term "information" comes from the Latin word "informatio", which means information, clarification, presentation. Despite the widespread use of this term, the concept of information is one of the most controversial in science.

In the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary, information is defined as "a general scientific concept that includes the exchange of information between people, a person and an automaton, an automaton and an automaton, the exchange of signals in the animal and plant kingdoms; the transfer of signs from cell to cell, from organism to organism (genetic information). Currently, science is trying to find common properties and patterns inherent in a multifaceted concept. information, but so far this concept remains largely intuitive and receives various semantic content in various branches of human activity:

· in everyday life information refers to any data or information that is of interest to someone. For example, a message about any events, about someone's activities, etc. "Inform" in this sense means "tell something,previously unknown";

· in engineering information is understood as messages transmitted in the form of signs or signals;

· in cybernetics information is understood as that part of knowledge that is used for orientation, active action, control, i.e. in order to preserve, improve, develop the system (N. Wiener).

concept data more general than computer science, in it the semantic properties of the message, as it were, recede into the background. When there is no need to emphasize the difference between concepts data(the whole set of information) and information(new useful information) these words are used as synonyms.

Accordingly, different units are used to estimate the amount of information.

When transmitting information, it is important to pay attention to how much information will pass through the transmitting system. After all, information can be quantified, calculated. And they act in such calculations in the most usual way: they abstract from the meaning of the message, as they renounce concreteness in the arithmetic operations familiar to all of us (as from the addition of two apples and three apples they pass to the addition of numbers in general: 2 + 3).

1.2.2 Propertiesinformation

The most important properties of information include:

completeness;
value;
timeliness (relevance);
understandability;
availability;
brevity;
and etc.

Adequacy information can be expressed in three forms: semantic, syntactic, pragmatic.

If valuable and timely information is expressed in an incomprehensible way, it can become useless.

Information becomes understandable, if it is expressed in the language spoken by those to whom this information is intended.

Information should be presented in an accessible (according to the level of perception) form. Therefore, the same questions are presented differently in school textbooks and scientific publications.

Information on the same issue can be presented briefly (concisely, without irrelevant details) or lengthy (detailed, wordy). The brevity of information is necessary in reference books, encyclopedias, textbooks, all kinds of instructions.

1.2.1. Informatization and computerization of society. Informational resources.

Information processes(collection, processing and transmission of information) have always played an important role in the life of society. In the course of human evolution, there is a steady trend towards automation of these processes.

Information processing tools- these are all kinds of devices and systems created by mankind, and first of all, a computer is a universal machine for processing information.

Computers process information by executing some algorithms.

Living organisms and plants process information using their organs and systems.

Mankind has been processing information for thousands of years. There is an opinion that the world has gone through several information revolutions.

First the information revolution is associated with the invention and mastering of the human language, which, more precisely, oral speech, singled out a person from the animal world. This allowed a person to store, transmit, improve, increase the acquired information.

Second The information revolution was the invention of writing. First of all, the possibilities for storing information have increased dramatically (compared to the previous stage). Man got artificial external memory. The organization of postal services made it possible to use writing as a means of transmitting information. In addition, the emergence of writing was necessary condition to start the development of sciences (remember Ancient Greece, for example). Apparently, the emergence of the concept natural number. All peoples who had a written language, owned the concept of number and used one or another number system.

Still, the knowledge recorded in written texts was limited, and therefore not easily accessible. This was before the invention of printing.

What justified third information revolution. The connection between information and technology is most obvious here. Typography can be safely called the first information technology. Reproduction of information was put on stream, on an industrial basis. Compared to the previous stage, this stage did not so much increase storage capabilities (although there was a gain here too: a written source is often a single copy, a printed book is a whole edition of copies, and, consequently, there is a low probability of information loss during storage (recall the "Word about Igor's regiment ")), how much increased the availability of information and the accuracy of its reproduction. The engine of this revolution was the printing press, which made the book cheaper and information more accessible.

