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International Journal of Information Management 27 (2007) 306–318

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Informatics and the Inca

Paul Beynon-Davies�

Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, UK

Abstract

In this paper the term informatics is used as a convenient umbrella term to stand for the overlapping disciplinary areas of

information systems, information management and information technology. Much debate has occurred over the last few

years surrounding the status of informatics as a discipline. We argue that this debate revolves around the issue of the most

appropriate locus for the discipline and that this debate may be informed by a better definition for the central concept of

information system. We describe the case of the Inca civilisation, their use of information specialists and a distinct

‘information technology’ and use this as a reflective lens for highlighting the core features of this central concept. What is

fascinating about this particular case is that whereas the ‘information system’ described was critical to the effective

operation of a large and successful Amer-Indian empire, the ‘information technology’ at its core did not even utilise written

language. An examination of this case therefore provides a necessary intellectual distance but also grounding to our

discussion of the centrality of the concept of information system to the discipline of informatics.

r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Information systems; Information management; Information technology; Core concepts; Historical research

1. Information systems, information management and informatics

A sign of any developing discipline is the attempt to provide a clear definition of terms used for explicatingand understanding phenomena. This paper debates with the locus of a number of overlapping disciplinesdevoted to the study of information, information systems and information technology. Some would refer tothis area of study as that of information systems, some as that of information management, some as that ofinformation technology. However, there are difficulties in applying each of these labels to this area of interest.For instance, consider the term information systems. This term is a difficult one to define precisely because it isused in a number of different ways. It is used to refer to:

�
A product, essentially a system of communication between members of some human group. In modernsettings such a system of communication is likely to utilise various forms of information andcommunications technology (ICT). � An academic field of study. Over the last three decades schools, departments, centres and groups in
information systems have become established in many centres of higher education around the world.

e front matter r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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9 2064 7028.

ess: [email protected]

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ARTICLE IN PRESSP. Beynon-Davies / International Journal of Information Management 27 (2007) 306–318 307

�
An area of industrial practice. The planning, management and development of information systems fororganisations is a thriving part of most economies in the Western world. The effective operation of suchsystems has become increasingly important for the competitive position of modern organisations.
Therefore, labelling the discipline information systems is a bit like the discipline of Biology calling itselforganic life in the sense that the disciplinary title suggests a focus purely on the product or area of focus.Actually, a more appropriate analogy might be with Biology referring to itself by the much narrower title ofmulti-cellular organic life.

The main purpose of this paper is to argue that the area of interest is larger than a focus purely oninformation systems. Both as an academic field of study and an area of practice it is interested in the conceptof information and in the artefacts of ICT.

In this paper we wish to emphasise a number of important distinctions that precludes us from using thesame term in a number of different ways. For example, we believe that a clear distinction is needed between aninformation system and an ICT system. Information systems have existed for thousands of years. Onlyrecently has modern ICT (hardware, software, data and communications technology) been used to supportsuch systems.

For this reason we have chosen within the context of this paper to utilise the term informatics to refer to theacademic discipline and area of professional activity interested in the broad questions relating to informationmanagement, information systems and information technology.1 We reserve the term information system for asystem of communication within some human group and reserve the term information technology or ICT forthat set of artefacts used within some information system for information storage, transmission andprocessing.

There are a number of key advantages of using the term informatics in this way. It not only allows us toexpress an interest in the concepts of information and information systems as well as ICT. It also becomespossible to talk about the application of informatics to various phenomena and areas of life. Hence, peoplehave used the term in relation to health informatics, bio-informatics, chem.-informatics and social informatics.In this paper we are fundamentally interested in the application of information, information systems and ICTwithin organisations. This not only means organisations of various forms familiar in the modern worldincluding private sector, public sector and voluntary sector organisations. It also means any form of organisedhuman activity embedded in current and past human cultures.

2. The debate as to an appropriate locus

Much debate has occurred over the last few years surrounding the status of informatics as a discipline(Banville & Landry, 1989; Baskerville & Myers, 2002; Benbasat & Zmud, 2003; Galliers, 2003; Hirscheim &Klein, 2003). In essence, this debate revolves around the following key questions:

�

1

and

What makes informatics distinct as a discipline as compared to more-established disciplines such asComputer Science or Business and Management? (Baskerville & Myers, 2002).
� What constitutes the core body of knowledge on which the discipline founds itself? (Hirscheim & Klein,
2003).
� Is informatics a social science or a technology discipline? (Benbasat & Zmud, 2003; Galliers, 2003). � Should the discipline devote itself to elaborating theory or should it be particularly devoted to
understanding and bettering practice? (Hirscheim & Klein, 2003).

