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Maintaining the quality and reliability of electricity transmission lines is central to effective energy governance. However, transmission line siting is often a contentious policy decision since permitting and constructing lines may involve private and public property, residents and communities, and localized and national concerns. Yet, policy conflict in transmission siting across cases and over time has remained largely understudied. This article derives and tests hypotheses about policy conflict in the context of transmission lines completed or constructed between 2017 and 2018 in the United States. In exploring the full population of transmission lines, we find that a majority exhibit relatively low and moderate levels of conflict and attention rather than high levels. We further examine a subset of six of these cases that represent a range of conflict and attention intensity. We describe variation in the diversity of actors and frames, advocacy coalitions, and the volume of discourse associated with transmission line siting over time. As problems related to energy governance have become more complex, energy siting disputes are likely to remain a fruitful area for research on policy conflict.

The new and disturbing phenomenon of “Post-Truth” is discussed with particular attention given to the power of the ‘big-tech- giants and the role of search engines and social media. The use made of these facilities is reviewed with particular regard to their manipulation and exploitation to spread fake news and disinformation. The fight against post-truth is discussed, led by journalists, academia and, with particular emphasis, by the information professions. The role of government and the big-tech companies is also mentioned. The fight includes raising awareness, promotion of information literacy and fact checking. Web-based fact checking sites and advances in automated fact checking are reviewed.

This paper reviews the history of information re-trieval (IR) from punched cards and the first pro-grammable computer (the ENIAC of 1945) to the present day Web searcher Google and Microsoft’s “cognitive technology” Watson. The review is based on three major factors in the development of IR; (1) the enormous increase in computing power over the last 72 years, (2) the “competition” between statis-tical analysis of text and Natural Language Pro-cessing (NLP) in which the two have finally to a large extent converged, and (3) the corresponding changes in human intervention in the IR process.

This paper argues that though the information landscape has radically changed, the basic tenets of information science are still valid, are often unwittingly being applied and may again become more widely recognized. This new landscape is briefly illustrated with some selected examples of its size, dangers and current success stories. New models and approaches are beginning to emerge and some examples of these are presented. It is vital that these are encouraged and supported so that society and its citizens may become better informed.

Las contribuciones de los científicos de la información frente a la explosión de las comunicaciones electrónicas siguen siendo intensas y valiosas, pero todavía queda mucho por hacer, especialmente en lo que se refiere al usuario individual de la información, que no sólo se siente abrumado por la enorme cantidad de información, sino que cada vez sufre mas la exposición a información errónea e incluso a la desinformación. Por otro lado, aunque las ventajas de la tecnología de la información son evidentes, se ha evidenciado el peligro de que las personas sean cada vez más propensas a su uso excesivo, e incluso a un mal uso que origine y acreciente diversos problemas humanos. Se propone que los científicos de la información tomen un papel más activo en la lucha contra algunos de los problemas causados por la sobrecarga de información.

Personal thoughts on the varied practice and still unformed theory of information science. After some four decades of strong development of information handling practice, largely in support of the disciplines of science and technology, advances in the traditional areas of practice have slowed down as information technology has been more widely applied. Meanwhile, a true theory of information science has failed to materialize.

The so-called 'Information Revolution' is contrasted with the classical revolutions of agriculture and industry and found to be misleading because of the abstract nature of the word information. It is argued that in fact there is rather a Communications Revolution following on from a succession of prior and dramatic lesser revolutions in communication 'technologies'. At the moment, the new Communications Revolution is swamping the world with 'messages' that may or may not constitute meaningful information. It is speculated that the advent of social media and networking may eventually solve this problem of overload and make some sense out of the seeming chaos; and that there may still be a role for information scientists to play in this process.

Se discute que, dado que el conocimiento es abstracto y que cada persona tiene una percepción única de su entorno y de las propiedades y comportamiento de sus componentes, se debe colegir que las personas comprometidas en la representación y organización del conocimiento deben basar su trabajo en los registros físicos, a los cuales podemos denominar transportadores de información o mensajes. Los productos basados en el análisis de estos mensajes pueden por consiguiente ser considerados modelos del conocimiento. Estos modelos son creados para reducir la complejidad y ganar una comprensión más clara de los aspectos del mundo que nos rodea, pero deben ser continuamente comprobados y revisados en un entorno de trabajo. La evaluación de los productos del conocimiento se realiza frecuentemete por los científicos de la información en el proceso de asegurar la recuperación de la información, mientras que los productos de representación del conocimiento también se apoyan en la organización del conocimiento, que puede ser entendida, hasta cierto punto, como auto-evaluada. Se sigue que se podría ganar mucho de una colaboración más estrecha entre los que trabajan en los campos de la representación del conocimiento, de la organización del conocimiento y lo que están implicados en la provisión de información a los usuarios.

Do higher wages elicit reciprocity and lead to increased productivity? In a field experiment with 266 employees, we find that paying higher wages, per se, does not have a discernible effect on productivity (in a context with no future employment opportunities). However, structuring a portion of the wage as a clear and unexpected gift-by offering a raise (with no additional conditions) after the employee has accepted the contract-does lead to higher productivity for the duration of the job. Gifts are roughly as efficient as hiring more workers.