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Order from Noise: Toward a Social Theory of Geographic InformationAuthor(s): Barbara S. Poore and Nicholas R. ChrismanSource: Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 96, No. 3 (Sep., 2006), pp.508-523Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.on behalf of the Association of American GeographersStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4124430.

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Order rom oise:Toward SocialTheoryfGeographicnformationBarbara. Poore* ndNicholas . Chrismant*U.S.GeologicalurveytUniversiteaval

Inthe o-callednformationge,t s urprisinghathe onceptf nformations mpreciselyefinednd lmosttaken or ranted.istoricnd recent eographicnformationcienceGIScience)iteratureelies n twoconflictingetaphors,ftenspousedy he ame uthornadjacent aragraphs.hemetaphorf nvariance,derivedromelecommunicationsngineering,efinesnformations a thingobe transportedithoutossthroughconduit. nother etaphor,riginatingntheutopian ovementsf he19th entury,ocatesnfor-mation ithinhierarchyf efinement-atoppinglace n the athoconvert ere ata nto igherormsfknowledgend erhapsowisdom.othmetaphorselyn ong-forgottenebatesutsideeographyndprecludeusfromeeinghat here re mportantocial nd ethical oncernsntherelationshipetweeneographicinformationechnologiesnd ociety. e examinehe onflictsetweenompetingetaphorsndproposesocial heoryfgeographicnformation.eyWords:ybernetics,eographicnformation,IScience,istoryfGIS.heglobaleploymentf eographicnformationsystemsGIS) over hepastfour ecades asbeenfacilitatedy ssertionshat patialnfor-mationechnologiesreboth evolutionarynduniver-sal Dobson 983, 993;Openshaw991). or xample,Openshaw1991, 24)positionedISas a technologythat anbeappliedoany urpose,nany lace,tany

time:GIScan be used oanalyzeiver etworksnMars nMonday,tudyancernBristolnTuesday,map heunderclassfLondon nWednesday,nalyzegroundwaterlown heAmazon asin nThursday,ndend heweek ymodelingetailhoppersnLosAngelesonFriday.In this onstruction,IS appearso be a universaltoolkitWright,oodchild,ndProctor997), ndyetgeographicnformationcienceGIScience) asrecog-nized riticalntegrationndusage roblemsithhesetechnologies.n the ivelyebate ince he arly990son the imitationsfGIS (Schuurman000), he ermsofengagementavevacillatedetweenhetwo nd-membersf heGISacronym-geographicnd ystem.IsGIS thefuturefgeography,r s it a power-ladentechnologyhat istortshe thicalnd pistemologicalconcernsf he isciplineTaylor990;Goodchild991;Openshaw991; aylorndOverton991; ake1993;Pickles995)?Alternatively,sGISa computerystem,or a sciencePickles 997;Wright,oodchild,ndProctor997)?Mostwritingsbout eographicnfor-matione.g., inton978; hrisman984; epartmentof he nvironment987;Goodchild992, 997, 000;BurroughndFrank995;OnsrudndRushton995;

Barr and Masser1997; Couclelis1997, 1998; Curry1998) avoiddefinitionsf nformationer e,focusinginstead n whatmakesnformationeographic.his sunderstandablen a new field ryingo establishtself.Thus, romhe arliestays,he alientharacteristicfgeographicnformationas been ts onstructionithinthe dimensionsf pace, heme,nd time Berry964;Sinton 978). deas bout nformationhat renotpartof hegeographicatrix ave eldom eendealtwith nan extendedmannery heGIScience ommunitybutsee Couclelis 997).The I inGIS

We draw nthe iteraturef cience ndtechnologystudies o examine he I inGIScritically,isinterringdeephistoryfmetaphorsbout nformationhat n-tered the nascentdiscipline romthe cyberneticsmovement f the mid-twentiethentury.hese ideasabout nformationerevital o thebuildingndpro-motionf omputerystems,uttheir ersistenceodaymayhamperheabilityfGIS to respondo currentneeds.We suggesthatGIScience,whichhas recentlycoalesced round he dea ofGIS as a technologyorcommunicationGoodchild 000; Sui and Goodchild2001),mightddresswhatcomputercientist osephGoguen 2002, 5) calls the scandal of informationtechnology ;hat s,the failuretoprovideoradopt)anynotion f nformationhat s sufficientlyrecise oserve sa basis or uildingechnicalystems,nd at thesame time an take sufficientccount f the crucial

Annals f heAssociationfAmerican eographers,6(3), 2006,pp.508-523 3 2006byAssociation fAmerican eographersInitial ubmission,anuary005;revisedubmission,ovember005;final cceptance, ovember 005Published yBlackwell ublishing,50MainStreet,Malden,MA 02148, nd 9600Garsingtonoad,Oxford X4 2DQ, U.K.

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Order romoise: oward Social heoryfGeographicnformation 509social spectswhich etermine hetherrnota systemwill e successful ith tsusers.Goguen oes notproviden alternativeefinitionfinformation;or do we.A gooddeal more padeworkneeds o be donebyGIScience n new deas about n-formationhatmightmakeGIS more esponsiveo theuser eforeny lternativeefinitionsanbe advanced.In this rticle, e suggestew research irectionshattakeaccount f the work eople ccomplishsingn-formationechnologies.ur positions thatGIS as atechnology epends n the creativityf informationusers ndsimultaneouslymbraces oth technicalys-tems nd situated ommunitiesfpractice.Informationaradoxes

The mid-twentiethenturyaw the emergencefmathematicalefinitionsf nformationWiener 948;Shannon nd Weaver 949;Brillouin962)that acili-tated the developmentf digital omputersnd thesubsequent ise of new sciences uch as cybernetics,computercience, rtificialntelligence,perationse-search,ndcognitivecience. hesemathematicalef-initionswere elaborated y severalmetaphorshatenvisioned ow informationperates n the world.Technologiesuch sGIS,whichmergedt a somewhatlaterperiod, eliednot uston the mathematicalor-mulaswithwhich hese arlier ciences pecifiednfor-mation, ut also absorbed nd madeuse of the samemetaphors. hereas he formulasave allowed cien-tists o writeGIS softwarehatworks,hemetaphors,perpetuatedypopular ulture nd reinforcedythediscourseurroundinghe emergingeographicnfor-mationechnologies,re more roblematic.Inpopularonstructionsbout he nformationoci-ety, nformations seen as inherentlyaradoxical(Bowker 994).On theonehand, npostindustrialo-cietyBell 1973) nformationas thepowero transformourmodes fproductionD. Harvey 989),our ettledsenses fspaceand time Soja 1989),the societieswelive nandthroughCastells 996), nd ndeed urverybodies (Martin1994; Hayles 1999). On the otherhand,information as no substance. t is not a thing, ather tis a relation Poster1990).Twometaphors bout informationopularized ythemid-twentiethentury yberneticsmovement sustaintheseparadoxes.The firstmetaphor isualizes nforma-tionas a substance r thing hatpassesbetweenobjectsand/or ctors n a communicationrocess.This processis typicallyymbolized y a boxes-and-arrowsiagram(Figure 1). In the idealized communications rocessrepresented y thisdiagram,nformation emains on-

