Text 1. The Background of the Problem.

Information is power – for good, for bad. In a world of violence, poverty, and ecological crisis on the one side, as well as of peace movements, industrial productivity and scientific-technological development on the other, the production, storage, exchange, diffusion, selection and use of information has also become a key issue.

In the same way as we live not only from nature but also within it, we can say that our lives, as individuals as well as parts of different kinds of social systems, are dependent on the knowledge we share with others, as well as on the ways we make profit of it, i.e. on information. To consider nature just as a resource or as something we could (and should) transform without previously thinking on the consequences not only for ourselves but for the balance of life in this planet, has proved to be an irrational and irresponsible way of action. It is therefore time to ask ourselves on the consequences of our thinking and doing not only with regard to nature but also to the technologies we are using to manipulate ourselves. These are of two kinds: the biotechnology and the information technology. Modern information technology plays a major role in the process of shaping not only the ways we communicate but also all aspects of our individual and social life.

Information pollution (also referred to as "info pollution") is the contamination of information supply with irrelevant, redundant, unsolicited and low-value information. The spread of useless and undesirable information can have a detrimental effect on human activities. It is considered as one of the adverse effects of the information revolution.

The majority of the modern descriptions of information pollution apply to computer based communication methods, such as e-mail, instant messaging (IM) and RSS feeds. The term acquired particular relevance in 2003 when Jakob Nielsen, a leading web usability expert, published a number of articles discussing the topic. However, as early as 1971 researchers where expressing doubts about the negative effects of having to recover “valuable nodules from a slurry of garbage in which it is a randomly dispersed minor component.” People use information in order to make decisions and adapt to circumstances. Yet, cognitive studies have demonstrated that there is only so much information human beings can process before the quality of their decisions begins to deteriorate. The excess of information is commonly known as information overload and it can lead to decision paralysis, where the person is unable to make a judgment as they cannot see what is relevant anymore. Although technology has clearly exacerbated the problem, it is not the only cause of information pollution. Anything that distracts our attention from the essential facts that we need to perform a task or make a decision could be considered an information pollutant.

The term information pollution should be considered as the negative side of the information balance to be achieved. Some examples of information pollution are: wrong (or outdated) data, incompatibility of systems and languages, under-use of hardware, hacking, viruses, addressing systems to the wrong 'epistemic who', lack of responsibility of software suppliers.

The use of the term “information pollution” also draws attention to the parallels between the information revolution that began in the last quarter of the 20th century and the industrial revolution of the 18th-19th century. Information pollution is seen as the equivalent of the environmental pollution generated by industrial processes. Some authors claim that we are facing an information overload crisis of global proportions, in the same scale of the threats faced by the environment. Others have expressed the need for the development of an information ecology to mirror environmental management practices.

Information balance implies: re-use, recycling, free-flow, intelligent systems or, generally speaking, optimizing man's use of information and knowledge. Information is an artificial resource and it is basically social-dependent. We should try to think more specifically on the question to which information ecology is (or could be) the (or one) answer.

The ecology of the information landscape has to take basically into account the managerial (or bottom line) perspective of information. Handling information like other goods (according to its 'exchange value') does not necessarily means to forget its social dimension. Different levels of circulation and different quality measures should be integrated. A narrow-minded economic view damages (in the long term) itself. These ideas should be further discussed at the international level.

Before you read Text 2

· Look at the title of the text 2. What do you think the text tells us about?

· What is your vision of the Information Ecology problem?

As you read Text 2

· Which paragraphs contain the following information?

A Information is always relative to a theoretical or practical pre-understanding and it remains always something we can criticize.

B Two kinds of ecological problems: a monolithic control of the information technologies and the contents of the messages; transformation of information into an exchange value.

C Information has taken three centuries to open written knowledge to vast sectors of society.

D The necessity of limits to the expansion of non-controllable technical systems.

E The information technology opens us its potentialities if we are able to interrelate it with the whole of its social dimensions.

F Some ideas and opinions on information ecology.