Galliers (2003) argues that such questions relate to the issue of the locus of the discipline. In other words,what is the appropriate object of study? We argue that a series of balanced answers to these questions arisefrom a closer definition of the central phenomenon to which most we suspect would direct their attention—

Hence, for the sake of convenience we use informatics to stand for not only information systems, but also information management

information technology.

ARTICLE IN PRESSP. Beynon-Davies / International Journal of Information Management 27 (2007) 306–318308

that of the concept of an information system. However, as we have indicated above, this concept suffers frommuch terminological confusion.

Our purpose in this paper is to re-focus upon the concept of information system and in so doing resurrectimportant conceptual and terminological distinctions, somewhat in the manner of Alter (2005). However,rather than letting our debate become situated solely in the realm of intellectual pondering, in the manner ofHolwell and Checkland (1998) we have found it useful to utilise a historical case to test the veracity of ourterminological construction. In this paper, we use a concrete case from an old and now extinct civilisation—that of the Inca—to help provide a necessary intellectual distance but also grounding to our discussion. Thiscase allows us to illustrate the key elements of an information system and de-couple these elements from anover-reliance on the modern, Western context. As such the paper constitutes a small attempt at providing thegeneralisation material desired by Hirscheim and Klein (2003). What is fascinating about this particular case isthat the ‘information system’ we describe was critical to the effective operation of a large and successful Amer-Indian empire. However, the ‘information technology’ at its core did not even utilise written language.

We first provide a description of our historical case. We then use the case material as examples within asection addressing the issue of what we see to be some of the founding concepts of our body of knowledge. Weconclude the paper by revisiting the questions posed above in terms of our proposed locus.

3. Inca civilisation and its information system

The Inca constituted a sophisticated and wealthy society existing in a comparatively hostile environment—thehigh Andes in South America (Saunders, 2000). The civilisation was highly successful if surviving for acomparatively short time-period (C.1200–1475 AD). The success of Inca society is remarkable in that it operatedeffectively without the benefits of a written language or any mode of transportation based on the wheel.

The Incas were a highly regimented society with individuals occupying strictly defined roles. At the top ofInca society was the sapa Inca or ‘emperor’ who ruled by divine right as the son of the sun. Worshipped as aliving god the sapa Inca’s official wife was his full-blooded sister. The sapa Inca also maintained a harem ofconcubines whose offspring held positions of power and influence in the Inca empire. These formed part of theupper class of the Inca nobility, a hereditary aristocracy occasionally supplemented with Incas assigned thisprivilege of rank through merit or exceptional service. Below this ruling class were the Curacas who formed thelower echelons of Inca nobility. These individuals generally filled the administrative offices of government andsupervised the large bureaucracy of the empire. Officials called the Cacique were placed at the head ofagricultural communities comprising a group of domestic units or ayllu. Land was redistributed amongst theayllu every year according to the number of active people in each household. The land at the disposal of eachayllu was divided into three unequal parts: the largest part was given to the community to farm; the other twowere consecrated to the cult of the sun and the state, respectively. Communities also paid a tribute of textilesto the state as well as a periodic tax of labour. This labour tax was used by the empire for collective works suchas building roads, monuments and irrigation canals.

The success of the Inca empire is generally attributed to the ability of this bureaucracy to record details ofthe empire’s activities and use this information efficiently to administer the far reaches of the empire (Bernand,1994). Such control was also clearly reliant on effective information flow between parts of the empire in thatinformation storage and transmission was essential for maintaining the institutional structures such asagriculture and defence. We characterise this phenomenon as the Inca imperial ‘information system’.

However, uniquely amongst the World’s great civilisations the Incas did not possess writing or the wheel.The ‘information technology’ utilised by the Incas was therefore distinctive from that characteristic of theWestern world at the time and indeed as compared to all known global ‘bronze age’ civilisations.