Fourth revolution, smoothly turning into fifth, associated with the creation of modern information technologies. This stage is associated with the success of the exact sciences (primarily mathematics and physics) and is characterized by the emergence of such powerful means of communication as the telegraph (1794 - the first optical telegraph, 1841 - the first electromagnetic telegraph), telephone (1876) and radio (1895). ), to which, at the end of the stage, television was added (1921). In addition to means of communication, new opportunities have appeared for obtaining and storing information - photography and cinema. It is also very important to add to them the development of methods for recording information on magnetic media (magnetic tapes, disks). But the most striking thing was the creation modern computers and means of telecommunications.

Currently the term "information technology" used in connection with the use of computers for information processing. Information technology covers all computer and communication technology and, in part, consumer electronics, television and radio broadcasting.

They find application in industry, trade, management, banking system, education, healthcare, medicine and science, transport and communications, agriculture, social security system, serve as a help to people of various professions and housewives.

The peoples of the developed countries realize that the improvement of information technology is the most important, albeit costly and difficult task.

At present, the creation of large-scale information technology systems is economically possible, and this leads to the emergence of national research and educational programs designed to stimulate their development.

After solving the problem of information processing, the result must be issued to end users in the required form. This operation is implemented in the course of solving the problem of issuing information. The release of information is usually done with the help of external devices computer technology in the form of texts, tables, graphs, etc.

The core of any information technology is the choice and implementation of the most rational information process which can be defined as a set of procedures for the transformation and processing of information.

In turn information procedure It is customary to consider a set of homogeneous operations that affect information in a certain way. The main information procedures are: registration, collection, transfer, coding, storage and processing of information.

The implementation of any task of a particular user requires the creation of an information service system, which is often called an information system.

Let А=(а1, а2, …, аn) be the alphabet of some language. A* is the set of possible sequences of symbols of this language.

A language is a subset of A* that satisfies two sets of rules: syntactic (blue shading) and semantic (burgundy shading), moreover semantic rules can satisfy only those constructions that satisfy the syntactic rules.

Example: bbse - does not satisfy the syntax of the Russian language

Petya ate a tractor - all syntactic rules are met, but the sentence does not satisfy the semantics of the Russian language

Thus, knowing the language means

1. Knowledge of its alphabet,

2. Knowledge of syntax rules

3. Knowledge of semantic rules

In this way, you will be able to communicate and be correctly understood.

The transformation of the constructions of one language into a sequence of letters of another alphabet is called coding.

If we talk about encoding, then first we need to determine which language construction we will consider as a symbol, i.e. some indivisible structure.

Consider a sentence in Q. A sentence consists of words, which in turn consist of letters. There are 3 options for defining a symbol (an indivisible language construct):

1. symbol = letter: a sentence is a sequence of letters of the alphabet. This approach is used in writing.

2. character = word. This presentation of sentences is used in shorthand.

3. symbol = sentence. This situation arises when translating from one language to another, and this is especially pronounced when translating proverbs, jokes, sayings.

The problem of coding was taken up by the great German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz; he proved that the minimum number of letters needed to encode any alphabet is 2.

Example. Russian language: 33 letters * 2 (uppercase, lowercase) -2(ъ,ъ) + 10 punctuation marks + 10 digits = 84 characters. An obligatory condition for correct coding is the possibility of a unique transformation AÛB. How many binary characters are needed to encode one Russian character?

letter	the code
a
AND
b
B
in
AT
…
m
M

Suppose you need to encode the word Mom. Let's encode it: 10011 0 10010 0. Do the inverse transformation (decoding). Problems arise because It is not clear where one letter ends and another begins. The basic rule of unambiguous conversion from A to B and vice versa is violated, the reason is the use of a variable length code, therefore it is necessary to choose a code of the same predetermined length. Which?