Information Transmitter Receiver DestinationSource

Message Signal Received MessageSignal

NoiseSourceFigure.Metaphorf nvariance.Afterlaude hannonndWarren eaver.heMathematicalheoryfCommunication.opy-right949,998yhe oardf rusteesf he niversityf llinoisPress,.34.Used ithermissionf he niversityf llinoisress.)stant as it passes through arious ranslationsromsender o receiver.or he ake fbrevity,e callthis hemetaphorfinvarianceince themessage emainshesame s it smoved romender o receiver.Themetaphorf nvariance,hich reatsnformationas a thingndequates t with heexchangendtrans-port fgoods, as beenembodiednsuch deasas theinformationnfrastructureKahin1992) and the nfor-mationsuperhighwaySawhney1996). In the GISworld,hismetaphoras tsmost rominentpplicationintheNational patialData Infrastructurefthe Fed-eralGeographicata Committee1993),which nvi-sions networkorharingeographicatamodeled nthehighwayystem, necessarynderpinningfgoodgovernmentnda healthyconomy.The secondmetaphor epicts nformations onestagena progressionromaw ata owisdom,processof uccessiveefinement.e refero this s themetaphorofrefinement.ypically,hismetaphors visualized s adata or nformationyramidFigure ). Informations

Wisdom

Knowledge

Information

Data

Figure. Metaphorf efinement.



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510 PoorendChrismantreateds aboundlessnd enewableourcefwealthobe exploited.hemetaphorfrefinements a prereq-uisite othefrictionlessunctioningf he nformationsocietyCleveland985;Beniger986).Conceptualdocumentsroposinghe reationf digitalibraryfgeographicnformationependn the dea f nforma-tion s a source fwealth ndexplicitlyeferenceheinformationyramidNationalesearchouncil999).Theremainderf hisrticleiscussesow hese wometaphorstandehindresent-dayhinkingbout herole f nformationnGIS.A historicalectionituatesthemetaphorsnthepost-Worldar I culturef y-bernetics,uggestinghat hesemetaphorsnteredISthroughhe ise f uantitativeeographynd hede-velopmentf theoryf artographicommunication.Wefollow ith discussionf he ole fmetaphornscience,ndwe draw n the iteraturef cience ndtechnologytudiesosuggestlternativeisionsf n-formationased nsocial nd thicaloncernshat analso be traced onow-forgottenevelopmentsn thecyberneticovement.Information etaphors ndCybernetics

Through artimeork n theregulationf ervo-mechanismsor ontrollingntiaircraftuns Heims1991;Galison 994) ndsolvingroblemsfmessagetransmissionndcryptographyMirowski002),Nor-bertWeinerndClaude hannonublishednfluentialworksefininghenew cience f yberneticsearlyi-multaneouslyWiener 948; Shannon nd Weaver1949).Fundamentalocyberneticsasthe ctivityfmodeling.yberneticodels ermittedcientistsostudyhepropertiesfsystemsndependentftheirphysicalealization.ery ifferentystems-electroniccircuits,rains,rorganizations-werehoughto beisomorphichen ddressedsing igh-levelonceptssuch as order,omplexity,nformation,ontrol,nddifferenceHeylighenndJoslyn002). Cyberneticideaswere ntroducedo widercientificircles ndto popularulturehrough series f interdiscip-linary onferencesn the late 1940s and early1950s,sponsored ytheJosiahMacyFoundation vonFoerster1949), thatwerewidelyreported n the popular press(Time 950).Shannon and Wienerare todayregarded s the ointfathers fcybernetics,nd theydefined nformationnmathematicallyimilar erms;however, hey laboratedthesemathematicalormulas ithdifferentoundationalmetaphors, s described bove. These differences ayaccount,in part,forthe paradoxicalqualitiesthat in-formationssumes n thepopularmind.

TheMetaphorf nvariance:laudeShannonShannon, mathematicianmployedt BellLabs,wasconcernedith heproblemftransmittinges-sagesver istancend hroughime.or hannon,thefundamentalroblemfcommunications that fre-producingtonepointitherxactlyr pproximatelymessageelected t another oint Shannon ndWeaver949, 1).His olutiontressedfficientoding,usinghe inaryogic fBooleanlgebra.In Shannon's odel,nformationstransmittedromsenderoreceiverhroughdefinedhannel,isualizedas a one-wayeriesf rrowslowingetweenoxesseeFigure ). Shannon'sommunicationystems predi-

cated nreducingncertaintyn thecodingndde-codingfmessagesent nd receivedymechanicalmeans.nformationsdefinedathematicallysdirectlyproportionalo the ogarithmf theprobabilitiesfchoosingnesymbolver notherrom finiteeper-toire fsymbols,xpressednbinaryogic. hannon'sdefinitionf informations counterintuitiveo thepopularnderstandingf nformation:hatmorenfor-mationmpliesess ncertainty.or hannon,messagewith highnformationontents one nwhichhe etofpossible essagesisplayslowdegreeforganiza-tion. or xample,ndecodingmessageomposedroma structurednformationource uch s theEnglishlanguage,redictinghenext ettern a sequencesmuch asierhan redictinghenext na randome-quence f etters.he ink etweenrobabilitynd n-formations thekey oefficientodingnddecoding.Shannon'sommunicationheorymplied othingabout hemeaningf message,nd, ndeed,nbothTheMathematicalheoryfCommunicationsndthelaterMacyConferences,hannon ssertedhathistheoryidnot pplyo emantics,hehumanspectsfcommunicationShannonndWeaver 949, 1; vonFoerster950, 57).Thecommunicationsrocessm-plied y hannon'siagramasbeen haracterizeds aconduitReddy 979)throughhichnformationssimply onveyed,much as water is deliveredto cus-tomers horough system fpipes. On thisview, an-guage transmitsdeas from peakerto listener hroughthe reificationf thoughts nd feelings nto an ideaspace. The receiver imply xtracts meaningthat isalreadypresentwithin he idea space. This linearac-countofcommunicationivesno credence otheactivestructuringnd reinterpretationnvolved n the act oflistening, orto a communal r ritualviewofcommu-nicationthatestablishes haredmeaning Carey 1989,Schroeder 003).



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Order rom oise:Toward SocialTheoryfGeographicnformation 511In Shannon'system,heencodingnddecodingfmessagesre transformationshatcan be reversedothat themessage xtractedrom he communicationprocesss identical o themessagencoded:The generaldea is thatwewillhaveeffectuallyefinedinformationf we knowwhentwo informationourcesproduce he same information.. This is a commonmathematicalodge nd amountsodefiningconcept ygiving groupfoperationshich eavethe oncept obedefinednvariantly.fwehave message,t snaturalo aythat ny ranslationf hemessage,ay ntoMorse ode orinto another anguage, ontains he same informationprovidedt spossibleo translateniquelyachway.-(Shannon, quoted nvon Foerster950,157)The invariance f informationhroughransforma-tions nd theunidirectionallow f nformationaveimportantonsequencesor heway nformationaterbecamerepresentedn quantitativeeography,n thecartographiciterature,n systemsfmap production,and ultimatelyn geographicnformationystems.orexample,WaldoTobler,nimportantigurenearly IStheory,esignedisnotion fgeographicaliltersn thesame frameworkf invariance ndertransformation(Tobler 969;see Chrisman999).WhileTobler rewon older ormulasorransformingapprojectionsn his

work, ewas lsoreadingndreferencinghe yberneticliteratureTobler 000).The Metaphor fRefinement: orbertWiener

