{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,2]],"date-time":"2025-08-02T17:37:44Z","timestamp":1754156264403,"version":"3.41.2"},"reference-count":65,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2014,5,6]],"date-time":"2014-05-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1399334400000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2014,5,6]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n               <jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Purpose<\/jats:title>\n               <jats:p> \u2013 The different senses of the term information in physical, biological and social interpretations, and the possibility of connections between them, are addressed. Special attention is paid to Hofkirchner's Unified Theory of Information (UTI), proposing an integrated view in which the notion of information gets additional properties as one moves from the physical to the biological and the social realms. The paper aims to discuss these issues.<\/jats:p>\n            <\/jats:sec>\n            <jats:sec>\n               <jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title>\n               <jats:p> \u2013 UTI is compared to other views of information, especially to two theories complementing several ideas of it: the theory of the hypertextual documental universe (\u201cdocuverse\u201d) and the theory of integrative levels of reality. Two alternative applications of the complex of these three theories are discussed: a pragmatical, hermeneutic one, and a more ambitious realist, ontological one. The latter can be extended until considering information (\u201cbit\u201d) together with matter-energy (\u201cit\u201d) as a fundamental element in the world. Problems and opportunities with each view are discussed. <\/jats:p>\n            <\/jats:sec>\n            <jats:sec>\n               <jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Findings<\/jats:title>\n               <jats:p> \u2013 It is found that the common ground for all three theories is an evolutionary approach, paying attention to the phylogenetic connections between the different meanings of information. <\/jats:p>\n            <\/jats:sec>\n            <jats:sec>\n               <jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Research limitations\/implications<\/jats:title>\n               <jats:p> \u2013 Other theories of information, like Leontiev's, are not discussed as not especially related to the focus of the approach. <\/jats:p>\n            <\/jats:sec>\n            <jats:sec>\n               <jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title>\n               <jats:p> \u2013 The paper builds on previously unnoticed affinities between different families of information-related theories, showing how each of them can provide fruitful complements to the other ones in clarifying the nature of information.<\/jats:p>\n            <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/jd-09-2012-0115","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2014,6,19]],"date-time":"2014-06-19T10:29:15Z","timestamp":1403173755000},"page":"443-460","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Unified Theory of Information, hypertextuality and levels of reality"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"70","author":[{"given":"Claudio","family":"Gnoli","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Riccardo","family":"Ridi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"key":"key2020061111403990100_b1","unstructured":"Antinucci, F.\n                (1993), \u201cSumma hypermedialis (per una teoria dell\u2019ipermedia)\u201d, Sistemi intelligenti, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 227-257."},{"key":"key2020061111403990100_b2","unstructured":"Barbour, J.\n                (2011), \u201cFixed Figure 1 \n               it from it, The Foundational Questions Institute (FQXi)\u201d, available at: www.fqxi.org\/data\/essay-contest-files\/Barbour_Wheeler.pdf (accessed 9 April 2013)."},{"key":"key2020061111403990100_b3","unstructured":"Bates, M.J.\n                (2005), \u201cInformation and knowledge: an evolutionary framework for information science\u201d, Information Research, Vol. 10 No. 4, available at: http:\/\/informationr.net\/ir\/10-4\/paper239.html (accessed 9 April 2013)."},{"key":"key2020061111403990100_b4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bates, M.J.\n                (2006), \u201cFundamental forms of information\u201d, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Vol. 57 No. 8, pp. 1033-1045.","DOI":"10.1002\/asi.20369"},{"key":"key2020061111403990100_b5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bawden, D.\n                (2007), \u201cOrganised complexity, meaning and understanding: an approach to a unified view of information for information science\u201d, ASLIB Proceedings, Vol. 59 Nos 4\/5, pp. 307-327.","DOI":"10.1108\/00012530710817546"},{"key":"key2020061111403990100_b6","unstructured":"Bennett, C.H.\n                (1987), \u201cDissipation, information, computational complexity and the definition of organization\u201d, in \n                  Pines, D.\n                (Ed.), Emerging Syntheses in Science, Addison-Wesley, Boston, MA, pp. 215-231."},{"key":"key2020061111403990100_b7","unstructured":"Bliss, H.E.\n                (1929), The Organization of Knowledge and the System of the Sciences, Holt, New York, NY."},{"key":"key2020061111403990100_b8","unstructured":"Blitz, D.\n                (1992), Emergent Evolution: Qualitative Novelty and the Levels of Reality, Kluwer, Dordrecht \u2013 Boston, MA and London."},{"key":"key2020061111403990100_b9","unstructured":"Blumenberg, H.\n                (1981), Die Lesbarkeit der Welt, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main."},{"key":"key2020061111403990100_b10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bolter, J.D.\n                (2001), Writing Space: Computer, Hypertext and the Remediation of Print, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, MI.","DOI":"10.4324\/9781410600110"},{"key":"key2020061111403990100_b11","unstructured":"Briet, S.\n                (1951), Qu\u2019est-ce que la documentation, EDIT, Paris, available at: http:\/\/martinetl.free.fr\/suzannebriet\/questcequeladocumentation\/ (accessed 9 April 2013), English translation: What is Documentation? translated and edited by R.E. 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