In essence, the Inca imperial information system consisted of the following elements:

�

2

A large and efficient transport network.
� Specialist information personnel—the Chasquis and the Quipucamayuq. � A method for recording data—the Quipu.2
Sometimes written as khipu.


3.1. The transport network

The Inca transport network was composed of thousands of kilometres of purpose-built roads and rope-bridges. The transport network traversed the Andes across modern-day Peru and Ecuador. It also traversedthe coast of modern-day Peru as well as extending into modern Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile. Mostof the roads were stone-lined and in places extremely narrow allowing only foot travel and transport viaLlama. However, the roads could not be used by everyone. Only those on official business, the imperialrunners and the emperor and his armies were permitted to use the transport network.

3.2. Information specialists

The imperial information system relied on specialist ‘information’ workers known as the Chasquis. Theseconstituted agile and highly trained runners employed purely in delivering messages throughout the empire.The Chasqui were trained from birth to reproduce verbally and accurately messages carried. A long series ofChasqui huts or posts (known as tambos) were arranged along the transport network consisting of smallshelters with food and water. Individual Chasqui would transport messages by running between two posts.A given message could thus be transported over hundreds of kilometres using a chain of Chasqui messengers,an individual relay of Chasqui sometimes covering up to 250 km in one day. In this manner, it is claimed that agiven message could be delivered from Cusco to Quito, a distance of over 1500 km, within a week.

Each Chasqui carried a pututu—a trumpet made of a conch shell or of animal horn, a quipu in which datawas stored and a qipi on his back to hold objects to be delivered such as royal delicacies (see Fig. 1).

The Inca bureaucracy sent and received many messages daily as they were essential to maintaining thehuman activity of the empire. Messages typically conveyed details of resources such as items required or

Fig. 1. A chasqui.

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Fig. 2. Representation of a quipu.

P. Beynon-Davies / International Journal of Information Management 27 (2007) 306–318310

available in store-houses, taxes owed or collected, census data, the output of mines or the composition ofparticular work-forces. Messages had to be clear, compact and portable, and for this purpose the form of datastorage known as the quipu was used.

3.3. Quipu

Without a written language the Inca used an assemblage of coloured, knotted, cotton cords known as aquipu (quipu ¼ to knot) to record the data of a complex message (see Fig. 2).

Specialist personnel, the quipucamayuq (the keeper of the quipus) were responsible for encoding anddecoding messages contained in a quipu. Encoding or ‘writing’ a quipu involved tying together a complexnetwork of strings of different materials and colours and tying within such strings series of different forms ofknots. Decoding or ‘reading’ a quipu involved a quipucamayaq both in inspecting the network but also inrapidly running their fingers over the knots contained within threads, somewhat in the manner of a Braillereader.

4. Quipu as sign system

Some 600 or so examples of quipu survive and they typically vary from having a few strands to, in thelargest case, being over 3m long and having over 2000 strands.

The way in which data was encoded in a quipu is still very much a matter of debate and investigation.Leland Locke in the 1920s established that 100 or so of the remaining quipu were used to store the results ofcalculations and record-keeping possibly in support of the Inca imperial administration (Mann, 2003). Urtonhas recently shown how quipu acted as a complex accounting system which enabled census and tribute datacollected in the empire to be synthesised, manipulated and transferred between different accounting levels inthe Inca administration (Urton & Brezine, 2005). He has also proposed that there is evidence to suggest thatalthough quipu undoubtedly developed originally as a form of accounting system that a binary form of coding


evident in the manipulation of knots and strings suggests the use of these three-dimensional devices asmechanisms for conveying narrative; in other words, as a form of ‘writing’ (Urton, 2003).

If this proves correct, then quipu would be a unique form of writing system in that it would be the onlyexample of the use of a binary coding system for ordinary communication. Also, quipu would represent one ofthe few examples of semasiographic writing—texts that are not direct representations of spoken language.Although most existing systems for writing natural languages are based on a correspondence between thewritten sign and some element of the spoken word, a system of signs does not have to replicate speech tocommunicate narrative.