Conclusion: the fewer letters in the alphabet, the longer the character. There are 33 letters in Russian, words on average consist of 4-6 letters. There are about 3,000 characters in Japanese, with an average of 1 sentence ~ 1 character.

Computers use binary encoding of information of any type: programs, text documents, graphics, video clips, sounds, etc. Surprisingly, all this wealth of information is encoded using only two states: on or off (one or zero). The formation of information representation is called its coding. In a narrower sense, under coding is understood as the transition from the initial representation of information, convenient for human perception, to the representation, convenient for storage, transmission and processing. In this case, the return transition to the original representation is called decoding .

In any type of work with information, always in question about its representation in the form of certain symbolic structures. The most common are one-dimensional representations of information, in which messages have the form of a sequence of characters. This is how information is presented in written texts, when transmitted through communication channels, in computer memory. However, multidimensional representation of information is also widely used, and multidimensionality is understood not only as the location of information elements on a plane or in space in the form of drawings, diagrams, graphs, three-dimensional layouts, etc., but also the multiplicity of features of the symbols used, for example, color, size, type of font in the text.

Driver is an intermediary program between hardware and other programs.

Thus, texts are stored on disk or in memory in the form of numbers and programmatically are converted to character images on the screen.

1.2.5. Image encoding

In 1756, the outstanding Russian scientist Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov (1711-1765) first suggested that in order to reproduce any color in nature, it is enough to mix three primary colors in certain proportions: red, green, blue. The three-component color theory states that three types of nervous excitations arise in the human visual system, each of which is independent of the others.

Computer encoding of images is also built on this theory. The picture is divided by vertical and horizontal lines into small rectangles. The resulting matrix of rectangles is called raster, and the elements of the matrix - pixels(from English. Picture's element- image element). The color of each pixel is represented by a triple of intensity values of the three primary colors. This color encoding method is called RGB (from the English red - red, green - green, blue - blue). The more bits allocated for each primary color, the greater the gamut of colors that can be stored for each image element. In the standard called true color (real color), 3 bytes are spent on each pixel of the raster, 1 byte for each primary color. Thus, 256 (=28) red levels, 256 green levels, and 256 blue levels add up to about 16.7 million different colors, which is more than the human eye's color perception.

To store the whole picture, it is enough to write down the matrix of pixel color values in some order, for example, from left to right and from top to bottom. Part of the information about the picture will be lost with such encoding. The smaller the pixels, the smaller the loss. In modern computer monitors with a diagonal of 15-17 inches, a reasonable compromise between the quality and size of the picture elements on the screen provides a raster of 768x1024 pixels.

The word "information" comes from the Latin word information, which means clarification, statements, awareness. The very word information only relatively recently began to turn into an exact term. Prior to this, information was perceived as something that is present in the language, writing, or transmitted during communication. Now the meaning that is invested in this concept has changed and expanded greatly. A special mathematical discipline arose - information theory.

Although information theory introduces several of its specific definitions, they do not cover the entire scope of this concept. Let's look at some definitions.

Information - this is a reflection of the real (material, objective) world, which is expressed in the form of signals, signs.

Information is any set of signals, information (data) that any system perceives from the environment (input information), issues it into the environment (outgoing information) or is stored within a particular system (internal information).

Information exists in the form of documents, drawings, texts, sound and light signals, energy and nerve impulses, etc.

Information is understood as information about the objects of the surrounding world that are perceived by a person, animal, plant world or special devices and increase their level of awareness.

Information is transmitted through messages. Communication can be oral, written, in the form of drawings, gestures, special signs, or organized in some other way. Examples of messages are: indications of a measuring device, road signs, text of a telegram, oral story, and the like.

Types of information

Information can be divided into types according to several criteria:

According to the way of perception

For a person, information is divided into types depending on the type of receptors that perceive it:

Visual - perceived by the organs of vision.
Auditory - Perceived by the organs of hearing.
Tactile - perceived by tactile receptors.
Olfactory - perceived by olfactory receptors.
Taste - Perceived by taste buds.