Wiener, professorf mathematicst theMassa-chusettsnstitutefTechnology,oined heword cy-bernetics rom he Greekwordfor teersman.hisnavigational etaphornlargeshescopeof thenewscience fcyberneticseyond ommunication,mpha-sizinghe nteractionforganismsith heir nviron-ment, considerationxcluded romhannon's lack-boxed communication ystem. orWiener, nformationholdstogether mixedhuman/machineierarchy herefeedback nd notions ofcontrol nd powerare central(Hayles 1999). Wiener,developinghis ideas fromwar-timework on the problem f aiming nti-aircraftuns(Galison1994), posited cyberneticmachinethatusedinformationn thepastbehavior fconstantlyhangingagents-the enemypilot,the aircraft,he gunner, ndthegun-to predict he future osition f theaircraft.nthis theory,nformation,r the messagesthat flowedamongparts nthis ystem, as a pattern fdifferences,

setof elations,ot nobject,s mpliedn the hannondiagramHayles 999).In Cybernetics,iener 1948, 181,187) includesdiscussion f the mplicationsfcyberneticsor ocialsystemshat stresses indingpowerof informationwithin hierarchicalocial ystem:Theconcept f norganization,he lementsfwhichre hemselvesmallorganizations,s neither nfamiliarornew .. One ofthe essons f thepresentook s that nyorganismsheldtogethernthis ction ythepossessionfmeansfor heacquisition,se,retention,nd transmissionfinformation.The role f nformations a mediatornd thevisionof a hierarchicaluperorganizationomposed fpro-gressivelymallerartsinksWiener's yberneticso theinformationyramidseeFigure ).The informationyramidepicts uccessivepwardstages frefinementrdistillation,rom hemany ndlowlyositionedndvalued o thefew ndhighlylacedand valued.This s alsoa metaphorf theminglingfthe human nd thenonhuman.nformationediatesbetween bjectsn the naturalworld,s data, nd theinnerworkingsf thehumanmind, s knowledgendwisdom. he informationyramidarallelsheorgani-zation fcomputerystems,ith its nd machinean-guage t the bottomndmore bstract ndhumanlyorientedtructuresuchas applicationrogramst thetop McCarthy966).The informationyramidsalsomirrorfhow he nformation-basedciences iew heirsubjects-fornstancehow the early rtificialntelli-gence ommunityiewed he nternalperationsf themind shierarchyMinsky986)or howoperationse-search efinedrganizationsSimon1960).Finally,heinformationyramidmbodiesnd normalizesheoriesofpower,eflectinghehierarchicalocial tructuresftheold ndustrialconomy,ithmanualworkersn thebottom ndknowledgeorkersnd bosses n thetop.The information/knowledge/wisdomyramidid notoriginate ithWiener ut made tsappearancen thelatenineteenth-centurytopianmovementMattelart1999) in such schemess the World orporationro-posed by safetyrazor inventorKing Camp Gillette(Gillette 1910) (Figure3). In thisutopianvision,theadvancement of civilization s linked to progressiveknowledge cquiredbythe individualworker.The association of the information yramidwithinformation s a critical resourcewas cemented bythe proclamation f an informationociety nd an in-formationeconomy in the 1980s (Drucker 1980;Cleveland 1985). Advocatesofgovernmentnformationtechnology initiatives and electronic libraries alsoadoptedthe nformationyramids a centralmetaphor,



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512 Poore ndChrisman

COQNGRESS/ObMINISTRATINO

SPECIALISTSTECHNICALXPERTS

MANAGERSSUPERINTENDENTS

FOREMENSKILLED ABOR

EDUCATION INDUSTRYPREPARATORYDUCATION

L LU 0 >- >- (0 z 0 z ) LS rr z z z, , z 0 z 0 O Z1- -- - . LUoxF) r) -- Fp- -L Lj LU LU 01Z >-C) Z Z LU LU z < z(a - < 0 0U U_LL- Z-r I z z z :D(f)_

J z< < -- -

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_ zUw zcO

Figure. World orporation.After ingCampGillette.910,Worldorporation.oston: ew nglandews orporation,.85.)relyingn its ong ssociationsith he dvancementof civilizationnd the expansionf the economy(Vogt 995; arson998).Expandinghannon'sDiagram:WarrenWeaver

Shannon'smphasisn thefaithfuleproductionfthenputtthe eceivingnd f messageransmissionderivesirectlyromhe ircumstancesfhiswartimeconcernsithryptographyMirowski002).Cryptog-raphysimplicitlyoncerned ithafelyeeping es-sagesecret-not ith idelyisseminatingnowledge.It s a limited odel or umanommunicationecauseit ntentionallymitsny hoice rpurposivectivitytthe eceivingnd.Despitehannon'sttemptso con-finehemeasurementndmeaningfnformationo hesolutionfproblemsn communicationsngineering,mathematicianarren eaver,n influentialostwarsciencedministratorhoworkedtboth heRocke-fellernd SloanFoundationsRees1987),wasdeter-

minedouniversalizehannon's odely pplyingttootherllformsf ommunicationMirowski002).In the ssayhat erveds the ntroductionothehardcoverersionf hannon'sheorypreviouslyub-lished s Shannon 948 withoutWeaver's ssay),Weaverniversalizeshannon'snformationoa widevarietyf pplications,tatinghat ommunicationasalloftheproceduresywhichne mindmay ffectanother Shannonnd Weaver 949,3), includingspeech, riting,usic,nd rt.ForWeaver,hannon'srescriptionsgainstnlargingthe cope f nformationo the emanticomainosednosignificantroblems.eaverlaimedhat n the u-ture hepowerfulody ftheoryoncerningarkoffprocessesShannonnd Weaver949, 8),onwhichShannon asedhisconceptionf nformation,ouldunravelheproblemfsemantics.maginingfuturetechnologyhatwill olve roblemshat urrentech-nologies reate Winner 986) is consonant ithWeaver'sositions an architectf he ostwarxpan-sion f ciencend echnologyseeEdwards996).Metaphors

ShannonndWeaverndWienerre mportantolater evelopmentsnmanyields,ncludingeography,notust or hemathematicalormulasith hichheyspecifiednformation,ut or heirmetaphoricescrip-tionsfnformation.hyremetaphorsmportant?urordinaryanguages at basemetaphoricalLakoffndJohnson980), utmetaphorslsoplay particularlyimportantatalyzingole nthe evelopmentf cience.It hasbeen aid, There'soavoiding etaphornsci-ence Lakoff999, ).Metaphornd imileave eenunderstoodscharacteristicropesf cientifichought(Harre 986, ; Sismondo996), ssociated ith heformationfnewparadigmsKuhn 962;Hess1966;Haraway976; ox-Keller995).Metaphorsn science unctions agentsftheorychange ecause hey ombinebjectsn strangendunexpectedaysBarnes996; atour996; ismondo1996). This formulationtresses heactivefunction fagood metaphor,ts experimental ertilityHaggettandChorley 1967). An exampleof the close alignment fmetaphorsndtheoryan be found nBarnes'shistoryftheorydevelopment n economicgeographyn whichmetaphorsare seen as acts of novel redescription(Barnes 2001, 548); the sitesforthe crystallizationfnewtheory.WarrenWeaver'sessay Shannonand Weaver 1949,27) uses metaphor o emphasize he role of theorynscience n a similarway: Anengineeringommunication