A number of significant units have been proposed within quipu for encoding the variety (Stamper, 1973)demanded of the construction of messages with a significant meaningful content:

�

3

mu

Type of cord: Strings on a quipu are either of cotton or wool. Also, there is variation in the spin and plydirection of cords (slant of the threads).
� Colour: The colour of each cord might be used to represent the object being referred to such as yellow for
gold, red for soldiers or white for silver. It has been proposed that a black cord was used to indicate timeand would be used as the central cord from which all other cords were hung.
� Connectivity: The way cords were connected together is likely to indicate linkages between component
elements of a message such as linking a specific province of the empire to a record of its harvest.
� Relative placement of cords: The relative placement of cords on other cords could signify meaning such as
the passage of time.
� Spacing of cords: The spaces between cords could particularly be used to indicate the presence or absence of
key elements of a message.
� Form of knots: The types of knots on individual cords, the size of knots and the way they were tied are likely
to have been used to signify distinct meanings. Urton, for instance recognises distinct differences in thedirection of the knots attached to the main pendant cord. Also, the direction of the slant of the main axis ofeach knot itself varies. This leads him to propose that each knot represents a seven-bit binary array whichwould allow the storage of 1536 bits of information (Urton, 2003).
� Relative placement of knots: Locke proposed that the relative placement of knots on a cord could be used to
represent units or multiples of ten. The closer the knot to the top of a string then the higher the number. Atthe very top a knot represented multiples of 10,000, then 1000, then 10 s then units.

To indicate the complexity of the quipu as a data storage device, suppose an official wanted to encode thefollowing message:3

Before the reign of the first Inca, Manco Capac, there was no king, chief or religion. In the fourth year ofhis reign Manco Capac conquered ten provinces and this cost him many of his warriors. In one of theseprovinces he had seized a thousand units of gold and three thousand units of silver. After conquering theseprovinces he held a feast of thanksgiving to celebrate both his victory and to honour the Sun-god.

The quipucamayu or quipucamayoc (he who has charge of the quipu) might use a black cord to indicatetime and to form the central string of the quipu. From the black cord he would suspend many uncolouredstrings with many little knots tied in them. When he reached the centre of the black cord he would make onelarge knot and run crimson thread through it. This assemblage would indicate that before the time of the firstemperor (represented by the crimson thread) for a very long time (many uncoloured threads and knots) thepeople had no ruler (no scarlet threads), no chiefs (no deep purple threads) and no religion (no blue threads).Embedded within the crimson thread there would be four small knots to indicate that the events to berecounted took place in the fourth year of the reign of the current ruler Manco Capac. Into the middle of thesefour knots he would attach a grey thread with 10 small knots to indicate the number of subdued provinces.Each of the 10 knots on this grey thread would have fastened to it a green thread with appropriate knots toindicate the number of enemy killed in each province. In the same way he would add a red string to each of the

Note that this is a rendering of a possible interpretation of the use of quipu by quipucamayu evident in some Inca scholarship. There is

ch debate about whether quipu were used in precisely the manner described.


10 knots to describe the number of the imperial army killed from each province. To signify the nature andamount of treasure taken from each province a string of yellow for gold and white for silver would besuspended from the thread of the province from which it was taken. Finally, he would add a twist of threadswith the colours blue, white and yellow to indicate that a celebration had been held in honour of the god whoresided in the sky (blue) and made silver (white) and gold (yellow).

5. The Inca administration and the Quipu

The main element of tribute paid to the Inca state was a labour tax in which each ‘taxpayer’ had to work aspecified number of days each year on state projects such as road construction. Using the data recorded inquipu, ‘accountants’ in the Inca empire assessed levels of such tribute and assigned tasks to local workers. Atthe lowest level of accounting tributaries were grouped into five accounting units of 10 members each. One ofeach of the groups of 10 would serve as a Chuka Kamayoq or ‘organiser of 10’. Five groupings of 10 making agroup of 50 tribute payers would be placed under the authority of a Pichqa–Chunka–Kuraca or ‘lord of the50’. Two groups of 50 would be combined into a unit of 100 tributaries led by a Pachaka Kuraca or ‘lord of100’. This hierarchical system of tributary units would continue up to the head of one of the 80 provincesof the empire known as T’oqrikoq. These provincial lords or governors were in turn placed under the controlof an appropriate lord of the four quarters which served directly the Inca emperor based in Cusco (Urton &Brezine, 2005).