According to the form of presentation

According to the form of presentation, information is divided into the following types:

Text - which is transmitted in the form of symbols intended to denote lexemes of the language.
Numerical - in the form of numbers and signs denoting mathematical operations.
Graphic - in the form of images, events, objects, graphs.
Sound - oral or in the form of a recording, the transmission of language lexemes by auditory means.

By appointment

Mass - contains trivial information and operates with a set of concepts understandable to most of the society.
Special - contains a specific set of concepts, when used, information is transmitted that may not be understood by the bulk of society, but is necessary and understandable within a narrow social group where this information is used.
Personal - a set of information about a person that determines the social position and types of social interactions within the population.

Information properties

Utility. The usefulness of information is evaluated by the tasks that can be solved with its use. Information that is important and useful to one person is useless to another if he cannot use it.

Relevance. Information is relevant (timely) if it is important in this moment time. If you are going to travel by train, then information about when this train leaves is important for you. However, this information loses its relevance after the train has started moving.

Probability (truthfulness). Information is considered reliable if it does not contradict reality, explains it correctly and is confirmed. If you learned about the flood from an information TV program, then this information is most likely reliable. At the same time, rumors about the arrival of aliens, which is expected next week, are unreliable.

Objectivity. Information can be objective or subjective (depend or not depend on whose judgment). For example, the message "water in the sea is cold" is subjective, while the message "temperature is +17 degrees Celsius" gives objective information.

Completeness. Information is complete if it is sufficient for correct conclusions and correct decision making. If a person has to decide something on the basis of some information, then he first evaluates whether this information is enough to make the right decision.

Clarity. Information is understandable if there is no need for additional messages during its perception (no questions arise). If a person is told something that he is not yet prepared to perceive, for example, they turn to English before the person has learned this language, then he will take out completely different information from the information he hears than it would be when the person learned English.

Information carriers

The environment in which the message is recorded is called the message carrier. In the “pre-computer” era, information was stored on paper, photographs, film, magnetic tape, etc. With the advent of the first computers, punched cards and punched tapes, magnetic disks, and CDs were widely used.

A punched card is a sheet of thin cardboard in standard sizes. In certain positions, punched cards punch holes. The presence of a hole in a certain position is considered one, and its absence is considered zero.

Perforated tape is a tape of thick paper of standard width, on which information is entered by punching holes in the appropriate positions on 5 or 8 parallel tracks.

Of course, there is quite definite information behind the holes printed on punched cards or punched tapes.

Magnetic tapes and magnetic disks for storing information began to be used with the development of computer technology. To record 1 (one), a small area was magnetized. The demagnetized (or oppositely magnetized) area meant 0 (zero).

Floppy disks, or FDDs, made it easy to transfer information from one computer to another, as well as to store information that is not constantly used on a computer. Floppy disks were produced, as a rule, with a disk with a diameter of 3.5 inches and had a capacity of only 1.44 MB.

Hard magnetic disks, or hard drives (HDD), are still the main type of media for long-term storage of information today. The drive includes magnetic disk, positioning system and a set of magnetic heads - all this is placed in a hermetically sealed case.

Magnetic cards contain coded information, this technology is used in credit, telephone and registration cards, as well as passes and "keys" for combination locks.

Compact discs (optical discs or CDs) are a special plastic disc with a mirror coating on the side from which information is written and read. Information is written to the disk in the following way: the disk rotates, and on its surface the laser inflicts “damage” to the surface in certain places in such a way that the laser beam does not reflect from them when reading. Thus 1 is written, "uncorrupted" places mean logical 0.

There are CD-R, DVD-R - optical discs that can be recorded once, as well as CD-RW, DVD-RW - optical discs that can be recorded multiple times.

Forms and methods of presenting information

The symbolic form of information representation is the simplest, in which each symbol has some meaning. For example: red traffic light, turn indicators vehicles, various gestures, abbreviations and symbols in formulas.

