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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoPlainText style='margin-left:.5in'>The problem is that information is not an absolute. The same code when measured against different references (English vs. Spanish in this case) will yield different measures. It's the obverse of the Third Law of Thermodynamics. See <<a href="http://people.clas.ufl.edu/ulan/files/FISPAP.pdf"><span style='color:windowtext;text-decoration:none'>http://people.clas.ufl.edu/ulan/files/FISPAP.pdf</span></a>><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Dear Bob, <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'>It seems to me that you confuse information with what information means for a system of reference. Different systems of reference, of course, can attribute different meanings to the same information.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'>@Alex: this confusion is unfortunately pervasive. Unlike Shannon-type information, “information” is often defined (following Bateson and McKay) as “a difference which makes a difference”, without articulation that the second difference presumes the specification of a system of reference. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'>A series of differences of the first type can be considered as a probability distribution that contains uncertainty. “A difference which makes a difference”, however, can be considered as “meaningful information”. In my opinion, this “meaningful information” should not be equated with information because one then uses the same word for two different things and thus generates confusion.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'>Best,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'>Loet<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:#1F497D'><hr size=3 width="100%" align=center></span></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:#1F497D'>Loet Leydesdorff </span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:#1F497D'>Professor, University of Amsterdam<br>Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="mailto:loet@leydesdorff.net" title="mailto:loet@leydesdorff.net"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'>loet@leydesdorff.net </span></a><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:#1F497D'>; </span><a href="http://www.leydesdorff.net/" title="http://www.leydesdorff.net/"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:blue'>http://www.leydesdorff.net/</span></a><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:#1F497D'> <br></span><span style='font-size:9.0pt;color:black'>Associate Faculty, </span><a href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/spru/"><span style='font-size:9.0pt;color:blue'>SPRU, </span></a><span style='font-size:9.0pt;color:black'>University of Sussex; <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;color:black'>Guest Professor </span><a href="http://www.zju.edu.cn/english/"><span style='font-size:9.0pt;color:blue'>Zhejiang Univ.</span></a><span style='font-size:9.0pt;color:black'>, Hangzhou; Visiting Professor, </span><a href="http://www.istic.ac.cn/Eng/brief_en.html"><span style='font-size:9.0pt;color:blue'>ISTIC, </span></a><span style='font-size:9.0pt;color:black'>Beijing;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;color:black'>Visiting Professor, </span><a name="_GoBack"></a><a href="http://www.bbk.ac.uk/"><span style='font-size:9.0pt;color:blue'>Birkbeck</span></a><span style='font-size:9.0pt;color:black'>, University of London; <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><a href="http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ych9gNYAAAAJ&hl=en"><span style='font-size:9.0pt;color:blue'>http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ych9gNYAAAAJ&hl=en</span></a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>