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Orderrom oise: owardSocial heoryfGeographicnformation 513theorys ust ike veryropernddiscreteirlcceptingyour elegram.he paysno attentiono themeaning,whethertbesad, r oyousr mbarrassing.ut hemustbepreparedo dealwith llthat omes o herdesk.The girl presumablysecretary)hoconveyshemessages comparedo a theory.lacing heemphasison theorys a neutralonveyorfmeanings a movetowardniversalizing;tallows or heexpansionf n-formationheoryntoother omains eside ommuni-cations ngineering.ince t doesnot matter hetherthe ecretarynderstandshemessage-infact hedoesnot care aboutthemeaning-Shannon'snformationtheoryanbe applied oanymessage. or nlarginghescopeofthecyberneticsovement,hiswas critical:preciselyhe samearrangementfpartsn thecom-puter an representhe spreadof an epidemic,hespread frumorsn a community,hedevelopmentfrust n a pieceofgalvanizedron, nd diffusionn asemi-conductorPask 1961, 32, n. 10; quoted inBowker 993,122).Thispassage rom ritishyberneticianordon askisveryimilaro themuch ater escriptionftheuni-versalityfGISbyOpenshawquoted arlier). lthoughit snot ikelyhatOpenshaw asquoting askdirectly,themetaphoricescriptionsf how nformationech-nologiescan function niversallyre verysimilar,attestingo the survivalfcyberneticdeas about n-formationnvery ifferentontexts.Metaphorsorge ewrealitieshroughhe uxtaposi-tionof twoseeminglyisparatemages.t is preciselybecause hey o notdirectly aprealityhat uccessfulmetaphorsan oftenhave the effect f eventuallystructuringealityo fit Black1993;Sawhney 996).For xample,nGIS,themetaphorf he andscapes aset f ayersvolved romhe iteralracticef andscapeplannersnto metaphorhat arly rogrammerssed oguide he onstructionfGIS softwareE Harvey 996).Later,hemetaphoricecame iteralgain s theuse ofthesesoftwareackages ncouraged rganizationsocollect ata ccordingo the ayers. lthoughhere avebeen recent evelopmentsn GIScienceresearchhathave reconceptualized helandscape n terms fobject-oriented design (Worboys,Hearnshaw,and Maguire1990) and agent-basedmodeling (O'Sullivan 2004),numerouspractitioners ontinue to conceive of thelandscape in termsof layers Schuurman1999). In asense,they re locked nto thiswayofthinking ecauseit has been built nto some of the most widespreadsoftware ystems nd textbooks Tomlin 1990). Thelandscape-as-layersmetaphordemonstrates ow a dis-cursivepractice,whichoriginated s a leap in scientificlogic,can interact hrough ime withthe agencies of

people,nstitutions,ndtechnologieso enforceertainways f eeingndtalkingbout he andscape.

CartographicommunicationsThe complex elation etween yberneticsndge-ographymustremain siteforfurtheresearchnddiscussion. owever,t is clear hatmany uantitativegeographersut hemathematicalracticesfShannonand Wiener o workwhile t the same ime mbracingthemetaphorsf nvariancendrefinement.he pen-etrationfcyberneticormulasndmetaphorsngeog-raphys amply emonstratednwhatmight ereferredto as the essential reatisefquantitativeeography,ChorleyndHaggett's odelsnGeography1967).Theessays n this volumeare suffused ith nformationtheorysee,e.g.,HaggettndChorley 967;Stoddart1967). For thenascent cience fGIS, or automatedcartography,oard's1967)article n themap smodelisfundamental,ince t sregardedshaving icked ffconcern or yberneticsnd nformationheoryncar-tographyRobinsonnd Petchenik975).Board's ssay nd the omewhatater nebyKolacny(1969) importheShannondiagramnd elaborate twithdditionaloxes nd rrowsosuit he artographicmodel. n itsmost asicform,heShannon iagramsdiscussed yRobinson nd Petchenik1976) in theirtreatmentf cartographicommunicationFigure ).The realworld ecomes hesource, hemapbecomesthesignal,nd themapusers rethe receiversf themessage. he Shannonmodelwasannounced s a newparadigmhatwouldprovide scientificasisfor ar-tographyMorrison976).With he xceptionf fewinstancesnwhich ttempts eremadeto analyze heinformationontent fmaps see,e.g.,Ratajski 978),cartographersid not employ heunderlyingathe-matics f cybernetics.nstead, he Shannondiagramfunctionedn thecartographicommunicationsitera-ture s a visualmetaphor; machinewithwhich othink. he diagramllowed artographerso envisiontheir isciplines a rigorousualitativecience inkingtherealworld, hecartographer,hemap,and themap

SignalSource Channel Recipient

Figure. Cartographicommunication.Afterrthur . Robin-son ndBarbara. Petchenik,976.TheNaturefMaps: ssaystowardnderstandingaps ndmapping.hicago:UniversityfChicagoress. opyright976 y heUniversityfChicagoress.p.7.Usedwith ermissionf heUniversityfChicagoress.)



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514 Poore ndChrismanusernonecommonystem.his s the xpansionf heShannon iagramoward he nformationyramidn-visionedyWeaver nd Wiener.The relevance f thecartographicommunicationsliteratureo current ISpracticesas ts nclusionf heusernthemap-makingystem.or heShannonmodelto apply omaps,t wasnecessaryo see the Shannondiagrams pertainingohuman ommunication,hichwouldnothave been consonant ith hannon's iews,butwhichwould avebeen upportedyWeaver.nhisclassic aper n cartographicommunications,oLicny(1969, 47) states: It is the cartographicnformationthat s a newconcept onnectinghe creationnd uti-lization f themap n one process. his mplieshatinformations a substance hatflowshroughhe dia-gram, emainingnvariantn theprocess. owever,ealsostates: Thereforeartographicnformation,hichis never f materialature,ncludes hemeaningndsense of therepresentationalapcontent 49). So,informations at once bothmaterial,apable fdoingwork,nd mmaterial,relation.To accommodateemantics ithin heShannon ia-gram y ncludingoth he hinkingapmakernd thethinking apuser n one systemecessarilynvolvedcartographicommunicationsn postulatinghatwashappeningnside he head ofthe user.Accountingormeaning equired oth informationetaphorso beemployedimultaneously,orgingn undyinginkbe-tweenmapmakingndcognitionhathas been trans-ferredo modern IS researchMark1993).Mapsare nherentlyifferentromhannon'smodel.Themap sboth code nd message.hemap ncodesa particularpatial rrangementelected ythecartog-rapherndexpressedncartographicode;however,hereceiver oesnothavethe ame ccess othe odebookas themapmaker.nShannon'smodel,heproblem ithtransmissions noise n thechannel;withmaps, hemessages not nvariant,or smeaning.he codeshadto move insidethe head, becoming epresentationalmental chema Morrison 976). Thus, solutions ocartographicommunicationsecame closely inkedwithdevelopmentsn psychologynd cognitive cience(Blades and Spencer1986). The maps nthe headwere,in theory, lignedat both ends of the communicationprocessby the map-maker'sudiciousselection fromrepertoirefsymbols. ser testing orbetter ymbol e-lection was recommendedn the cartographicommu-nications iterature,ut bothmap maker nd map userwereunderstood o have the same underlyingmentalstructuresNyerges 991). Communication as not seenas a conversation etweenmapmaker ndmapuserthatinvolvedmutualfeedback ut rather s a manifestation

of the conduitmetaphorherenformationassimplyconveyedReddy 979).Further orks neededto explore he relation e-tween ognitivecience, hich ad a stronglyyberneticbackground,nd the cartographicommunicationsschool.Morrison1976) conceptualizeshinkings themanipulationf symbols unctioninghrough hemechanismf earch erymuchnthevein f ognitivescience Newell nd Simon1976), tself eavilynflu-encedby cybernetics.lthoughhecartographicom-munications chool was challengedfromwithincartographyRobinson nd Petchenik 975; Ratajski1978;Harley 989;Wood nd Fels1992;see reviewnCrampton001),cognitive appingDownsandStea1973)becameverymuch factornhow the relationbetweenGIS and GIS userswould be characterized(Mark1988,1989;Mark nd Frank 989;Mark ndEgenhofer997;Mark tal. 2000).CyberneticetaphorsnEarlyGIS Theory