The textual form of information presentation is more complex. This form provides that the content of the message is transmitted not through individual characters (numbers, letters, signs), but by their combination, the order of placement. Sequentially arranged symbols form words, which in turn can form sentences. Text Information used in books, brochures, newspapers, magazines, etc.

The graphical form of information presentation, as a rule, has the largest volume. This form includes photographs, paintings, drawings, graphics and the like. The graphic form is more informative. Apparently, therefore, when we pick up a new book, the first thing we do is look for drawings in it in order to create the most complete impression of it.

Information can be presented in one of the ways: letters and signs, gestures, music notes, drawings, paintings, sculptures, sound recordings, video recordings, films, and the like.

Information can be in the form of continuous (analogue) and discrete (digital) signals.

Information in analog form changes its value gradually (indicators of a thermometer, a clock with arrows, a speedometer, etc.).

Information in a discrete form changes its value with a certain step (indicators of an electronic clock, scales with weights, counting the number of objects, etc.).

Computer science

The term informatics comes from two words: information and automation. So computer science is “the science of information transformation”.

This term was first introduced into use in France in the mid-60s of the XX century, when the widespread use of computer technology began. Then, in English-speaking countries, the term "Computer Science" came into use to refer to the science of information transformation, which is based on computer science. Now these terms are synonymous.

The basis of informatics - information technology - a set of tools and methods by which it is carried out in all spheres of human life and activity.

Information system — an interconnected set of means, methods and personnel used to store, process and issue information in order to achieve a specific task.

The modern understanding of the information system (IS) involves the use of a computer as the main technical means of information processing. As a rule, these are computers equipped with specialized software tools.

In the work of IS, in its technological process, the following stages can be distinguished:

Origin of data - the formation of primary messages fix the results of certain operations, the properties of objects and subjects of management, the parameters of processes, the content of regulatory and legal acts, etc.
Accumulation and systematization of data - organization of their placement, which would provide quick search and selection of the necessary information, protecting them from distortion, loss, deformation of integrity, etc.
Data processing — processes, as a result of which new types of data are formed on the basis of previously accumulated data: generalizing, analytical, recommendatory, forecasting. Derived data can also be further processed, giving generalization information, etc.
Data display - presenting them in a form suitable for human perception. First of all, this is printing, that is, the production of documents that are convenient for human perception. The construction of graphic illustrative materials (graphs, diagrams) and the formation of sound signals are widely used.

The messages that are generated in the first step can be a regular paper document, an "electronic" message, or both. In modern information systems message for the most part have " electronic form". The main components of information processes:

data collection: accumulation of data with the aim of sufficient completeness for decision-making;
conservation;
broadcast;
treatment.

One of the most important conditions for the use of electronic computers (computers) for solving certain problems is the construction of an appropriate algorithm (program) containing information about the rules for obtaining the resulting (final) information from the given (input) information.

Programming is a discipline that studies the methods of formulating and solving problems with the help of a computer, and is the main integral part informatics.

So, information, computer, algorithm are three fundamental concepts of computer science.

Computer science is a complex scientific and engineering discipline that studies all aspects of design, creation, evaluation, operation computer systems information processing, its application and impact on various areas of social practice.

The founders of informatics are the sciences: documentary and cybernetics. Cybernetics - translates as "skillful in management."

In computer science, there are three main parts:

algorithms information processing ( algorithm)
computing technology (hardware)
computer programs (software).

The subject of computer science is the concepts:

computer hardware
computer software;
means of interaction between hardware and software;
means of human interaction and hardware and software.

Methods and means of human interaction with hardware and software are called interface.

Binary encoding of information

In colloquial speech, expressions such as information transfer, information compression, information processing are often found. In such cases, it is always about a certain message, which is encoded and transmitted in one way or another.