The governor of each province was required to keep a copy of quipu accounts so that ‘no deception could bepracticed by either the Indian tribute payers or the official collectors’ (Urton & Brezine, 2005). Historicalaccounts claim that even the smallest of Inca villages had as many as four quipucamaya. Effectively thesepeople acted as the record-keepers or ‘accountants’ in Inca Society. Apparently, the records kept by each‘accountant’ within a village were used as a verification check by the Inca administration.

Urton proposes two major information flows reliant on the use of quipu. Information flow concerningtribute flowed up the administrative hierarchy and decisions flowed down through the administrativehierarchy. He further claims that information would be partitioned based on the administrative unitsdescribed above. Hence, local accountants would pass data as to completed tasks upward through thehierarchy. Information at each administrative level would represent the summation of accounts from the levelimmediately below. This data would eventually be used by imperial accountants based in the capital, Cusco.

Urton analysed a series of quipu found in a house within the archaeological site of Puruchuco.Archaeologists believe this was the house of a quipukamayuq who served the lord of the local palace. Hebelieves that seven of the 21 quipu discovered display evidence of comprising related accounts from threelevels in the administrative hierarchy of the Inca. In particular:

�
Quipu on the same administrative level match or closely match in the sense of displaying similar numericalsequences and colour matching. This suggests evidence of the checks and balances employed in the Incaadministration. � Values on the quipu sum upward and are sub-divided downward. In other words, the numerical values of
certain groupings of strings on quipu at the lowest level sum to numerical values tied onto the strings ofquipu at the level above. Also, moving down the hierarchy, values tied to strings of higher levels arepartitioned among groupings of strings on the level below.

6. Elements of the locus

The case described above is useful because it allows us to distance ourselves from current conceptions ofinformation, information systems, information management and information technology. It allows us tounderstand the essence of the problem considered by our discipline and abstract some of the detail of thisessence. As an aside we would suggest that historical research/analysis of this nature is a useful but under-developed strand of research in the area of informatics.

We would argue that the key locus of our study within informatics is formed at the juncture of humanactivity, information and technology. Our key area of concern is how systems of information are used within


the context of human activity of various forms and how various forms of artefact enable effective coordinationof human action for collective ends.

As a consequence of the above we would further argue that various important elements are rendered in thishistorical case described in this paper between the conceptual pillars of system on the one hand andinformation on the other.

6.1. System

The concept of system is core to any body of knowledge we might have in our discipline. In very broadterms a system may be defined as a set of objects and a set of relations (Jackson, 2003). This is implicitly theidea of an influencing network in which objects relate to and potentially influence other objects (Capra, 1996).

Various types of system are evident in the example of the Inca—human activity systems, informationsystems and information technology systems. The organisation of activity evident in Inca administration wasreliant on an efficient system of communication utilising a record-keeping system based in quipu.

The critical efficacy of the concept of system is the way it allows us to relate systems of activity with systemsof communication and systems of artefacts. The relationships between these three levels of system are criticalanchor points for our discipline both in the sense of our investigations but also our descriptions.

6.2. Human activity systems

Informatics as a discipline must be interested in questions relating to the usefulness of information systemsand information technology. Such questions can only be answered in terms of the human activity systems inwhich they are embedded. We define a human activity system as a set of activities performed by a group ofpersons in the fulfilment of some defined purpose. Human activity systems are designed systems (Checkland,1987) and are typically specified in terms of sets of roles, procedures and rules. A number of human activitysystems of the Inca empire such as tax collection, the administration of workforces in the building of collectiveworks and the distribution of goods within the empire relied on an effective system of information flow. Theusefulness of the information system and the technology described can be judged in terms of the contributionmade to the imperial activity systems of the Inca.

6.3. Information technology

Information technology may be defined in broad terms as a designed system of artefacts used to collect,store, process and disseminate data. Information technology systems are technical or technological systemsparticularly concerned with the collection, storage, processing and transfer of data. However, the purpose ofdescribing the case of the Inca was to emphasise that information technology need not be restricted to modernhardware, software and communications technology. Indeed, the concept of what constitutes artefacts of‘information technology’ varies in terms of culture and time.

