ISI Samuel Lazerow Memorial Lecture 2007

Professor Luciano Floridi delivers the 2007 ISI Samuel Lazerow Memorial Lecture at the University of Arizona’s School of Information Resources and Library Science. He argues that there are different types of information, including ones that resemble patterns and ones that resemble more a recipe. Information, according to Floridi, must have symbols, structure in a well-formed pattern, syntax joined by meaningfulness, and meaningful data that is truthful. Regarding how to determine whether a certain piece of information is relevant, Floridi argues that there are two methods: a system-based tactic whereby one analyses relevance in terms of topicality, and an agent-oriented strategy whereby relevance depends on the person involved and his or her interests.