Foreword: thinking informatically: A new understanding of information, communications, and technology

The spread of information and communication technologies (ICTs) since the late 1940s has been remarkable. ICTs are ubiquitous, and they are studied under a variety of different headings in various major divisions in Universities around the world. Yet one of the key reference disciplines – Information Systems [IS] – is a domain in crisis: Having battled for an existence and identity independent from computing and business, its legitimacy and coherence as a separate field of study has been questioned, both from within and without. This book analyzes and characterizes this dispute, and, using Zygmunt Bauman’s analysis of sociology, concluding that IS as a discipline is an inherently flawed discourse. The author offers an analysis of each element of the ICT triad – Information, Communication, Technology – and having done so, concludes that the more inclusive and challenging term informatics is more appropriate, and that the challenge is to think informatically. The remaining chapters then outline the ramifications of this challenge, seeking to revitalize informatics as a domain, and clarify its position in relation to related disciplines in the social sciences.