Hobart and Schiffman (1998) offer a useful historical perspective on the long-term nature of informationand information ‘technology’. Although both writing and speech constitute communication and thereforeimpart information, they limit their definition of the first information age to the invention of writing.Writing is seen as the first information technology. ‘Both writing and speech constitute communication,but of the two only writing extracts the sounds of speech from their oral flow by giving them visualrepresentation’.

However, this begs the question of how we define writing. Part of the reason for considering the case of theInca quipu is to demonstrate the need to broaden the view of ‘writing’ as simply the graphic representation of

the spoken word. Information technology we would argue is any use of artefacts to signify something (Morris,1964). This pushes the boundaries of information technology to include the invention of historical recordingsystems such as the Sumerian tax collection register or more particularly the utilisation of the quipu as acomplex, non-graphic signification device in the case of the Inca. Table 1 includes some other landmarkexamples of ‘information technology’.

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Table 1

Historical examples of information technology

Period Human activity system Information Information system Information

technology

Approximately

4000 BC

Taxation collection and

administration in the royal

courts of Sumeria

Royal assets and taxes Asset and taxation

recording

Writing on stone

tablets

1200–1500 AD Administration of the Inca

empire

Tribute, numbers of

military, events

Road network Chassqui

Quipucamaya

Quipu

1890 AD US Census production US population

characteristics

Census data collection,

processing and reporting

Punched cards and

tabulating

machines

1940 AD ‘Warning Network’: RAF

command and control of

fighter aircraft

RADAR data, observation

data, telephone

communications

Collecting data from

RADAR, organising this

data for military-decision-

making and the

dissemination of both

decisions and data to

airfields

RADAR, tele-

communications,

totes

2000 AD University registry Students, modules,

assessments

Student and assessments

information system

Computer

hardware,

software, data &

communications

technology

P. Beynon-Davies / International Journal of Information Management 27 (2007) 306–318314

6.4. Information system

An information system may be defined as a communication system used to support a given human activitysystem. We would argue for its place as a socio-technical system in that it bridges between a human activitysystem and an information technology system. An information system is fundamentally concerned withcommunication in support of human activity using artefacts to represent and transmit data.

Information systems date back almost 6000 years and seem particularly associated with the invention andrefinement of the means of recording language. Information can be communicated through spoken andthrough body language but in the act of communication the message is lost. Only with the invention of‘written’ language does it become possible for the message to persist in the form of a ‘record’. The rise of therecord also seems particularly associated with the rise of agriculture and with the rise of the city in humanhistory. Sumerian cuneiscript, for instance, appears to have been invented to support early forms ofaccounting and control. Some have even argued that without the need to ‘record’ assets it is questionablewhether ‘written’ language would have emerged in various human cultures.

The essence of an information system therefore lies not purely in the technology or in the activity—it lies in theway in which technology is used in support of purposeful action. Hence, the utilisation of quipu as a mechanismof data storage and transfer only makes sense in the context of the information specialists of the Quipucamayuand the Chasqui and their use of the Inca transport network. It also is only significant in the context of thetributary systems of the Inca and their need to manage the distribution of labour throughout the empire.

6.5. Information

Information is tenuous stuff—it may not even be stuff at all (Stamper, 1985). Information is embodied incommunication and hence relates to issues of action and language. To broaden Hobart and Schiffman’sconception, language is perhaps the base form of information ‘technology’ (Lytinnen, 1985). We would arguethat the concept of information is inherently related to the concept of a sign, a sign being anything that issignificant. In a sense, everything that humans do is significant to some degree and hence the world withinwhich humans find themselves is resonant with sign-systems. A sign-system is any organised collection of


signs. Everyday spoken language is probably the most readily accepted and complex example of a sign-system.Signs, however, exist in most other forms of human activity since signs are critical to the process of humancommunication and understanding.

To represent and explain the multi-faceted nature of information we follow Liebenau and Backhouse (1990)and Stamper (2001) in applying an area known as semiotics or semiology to the issue. Broadly, semioticsor semiology is the study of signs. Signs are seen as the core element of concern serving to link issues ofhuman intentions, meaning, the structure of language, forms of communication transmission and colla-borative action.

