Semiotics SummaryFor each of us and for organizations in general, the effective use of information is a critical success factor. You just need to think about the tasks you need to accomplish and the demand for diverse and unified information communication. There are two main paradigms for processing information: • Information as a “substance” circulating through a system (Stamper et.al.) • Information as a “process”, i.e. say a social activity of establishing and maintaining relationships (Cheek et.al.) We chose the later paradigm, but both require modeling approaches that allow us to collect and communicate knowledge and information effectively. Daniel Bell (1973) coined the term “post-industrial society”. In this society, a significant proportion of the population is employed or involved in the work of collecting and communicating information. In this sense we can see that information has become a commodity that can have value and is therefore marketable. It can also be considered an indispensable component of our social fabric. The general concept of "information" is used confusingly. Some see it as something we extract from data in order to make decisions, and to some extent this might be a true observation. For others, it is seen in terms of the understanding we gain from the messages or knowledge one person communicates to another and the meanings we create and exchange. Stamper, Lui, Schaik (unpublished) suggest: “…To get anything resembling a scientific result To master the concept of the information we need, we must start by having a clear picture of what we are observing. Physics is concerned with physical bodies of all kinds, their properties and their behavior. We do not need to define the concept of body in so many words, because we can show a person so many concrete examples that he can learn to use the word "body" as competently as we do. -themselves. Likewise, we can begin our exploration of information using the notion of sign. We might tell someone that a sign is any physical object, event, or property of an object or event that can represent something else. But we don't stop there. We show them hundreds of diverse examples until they know what a sign is by ostensible definition (i.e. by demonstration). We thus escape the tyranny of a verbal regression in the domain of practical and concrete action..