Most commonly used in computing binary form of information representation, based on the data presented by a sequence of two characters: 0 and 1

These characters are called binary digits, in English - binary digit, or, for short bit (bit).

The octal form of information representation is also used (based on the presented digit sequences 0, 1, ..., 7) and the hexadecimal form of information presentation (based on the presented sequence 0, 1, ..., 9, A, B, C, ..., F).

The information volume of the message is the number of bits in this message. The calculation of the information volume of a message is a purely technical task, since the content of the message does not play any role in such a calculation.

In modern computing, bits are usually combined into eights, which are called bytes: 1 byte \u003d 8 bits. Along with bits and bytes, large units of information are also used.

1 bit binary digit(0,1);
1 byte= 8 bits;
1 KB= 2 10 bytes = 1024 bytes;
1 MB= 2 10 KB = 1024 KB = 2 20 bytes;
1 GB= 2 10 MB = 1024 MB = 2 30 bytes;
1 TB= 2 10 GB = 1024 GB = 2 40 bytes.
1 pb= 2 10 TB = 1024 TB = 2 50 bytes.

With two bits, four different values are encoded: 00, 01, 10, 11. Three bits can encode 8 states:

000 001 010 011 100 101 110 111

In general, with the help n bit can be encoded 2 n states.

Information transfer rate is measured by the number of bits transmitted in one second. The bit rate per second is called 1 baud. The derived units of bit rate are called Kbaud, Mbaud and Gbaud:

1 kbaud (one kilobaud) = 2 10 baud = 1024 bps;
1 Mbaud (one megabaud) = 220 baud = 1024 Kbaud;
1 Gbaud (one gigabaud) = 230 baud = 1024 Mbaud.

Example . Let the modem transmit information at 2400 baud. It takes about 10 bits to transmit one character of text. Thus, the modem is capable of transmitting about 2400/10 = 240 characters in 1 second.

On a computer, you can process not only numbers, but also texts. In this case, you need to encode about 200 different characters. In binary code, this requires at least 8 bits (28 = 256). This is enough to encode all characters of the English and Russian alphabets (lowercase and uppercase), punctuation marks, symbols arithmetic operations some common special characters.

Currently, there are several coding systems.

The most common are the following coding systems: ASCII, Windows-1251, KOI8, ISO.

ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) — standard code information exchange)

There are 2 coding tables fixed in the ASCII system: basic and extended. The base table fixes the values of codes from 0 to 127, extended from 128 to 255.

The first 32 codes (0-31) contain the so-called control codes, which do not correspond to any language characters, and, accordingly, the codes are not displayed either on the screen or on the printer.

Starting from code 32 to code 127, the codes of the English alphabet characters are placed.

The symbols of the national alphabet are placed in codes from 128 to 255.

Encoding Windows-1251 has become the standard in the Russian sector wold wide web .

KOI8(Information Interchange Code) is a standard encoding in messages Email and teleconferencing.

ISO (International Standard Organization) is the international standard. This encoding is rarely used.

The emergence of informatics is due to the emergence and spread of new technology collection, processing and transmission of information related to the fixation of data on machine media. The main instrument of informatics is the computer.

The computer, which takes its name from its original purpose of performing calculations, has a second very important use. It has become an indispensable assistant to a person in his intellectual activity and the main technical means of information technology. A rapid development in recent years of technical and software capabilities personal computers, the spread of new types of information technologies create real opportunities for their use, opening up qualitatively new ways for the user to further develop and adapt to the needs of society.

Disinformation

Disinformation is deliberately false, false information provided to an opponent or adversary in order to more effectively conduct military operations, obtain any competitive advantages, to check for information leakage and identify the source of the leak, identify potentially unreliable customers or partners. Disinformation is also called the process of manipulating information, such as: misleading someone by providing incomplete information or complete, but no longer relevant information, distortion of the context, distortion of any part of the information.

Disinformation, as we see, is the result of human activity, the desire to create a false impression and, accordingly, push for the required actions and / or inaction.