Morris (1964) originally proposed three branches of semiotics—pragmatics, semantics and syntactics. InStamper (1973) signs and sign-systems are considered in terms of four inter-dependent levels or branches ofsemiotics: pragmatics, semantics, syntactics and empirics. These constitute the four main branches ofsemiotics. These four layers serve to connect the social world on the one hand with the physical or technicalworld on the other (see Fig. 3). This serves to represent the concept of information as necessarily acting as thecritical intermediary in a socio-technical phenomenon.

6.5.1. Social

Signs are used within social systems. The social layer is important because it forms the general context and

culture of communication or the shared assumptions underlying human understanding. For communication tooccur between human beings signs must exist in a context of shared understanding. Much of this social layercan be considered as the study of culture as it affects communication-the common expectations underlyinghuman communicative behaviour in a particular context. The reverse is also true—the way in which signs areused within social systems both reproduce and help to change such social systems.

Mann (2005) citing the archaeologist William J. Conklin highlights the role that culture may have played inthe development of the quipu as the primary information technology artefact amongst the Inca. To modern,Western eyes the use of knotted strings for communication appears anomalous. However, the use of weavingand textiles for both tool-making and communication have deep roots in Andean culture. Andean peoplesfrequently solved basic engineering problems such as the construction of bridges through the manipulation offibres. There is also evidence of the production of textiles in very early Andean societies for symbolic purposes

Syntactics

Semantics

Pragmatics

Empirics

Social

Physical

Intentions

Form

Meaning

Signals

Fig. 3. Level of semiotics.


alone and not for the purposes of clothing. In this cultural environment the use of a textile base for ‘writing’would have seemed entirely natural.

6.5.2. Pragmatics

Pragmatics is concerned with the purpose of communication. Pragmatics links the issue of signs with that ofintention. The focus of pragmatics is on the intentions of human agents underlying communicative behaviour.For communication to occur between human beings signs must exist in a context of shared understanding-there must be agreed expectations between the symbols and the referents or concepts they signify. In ourexample the use of quipu makes sense only in the context of Inca society and the typical intentions wishing tobe expressed using this communication media. It is interesting that a large number of extant quipu remain tobe decoded. This is mainly because we lack a complete understanding of the intentional system within whichthis communication artefact was used and makes sense. Hence, the example provided of quipu usage inSection 3 is tentative and remains to be confirmed or otherwise by more research on the intentional systems ofthe Inca.

6.5.3. Semantics

Semantics is the study of the meaning of signs-the association between signs and behaviour. Semantics canbe considered as the study of the link between symbols and their referents or concepts. A semantic analysis ofthe quipu would particularly be interested in the relationship between particular coding arrangements of stringand the varied meanings they might convey. For example, the work of Locke and Urton has proposed ways inwhich various features of extant quipu possibly relate to an accounting of labour and goods in Inca society.Debate continues as to what other meaningful referents are contained in numerous other quipu that remain tobe decoded.

6.5.4. Syntactics

Urton’s work actually bridges the areas of semantics and syntactics. Syntactics is the study of thelogic and grammar of sign systems. Syntactics is devoted to the study of the physical form rather than the contentof signs. An analysis of the quipu in syntactic terms would consider the rules for the constructionof particular instances of quipu to convey a given message. Urton has argued that the way in whichknots are constructed on quipu represents a sophisticated syntactic system constituting a seven-bit binary arraycapable of encoding a sophisticated range of data necessary for the conveyance of narrative. Other Andean scholarshave questioned this analysis pointing to inconsistencies between the binary representation proposed by Urton andwhat appears to be the use of a decimal system in those quipu used for accounting purposes.

6.5.5. Empirics

Empirics is the study of the physical characteristics of the medium of communication. Empirics isdevoted to the study of communication channels and their characteristics as founded in the work of ShannonandWeaver (1949). An empirics analysis of the quipu as an information technology would be concerned for instancewith the range and volume of information that could be conveyed using this type of information artefact and issuessuch as the speed with which information could be disseminated.4 Hence, if Urton’s interpretation of certain quipuelements as a seven-bit binary array is correct then this element of the artefact could convey a total of 1536information units. This is somewhat more than the 1000–1500 Sumerian cuneiform signs identified and more thantwice the 600–800 Egyptian and Mayan hieroglyphic symbols. This would mean that quipu would have acted as aricher coding device for messages than most proto forms of graphic writing.