Like he artographicommunicationiterature,arlyGIS theoryacillates etween hemetaphorf nvari-ance andthemetaphorfrefinement.s evidence, eofferouglas nd Peucker'snowPoiker) lassic rticle,Algorithmor heReduction f theNumber fPointsRequiredoRepresentDigitizedine r tsCaricature(1973). In this rticle, ouglas nd Peucker resentnalgorithmoresolve criticalroblemnthetransitionbetweenmanual and digital artography.utomaticdigitizingf ines rommaps esultednmore ata thanwere eeded ocharacterizeinesn a database.notherwords, ouglas nd Peucker re interestedn how toreduce oise n a communicationhannel.Douglasand Peucker escribeeveral igitizingr-rangementshat anbe related oth o Shannon's ia-gram nd to the informationyramid.n automaticcoordinateigitizerthetransmitterfShannon's ia-gram)moves verthe ine on a map the nformationsource), ncodinghe ine themessage) s a series fpoints, xpresseds x,ycoordinatesransformedntoelectronic its (the signal).The bits are outputtomagnetic ape (a channel).The computer eads thetape(computeras receiver) and in turnmanipulatesthesignaland transformst (computer s transmitter)othatthesignal an be sent (overanother hannel) to aplotter the receiver),which transformshesignalbackinto ines on a map (themessage).This is a multistagerealization f Shannon'sdiagramwith the emphasisoninformationemainingnvariant nderseveral transfor-mations.Douglas and Peucker'sefforts ere directedtowardreducing he noise in the variouschannels so



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Orderromoise: oward Social heoryfGeographicnformation 515that he ine drawn ytheprinter ouldduplicatescloselyspossible,ndwith neconomyf nformation,theoriginaline on themap.These notionshow heslipperinessf nformations invariance-through-trans-formationlidesnto nformations refinement.The digitizingechanismsescribedyDouglas ndPeuckeranalso be viewed rom he tandpointfWi-ener'snotions f nformationnd the nformationyr-amid. irst, ouglas nd Peucker1973,112)describehuman perator,inked o thedigitizernd thecompu-ter, igitizingy hepointmethod ndgeneralizings hegoesalong subjectivelyelect[ing] ointswhichbestapproximatehe ineto thedegree e desires. Whenrun n theautomaticmode, computeran substitutefor digitizingerson. hecomputer,interfacedothedigitizingable verseeshewhole peration,hecks nddouble hecks hedatarecorded,losesoops nd ignalswhen t senses greatmany rrors 113). Thesetwooperationsremixedman/machineierarchies,nitedby flow f nformation,eptncheck y eedbackoopsanddirectedoward goal-the transformationf se-lecteddatapointsnto higherormfmore niversalknowledge,hat s, knowledgehatcan be used formultipleunctionsuchas mapgeneralization,hangesinprojections,rcompilationith ther ypes fgeo-graphicata.The algorithmtselfan be seen s an instance f n-formationheory.he algorithmsprogrammedo con-struct n imaginaryine from n anchorpointto aconstantlyloatingnd point.The perpendicularis-tances fverticeso thatmaginaryine resuccessivelyexamined,nd pointswithin certain hresholdorbandwidth)reeliminated,akingheoutliersntonewanchor oints,t which ime heprocesssrepeatednarecursiveashion.naccordance ithnformationheory,this lgorithmperates ypatternsfdifferenceromheexpected,hat s, the thresholdalues.By cyberneticdefinition,oints yingutside his atternfdifferencecontainmorenformationecause hey reunexpected.They rethedifferenceshatmake differenceBateson1972,315). Theseoutlyingoints ecome heturningpoints f theline,givingt order ut ofthe noise of thecloud ofpoints hat recapturednthedigitizingrocess.So, bythisearlydate in the evolutionof GIS tech-nology nd theory,he impactofcyberneticsnd infor-mationtheory ad alreadybeen absorbed.Douglas andPeuckerdo not have to refer o the actual precedentliteratures f informationheory nd cybernetics orjustifyheiruse. These ideas have faded nto the back-groundbecause they re in the processofbeing ncor-porated ntothevery lgorithmshat willmake up thenextgeneration f GIS software.

Paradigmhifts:heTowerfBabel nd heDigitalGeolibrariesovementParadigmhifts re verymuchon the agenda nGIScience esearchoday.n a series fpapersGood-child 992, 000;Wright,oodchild,ndProctor997;Goodchild t al. 1999),Goodchildnd hiscoauthorshavecalled for heestablishmentf a science fgeo-graphicnformation,hanginghemeaningf he S inthe cronymIS fromystemso science. n mportantmotivationor heturn oGIScience s said to be thewidespreadseofgeographicnformationnconjunctionwith ew echnologiesor ommunicationGoodchildtal. 1999). On the one hand,the nformationciencespawned y the Shannonmodel whichdiscardsny

notion fmeaning)s heldupasfundamentaloprogresstodayGoodchild000).On theother and, retheo-rizingf GIS as communicationsSui 1999;Goodchild2000; Sui and Goodchild2001, 2002) and thecloselyssociatedigital eolibraryovementNationalResearchCouncil1999),whichbuildsoff he infor-mationpyramid,ttempt o recastGIS as a socialmovementmbracingrdinary eople-an audienceforwhom hemeaningfgeographicnformationustbeparamount.Mostofthediscussionboutgeographicnformationin the GIS-as-communicationsaradigmnd in thedigital eolibrariesovementnconsciouslyerpetuatesthe hiddenmetaphorsf informationnheritedromcyberneticsndblack-boxednto arly IS technologies.As we saw nthe case ofDouglas ndPeucker1973),both hemythf nvariancendthemythf efinementareemployedimultaneously.Goodchild2000,345) assertshat eographicnfor-mation s both well-designedubset f nformationngeneral,nd a commodityhat s independentfthemedia n which t is stored,ommunicated,ndused.Well-designeduggestsbedient oknownaws, ndcommoditympliesnformations thing. hisformu-lation lacesgeographicnformationackwithinhan-non's losedworldf nformationeasurementnwhichsenderand receivermustagreeon a code that s usedfirst o expressmessagecontent n a fixed lphabetandthento decode it.The independence f nformationrom ts mediaalsoreflects he cybernetic ream of a universalmodelinglanguage. More directly,Goodchild appropriates heShannon/Weaver nformation iagramto depict theprocess of information ransfer n geological fieldknowledge (Figure 5). Goodchild's diagramenvisionsthecurrent bility f the fieldgeologist o convey nfor-mationdirectly o the user through he advances of



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516 PoorendChrisman

F e d.....................................eologist Archivist

Cartographer

.........

