Why informatics and general science need a conjoint basic definition of information

TL;DR

This paper proposes a universal, language-independent framework for defining and comparing information using Domain Vectors and Domain Spaces, enhancing interoperability and searchability across digital information systems.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of Domain Vectors and Domain Spaces as a unified, internet-based method for precise, comparable, and searchable information definitions.

Findings

Domain Vectors (DVs) enable language-independent information representation.

Domain Spaces (DS) are metric spaces allowing similarity search.

The framework can improve interoperability and reduce costs in digital information exchange.

Abstract

First the basic definition of information as a selection from a set of possibilities resp. domain is recalled. This also applies to digital information. The bits of digital information are parts of number sequences which represent a selection from a set of possibilities resp. domain. For faultless conversation sender and receiver of information must have the same definition of the domain (e.g. of language vocabulary). Up to now the definition of the domain and of its elements is derived from context and knowledge. The internet provides an additional important possibility: A link to a conjoint uniform definition of the domain at unique location on the internet. The associated basic information structure is called "Domain Vector" (DV) and has the structure "UL (of the domain definition) plus sequence of numbers". The "UL" is not only "Uniform Locator" of the domain definition. It also identifies a certain kind of information for later comparison and search. It can be a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or an abbreviated equivalent, e.g. a hierarchic numeric pointer or a short local pointer to a table with global internet pointers. The DV structure can be used as general carrier of information which is language independent and more precise than language. A domain which contains DVs is called "Domain Space" (DS) and is defined as metric space. This allows similarity search according to user defined criteria, so that any kind of definable information can be made comparable and searchable according to user selected (relevant) and objectifiable (globally uniform) criteria. DS definitions can be reused in new DS definitions. Their elements, the DVs, are automatically globally uniformly identified and defined. Obviously such conjoint definition of comparable information has great potential. It also can avoid interoperability problems and redundant programming and so save high costs.