{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T04:37:14Z","timestamp":1760243834433,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":10,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2011,7,5]],"date-time":"2011-07-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1309824000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Information"],"abstract":"<jats:p>What is information? This is the first question that information science should answer clearly. However, the definitions of information have been so diversified that people are questioning if there is any unity among the diversity, leading to a suspicion on whether it is possible to establish a unified theory of information or not. To answer this question, a system approach to defining information is introduced in this paper. It is proved that the unity of information definitions can be maintained with this approach. As a by-product, an important concept, the information eco-system, was also achieved.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/info2030406","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2011,7,5]],"date-time":"2011-07-05T11:26:46Z","timestamp":1309865206000},"page":"406-416","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Unity-Based Diversity: System Approach to Defining Information"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"2","author":[{"given":"Yixin","family":"Zhong","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Posts and Telecommunications Beijing, Beijing 100876, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2011,7,5]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"379","DOI":"10.1002\/j.1538-7305.1948.tb01338.x","article-title":"A mathematical theory of communication","volume":"47","author":"Shannon","year":"1948","journal-title":"Bell Syst. Tech. J."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wiener, N. (1961). Cybernetics, Second Edition: or the Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, MIT Press. [2nd ed.].","DOI":"10.1037\/13140-000"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Brillouin, L. (1956). Science and Information Theory, Academic Press Inc.","DOI":"10.1063\/1.3059856"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ashby, W.R. (1956). Introduction to Cybernetics, Wiley.","DOI":"10.5962\/bhl.title.5851"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Longo, G. (1975). Information Theory: New Trends and Open Problems, Springer-Verlag.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-7091-2730-8"},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"369","DOI":"10.31269\/triplec.v7i2.97","article-title":"The advancement of information science","volume":"7","author":"Marijuan","year":"2009","journal-title":"TripleC"},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Hofkirchner, W. Is Unified Theory of Information Feasible?. The Quest for a Unified Theory of Information."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Burgin, M. (2010). Theory of Information: Fundamentality, Diversity and Unification, World Scientific Publishing Company.","DOI":"10.1142\/7048"},{"key":"ref_9","unstructured":"Zhong, Y.X. (1988). Principles of Information Science (in Chinese), BUPT Press."},{"key":"ref_10","unstructured":"Zhong, Y.X. (2007). Principles of Cognetics in Machine (in Chinese), Science Press."}],"container-title":["Information"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2078-2489\/2\/3\/406\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T21:56:39Z","timestamp":1760219799000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2078-2489\/2\/3\/406"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2011,7,5]]},"references-count":10,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2011,9]]}},"alternative-id":["info2030406"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/info2030406","relation":{},"ISSN":["2078-2489"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"2078-2489"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2011,7,5]]}}}