. . .. .usersrinterDistributor Collectors

LibrariansFigure. Communicationfgeologicalield nowledge.AfterMichael Goodchild,000.Communicatingeographicnforma-tionna digitalge.Annalsf he ssociationfAmericaneogra-phers0 (2): 348.Usedwith ermissionfBlackwellublishing.)informationechnology.owever,tmakes oprovisioneitheror ser eedbackrforhe reativeonstructionof nformationndknowledgeyusers.Goodchild2000, 47)argueshathe cientificiewofGISmighthange nder henewGIS-as-communi-cation aradigm:But n theworld f omputershu-man ommunicationedium,he uestionfwhetherinformationhoulde forcedoadapt o thenaturefthe channel s muchmoredebatable. ender ndreceivero ongerhare he ame ode.The Shannonparadigmannotpply.ndyet e sticksloselyo theview f nformations thing,ndcommunicatione-mains boxes-and-arrowstructurehat ransmitsn-formationnvariablyhroughseriesf ransformations.This acillationetweennformationetaphorslsocharacterizeshedigitaleolibraryovement.hedig-italgeolibraryartakesf both hefamiliarityftheneighborhoodibraryndthe bilityf he nternetodelivernformationromnywhereoanywheretanytimeNational esearch ouncil 999).The nforma-tion yramids nvokedodistinguishetweenaw ata,thefocus fearly igitalpatial atacollections,ndcreative orksfknowledgeuch s andscapeescrip-tions,he tufff raditionalibrariesNationalesearchCouncil 999).The new distributedeolibraryanprovideccess obothypesf nformationecause othtypes f nformationookessentiallyhe sameto acomputer-aollectionfbitswithootprints,etrieva-bleusinghe ame earchmechanismsNational e-search ouncil 999, 4).This s nformation-as-thing.Raw information,nformation-as-thing,s distin-guishedrom nowledge.cientists ay implyeedaccess o the aw ata romhichhey ill reate ewknowledge,oweverserswithoutophisticatedools

may ave o settleor he andscapeescriptionsNa-tional esearchouncil 999, 4).Althoughecognizinghat digitaleolibraryeedsto accommodatehe reationfnewknowledgey n-dividualsrgroupsNational esearch ouncil 999,44),the uthorsf his eportffero considerationfpossible echanismshroughhich ewknowledgerinformationreatedy ndusers ouldnturne rein-corporatednto hedigital eolibrary.nstead,here-searchneedsdiscussednd the technicalolutionsproposedre nvisionedna top-downanner.ocialconcernsrebracketedffs concernsor rivacyndcopyrightrotectionna digital orld.This attitudes an expressionf the nformationpyramid.he reportallsfor heaccommodationfuser's oncernsnthedesignf ystems,hichs anadvance n the Shannonmodel, ut the ultimatestructures magineds a hierarchyesignedromhetopdown, aluingertainypes finformationndknowledgever thers.Anadditionalangerf hehierarchicalpproachoinformations that heprogressp thepyramidromdata o nformationoknowledgeowisdoms a processof refinement.hus thedigital eolibraryystemsgearedowardbstractingnowledgeromaw ata ndinformationnorder ohelpusers indwhat heyrelookingor atherhan eginningith he ontextfuse.Thedigitaleolibraryisionushes ISpartiallynthe irectionf he ocial,ut s n ncompletearadigmshiftecausedefinitionfnformationhat illupportthe ocial isions acking.ocial oncernsrenotusticingnthe ake, ut equireundamentalethinkingnthe esignfGISystems,lacingmphasisnthe rucialpracticesywhicheoplenteract.The SearchforMeaning:Toward SocialTheoryfGeographicnformation

In parallel ith he criticismf GIS from ithinmainstreameography,ited bove, roblemsfusageand meaning ave concernedGIScience n thepastdecade. The reflectiverticle yBurroughnd Frank(1995) asked whether ISs are universal.heycon-cluded hat estrictivepatial aradigmsn which ur-rentGISs arebased imit heir sefulnessseealsoFisher1998;Sheppardt al. 1999).However,lthoughomehave seenthat utmodedefinitionsf nformationrealsoproblematic,here as been no concertedffortodevelop ew pproaches.Recently,n editedvolume n the foundationsfGIScience ddressed omeof the nadequacies f the



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Order rom oise:Toward SocialTheoryfGeographicnformation 517inheritedyberneticetaphorsDuckham, oodchild,andWorboys003),buta closereadingfthese ssaysshows hatthe nformationetaphorsre difficultoescape. In a chapterproposingcientificmeans tomeasure hevalueofgeographicnformation,oodchild(2003) sketcheshebeginningf theoryfcontextnwhich hevalueof nformationsbasedonthecompu-ter'sbilityorespondoqueries.nthis ormulation,heimpliedser's elationshipith he omputersthroughthe ctivityf earch,nd hisor her mpliedoal s theretrievalf a specifictem of informationreviouslydefinedyGoodchild t al. (1999)as a tuple. here s astrongie to Shannon's otion f nvariance:AGIS issaidtopossess n item fgeographicnformationde-finedsone ormore toms)f t scapable f espondingoa queryowhichhe tems the nswer Goodchild003,27,emphasisntheoriginal).hat most sers t sometime ranotherurn o search ngineso answer eo-graphic uestionss undeniable. utdefiningnforma-tion onarrowlyeaves ut whole ange f ctivitiesorwhich eople segeographicnformation.In Goodchild'siece,GIS is portrayeds a thinkingmachine or he ntirelanet,husnvokinghe mage fthe nformationyramid.oodchild2003,27) imaginesDigital arth s a kind fgeographicaluringestwiththe omputeracinggainst personoprovidenswersthat re ndistinguishableo an observer.nformationsconceivedcientifically.utside cience,heremightea reason oaccept he egitimacyf multiple,ersonalviewpoints27),such s those epresentednthepublicparticipationIS movementCraig, arris,nd Weiner2002) or in naive geographyEgenhofernd Mark1995).AccordingoGoodchild,uilding GIS to sup-portnonscientificnformationouldbe impossiblee-cause sucha machine ouldnotreason.The imagerythus s of the informationyramidncompassingheentireworld, ith cientificnformations a force hatequateshuman ognition ith hecomputer.

In thissamevolume,Worboys2003) advanceslogical pecificationf informationlow ased on theutilitarianelevanceheoryfcommunicationcholarsSperber nd Wilson 1995). However,Worboys oes notlook at theproblem f nformationrom he standpointof the receiverof a communication, atherhis articleperpetuatesthe conduit metaphor, s derived fromShannon. nformationbout a real-worldbject ssimplyconveyed through channel. Worboys cknowledgesthat the conduitmetaphor as its imitationsn dealingwithcontext.Several otherrecent rticles hallenge heGISciencecommunityo develop a theory f nformationhat ac-commodatesthe social. Buildingon the notion of a

semanticweb for the World-Wide-Webonsortium(Berners-Lee,endler,ndLassila 001),theUniversityConsortiumorGIS hasproposed geospatialemanticweb that would ncorporate eaningnto the searchforgeographicnformationFonseca nd Sheth2002).Thiswouldrequire uilding ntologiesr conceptualsystemshatpeopleuseinrelationogiven omains fobjects Fonseca nd Sheth2002,2). However,heauthors tate that the creation nd managementfontologiess difficultecause ontologys basedonagreementsand preferablyonsensus)mongdomainexpertshat an begeographicallyistributed.ltimatelytheirurvivalsbased nuser'scceptance.his oa goodpartnvolves social nd collaborativerocess Fonsecaand Sheth 002,2).Raperet al. (2002, 40) distinguishetween epre-sentational nd communicativeomponentsf geo-graphic nformationGI), insistinghat these twocomponentsrereflexivelyonnected:CommunicationofGI is a coupled nd reflexiverocessnvolvinghecreator nd the user.AtpresentreatorsfGI tend oassume hat usershave access to themethodologicalprocesseshatgaverise o thegeo-representationventhoughhat t [sic] susually ot thecase.Raper t al. (2002, 9) concludey tating:inrealityGI must e evaluatedhrougholisticnd reflexivey-cles ofmakingnd remaking. longwith hem,weassert hat hekey o a social heoryf nformationustbegin y xaminingheprocessfmakingndremaking.A socialtheoryf informationillaccountforhowmeanings constructeds informationechnologiesreused.Thisapproachooks eyondhe losedboxes ndarrows fShannon's iagramndat the ametime p-ends he nformationyramido make heconstructionof ocal, ituated nowledgend the activitiesf usersimportantomponentsfholistic IS enterprises,atherthanseeingusers s therecipientsfknowledgendwisdom escendingrom bove.The notion fmaking

andremakings critical ecause t mplies reiterativecycle nda social earningrocess.It ssomewhatronic hat pragmatic,ontextualiewof nformationosupporthisvisionwasdeveloped nthesecond wave of the cyberneticmovement n the 1970sand 1980s by such figures s Gregory ateson (1972),Gordon Pask (1961), Heinz von Foerster1980), Hum-berto Maturana (Maturanaand Varela 1980); see alsoPickering2002). Unfortunately,he insights f the sec-ond-wavecybemeticists ere not picked up bythe dis-ciplines hat evolvedfrom irst-waveyberneticsuch ascomputer cience, rtificialntelligence,r cognitive ci-ence. Consequently he founders f the GIS movementreliedon earlier nd less social viewsof nformation.



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518 Poore ndChrismanAnthropologistateson1972,315),whoparticipat-edenthusiasticallyntheMacyConferences,onsideredinformationeaningfulnly s thedifferencehichmakes difference o someone.n otherwords, or

Bateson,nformationas a processfmutual lignmentand was not anobject o be transmitted.oBateson,twas a mistake or esearchersoncerned ith ommu-nication o focusxclusivelyn therole f he omputerandcomparetsoperationsith hehumanmind: Thecomputersonly n arcof largerircuit hich lwaysincludes man and an environmentrom hichnfor-mation s received nd uponwhich fferent essagesfrom hecomputerave effect 317).Physicisteinz von Foerster elieved hattheem-phasis n informationasmisleading:since e hink eknow hatnformations,webelieve ecancompresst,processt, hop tup.Webelievenfor-mationaneven e storedndthen,atern,retrieved:witnesshe ibrary,hichscommonlyegardeds an n-formationtoragend etrievalystem.nthis, owever,earemistaken.library aytoreooks, icrofiches,oc-uments,ilms,lides,ndcatalogues,ut tcannot toreinformation.ne canturn librarypside own: o n-formationill ome ut.-(von Foerster980, 9;quotednSchroeder003)BiologistMaturanatook a constructivistosture.

Knowing as as indistinguishableromeing s theor-ganismwas inseparablerom ts environment:Thecentral eaturefhuman xistences tsoccurrencenalinguisticognitive omain.This domain s constitu-tivelyocial MaturanandVarela 980, 0).Notethatthe operational oncepthere is knowinga process)rather hanknowledgea product).Inspiredythepredilectionsf second-orderyber-netics o embrace he ocial, body fwork asgrownup in such fields s science and technologytudies(Haraway 988;Star1991;Bowker nd Star1999;La-tour1999; Star 1999), social informaticsStar andRuhleder 996), anthropologySuchman1987; Hut-chins1995),computercience Winogradnd Flores1986; Goguen 1997; Brown nd Duguid 2000), and ar-tificialntelligence Agre1997) thatemploys ualitativeapproaches nd ethnographic echniques o analyze heeverydayctivities fpeoplewhouse informationech-nologies.This work s centered n practice, ighlightingthe flexible ndrhetoricallyontested ature f verydaylife and the situated character of cognition.Ethno-graphic tudiesof communities fpractice Lave andWenger 1991) have revealed the importanceof ap-prenticeshipwhich they all legitimate eripheral ar-ticipation) n acquiring he tacitknowledgeneeded for

workingife. hese pproachesave ecome ighlyisiblein the orporateorldsee, .g., uchman995). nsightsfromthnographictudies nGIS practitionersnd userscouldsupplementIScienceresearch ased on infor-mationprocessingiews of cognition erivedfromthe Shannon iagramo facilitateetter ollaboration(MacEachren000).Throughouthis iterature,he at-tention o theethnographyf actualpracticeften e-flates he grandiosexplanationsf the refinementmetaphor.he work one at the various evels fthepyramido not conformotheutopian xpectationsfKingCampGillette. otework ccurs t thetopofthepyramids well s thebottom,ndexpertisefdifferentkinds ccurs t each evel, houghhevalue dded t thebottomsusuallyndervaluedsee, .g., uchman 987).

Wedraw n this iversextrageographiciteraturenwhatfollows ecause hese ourceseemthe mostger-maneto ourneeds;however, e mustpoint ut thatconstructivistnd science nd technologytudies p-proachesre not unknown ithineography.or xam-ple, Curry 1994, 1998) has writtenxtensivelyngeographic ractices nd their mplicationsor GIS.Robbins ndMaddock2000)examinedarmerss theyinteract ith ocal landscapeso question hetheory-ladenmetaphorsehind cientificand cover lassifica-tions. emeritt2001)basedhis nalysisfglobalmete-orological odelsn a constructivistpproach.hisworkingeographyas taken laceprincipallys a critiquefepistemologies,nd has not beendirectlyelatedo in-formationse. n theGIScience ommunityhere avebeen severalmpiricaltudies f users t thebottomfthe nformationalyramidhatmobilizedhetheoreticalconstructsf cience nd echnologytudiesHarveyndChrisman998;Martin000;E Harvey003),but syetthere as beennoshiftingf he nformationetaphorsinmainstreamIScience.Incallingor social heoryf nformation,e donotprovidenstructionsn howto constructnformationsystemsifferently.ather,e askwhat social heoryfinformationightontributehat urrent iews f n-formationithin hedisciplineo not.Howwould heprocessofcommunication eed to be reframedn orderto escape the procrustean imposition f a commonmethodologyver context Burroughnd Frank1995,111)? How could a socialtheory f nformationupportmultiple, ersonal viewpoints Goodchild 2003, 27),reflexivityetween creatorand user (Raper et al.2002, 49), and relevancefor heuser (Worboys 003,33)? These are twosuggestions:

1. A social theory f nformationhould account forresistance o technological hange,beyondthe limited



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Order rom oise: oward Social heoryfGeographicnformation 519and overly inear model of early nd late adopters(Rogers 995).Creatorsfnew echnologiesftenryoremove hat reperceivedsconstraints-people,ldertechnologies,rganizations,ractices-withoutppreci-atingtheir submergedesourcefulnessBrown ndDuguid 000,244). So,fornstance, hen watershedworkermakes computerized apof the streamsn awatershedasedon data downloaded rom he nternetand wantsto check on the location nd namesofstreams,heprintsut a papermap nd shows t to thehydrologistsndbiologistshoworkn the watershed.Theyscribble n themap, ndicating roblemreas(Poore 003). Doubtless,omeof thishandworkouldbe doneon a laptopwith drawingrograminkedoaGIS; however,he effort ouldbe considerableom-pared otheeaseofuse andportabilityf papermap,andmany eoplewould esist sing omputerizedech-nologyor uch purpose. his s not torecommendreturn o the paper map, simply o pointout thatadoptinghe narrow hannel f the Shannondiagramcansqueeze utmethodsfworkinghat re ssentialocollaboration.Likewisenthe case of the nformationyramid,c-complishingDigital arthwill equirehe upportfvast collaboratingealmof web designers,omputerprogrammers,esearchers,atalogers,metadatapre-parers,nd so forth,ot to mention heorganizationsrequiredopostthe data andkeepthem urrent,hesoftwareoutinesnd standardso coordinatehedata,andthe nstitutionalrameworkso upportnenterpriseof that cale.However,ccounts f theDigitalEarthemphasizenly he esults-havingnformationnstantlyavailable t your ingertips,version f the Shannonmyth f nvariantommunication-whileownplayingthecoordinationork eeded oaccomplishhevision.The work hatgoes ntothe infrastructures hidden(Star nd Ruhleder996). Infrastructureetworksre,in short, recariouschievements.he linksbetweennodes do not lastbythemselves;heyneed constantsupportndmaintenanceGrahamnd Marvin 001,184). By not focusingmore attention n social andorganizationalssues,GIScience risksmissing n oppor-tunity to include the potentiallyexcluded in theconstruction fDigitalEarth Star 1991, 1995).2. A socialtheory f nformationhouldquestiontheinformation-processingiew of cognitionderived fromthe Shannon model and expressed n the cartographiccommunicationsiterature. ecent criticismsfboth thecomputational nd connectionistversions of artificialintelligence Agre 1997) have challenged the notionthatthinkingccurs olelywithin he head. In thisview,cognition s distributed,he activity fa communityf

people ndobjects,ituated ithin dynamicnviron-ment. ookingt howpeopleworkwith uchmundaneobjectsas copyingmachines, uchman 1987) hasshown hatproblemsfhuman-machinenteractioniein the mbalance etween he situatedrganizationfpracticalction nd theregimentedodel mbodiednsystems.atour1999)hasdescribedow ollaborationover cientificnstrumentsndinscriptionsonstitutesthinkingor group f scientistsrom ifferentisci-plines oing ieldworkntheforest/savannahoundary.Byobserving avigatorst work,Hutchins1995, 8)demonstratesowanyparticular avigationalaskre-quiredmany ifferentinds f hinking:Some f hemwerehappeningn parallel,ome n coordination ithothers,ome nside he headsof ndividuals,nd somequiteclearly oth nside nd outside he heads of theparticipants. he navigators orkedwithpenson achart, easoningbout the lines as evidence f theirposition.he representationsere ctual gentsnthethinking,upportedy hemathematicsf he onformalprojectionSismondondChrisman001).BrodaricndGahegan 2001, 134) describe owgeoscientistsringtheir nowledgento hefieldwhere heenvironment'scapacityfor infinite ermutationequires f themconstant daptations f conceptual nd pragmaticknowledge. eopleoperatewithincologies f knowl-edge (Starand Ruhleder 996). Meaning annotberegardedssomethingixed ndtransferable,ather,t stheongoingchievementf ome ocialgroupGoguen1997,34) interactingn a specific lace and over aspecific eriod ftime.Reframingommunication

It spossiblehat henotion f ommunicationhouldbe reframeds conversation-awo-wayrocess-andold ideas about nformationdvancedwithin hepara-digmsnheritedromyberneticseed to be modified(Schroeder 003). Computercientist osephGoguen(1997, 1) proposeshatnformations an nterpretationof configurationf igns orwhich ome ocial roupsaccountable. The central uestionfor socialtheory finformations how to express accountability lexiblywithout osingthe social interactionsn searchof com-plete formalization. s long as research ries to focussolely n the bits transmittedhrough conduitor suc-cumbs o themythologyfrefinement,t oses ight fthevariousways nwhichmeanings establishedhroughhetenuous networks f trust, espect, nd powerthroughwhichpeoplerelate nd organizationsunction.Definitions o matter,ince they ftenbecome deadmetaphorswhen removed fromthe circumstances f



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520 Poore ndChrismantheirriginalreation.or his eason, etaphorsustbe continually eexamined.We mustrecognize hat to-day it is counterproductiveo employ hemetaphor finformationspassivelylowinghroughconduit.n-formations activelyransformednd reworkedy tsrecipients.he originatorsf the nformationre nolongerncontrolfmeaning.imilarly,hehierarchyfinformationroducer/consumerakes t all seemso ef-fortless. efinement oes occur,but the work hatgoesinto refinements obscured.A betteraccount of re-finementould llow s totemperdeas bout niver-sality ithmore ealisticoals.Bycontrast,hinkingf he ocialprocesses f heusersand creators f nformationechnologies lacesthe em-phasis n crucialwork racticeshatgo intocreatingmeaning.lthoughbbreviatedothe ointf phorism,Bateson's1972, 15)phrasingsquite recise.nforma-tion s a difference hichmakes a difference,hat s,ameasurement bout which omeonecares.Acknowledgments

We thankGeoffBowker, rancisHarvey,Dalia Var-anka,ndPaul chroederor iscussinghedeasnthisarticlend for fferingaluable ommentsuringhewriting.he illustrationsere reparedithmazingcare nddispatchyBetsy oyntont theU.S. Geo-logical Survey.The articlewas much improved y theresponses f sixanonymous eviewers, orwhichwe aregrateful.ReferencesAgre, E. 1997.Computationndhumanxperience.ambridge,U.K:Cambridgeniversityress.Barnes, .J.1996.Logicsfdislocation:odels,metaphors,ndmeaningsf conomicpace.NewYork: uilford.-- . 2001. Retheorizingconomic eography:rom hequantitativeevolutiono the cultural urn. nnals ftheAssociationfAmericaneographers1: 546-65.Barr, ., and I. Masser. 997.Geographicnformation:re-source, commodity,n asset r an infrastructure?nno-vationsnGIS 4: Selectedapers romhe ourth ationalConferencen GIS ResearchK (GISRUK):235-48.Bateson, . 1972. tepso necologyfmind. ewYork: allan-tineBooks.Bell,D. 1973.Thecomingfpost-industrialociety.ew York:BasicBooks.Beniger, .R. 1986. The controlevolution:echnologicalndeconomicriginsf henformationociety.ambridge,A:Harvard niversityress.Berners-Lee,.,J.Hendler,ndO. Lassila. 001.The semanticweb:A new form f Webcontent hat s meaningfulocomputers illunleash revolutionfnewpossibilities.Scientificmerican84:34-48.

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Correspondence:.S.Geologicalurvey,004th t.South,t.Petersburg,L33701, -mail:[email protected]); eseauGEOIDE,Pavillionasault732,Universiteaval, uebecQC GIK 7P4,Canada,-mail: [email protected]).

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