Each of these elements relate in a systemic way to form the locus of study within informatics. In other words, anunderstanding of the effectiveness of certain information technologies is incomplete without an understanding of theinformation system and human activity system in which it is utilised. In our example, utilisation of the quipu relies onspecialists in the encoding and decoding of data, the quipucamaya. These information specialists work to support the

4Von Baeyer (2003). Information: The new language of science, Weidenfeld & Nicolson has referred to information as the new language

of science. However, on close examination the concept of information utilised in modern physics bears a close relationship to the restricted

definition of information characterised by a viewpoint solely from an empirics perspective.


institutional structures of Inca society. We therefore cannot divorce the technology from the information system inwhich it is utilised and the human activity system it supports.

6.5.6. Physical

Each sign has a physical or material form independent of the observer. Because of this physical form each signgenerates costs for its storage, transmission and processing. This is the level of technology for information storage,transmission and processing. In broad terms we can refer to this as either information technology or more broadly asICT. But we should use the term to refer to a variety of historical and technological forms—from the clay tablet tothe modern computer. In this sense, the quipu is clearly an example of Inca information technology as is the imperialroad network and the information specialists of the chasqui and the quipucamayuq.

7. Conclusion

The purpose of describing the case of the Inca information system was not merely to highlight an interestinghistorical example from a non-Western culture. It was to use this case as a reflective foil to highlight some ofthe essential features of what we believe to be the appropriate locus for informatics.

We would argue that the locus described in the previous section broadens the proper area of studybeyond technology to that of human activity and the use of information within communication. It also extends thenotion of information technology to include all kinds of modern and historical communication artefacts.

All three disciplinary anchors of human activity system, information system and information technology(system) are critical to the discipline. As such informatics must concern itself with any insight provided bysocial sciences which illuminates the communication problem. It must also concern itself with the artefacts ofinformation technology and the potentiality of utilising various technologies in different activity domains.This means a concern with both the natural science underlying information technology and communicationbut also knowledge of engineering principles.

Hence, to re-visit the questions set in the introduction to this paper:

�
Question: What makes informatics distinct as a discipline as compared to more-established disciplines suchas Computer Science or Business and Management? Answer: Its focus on the concept of an informationsystem—with its locus firmly sited between human behaviour and technology. � Question: What constitutes the core body of knowledge on which the discipline founds itself? Answer: It
must focus on creating knowledge which illuminates the nature of the three broad classes of systemsdescribed (human activity systems, information systems and information technology systems) as well as therelationships between such systems.
� Question: Is informatics a social science or a technology discipline? Benbasat and Zmud (2003) argue that
the core locus is the IT artefact. As such, they place the discipline substantially in the realm of technology.Galliers (2003), in contrast argues for the centrality of people and information as the key areas of concern;thus implying that the discipline is substantially a social science. Answer: We would argue that informaticsis neither a technological nor a social science discipline; it is necessarily inter-disciplinary but with a distinctlocus in the socio-technical construct of an information system. This implies that we can use otherdisciplines to help illuminate the central phenomenon of interest—as in the traditional notion of thereference discipline advocated by Keen (1980). We can and should also utilise the concept of informationsystem to help inform other disciplines and as such become a potential reference discipline for these otherrealms of endeavour (Baskerville & Myers, 2002).
� Question: Should the discipline devote itself to elaborating theory or should it be particularly devoted to
understanding and bettering practice? Answer: Hirscheim and Klein (2003) argue for instance that information

systems as a discipline suffers from a disconnect with its area of application. We agree with these authors that theacademy need to make our insight accessible both to other scholars, but perhaps more importantly to thepractitioner domain (Senn, 1998). In other words, we need to demonstrate the relevance as well as the rigour ofwhat we do. Informatics must necessarily always be an applied discipline in that our interest in particularly themodern setting is in understanding the issues surrounding the application of information technology in modernorganisations, societies, economies and polities. However, there is a necessary place for abstraction and theory. We


particularly need good middle-range theory to help us understand the forms of human activity and theirrelationship with information and artefacts (Merton, 1957).

To conclude, the appropriate locus for our discipline is the concept of information system. This concept rightlyrelates our interest in the social world (human activity) with our interest in the world of technology (ICT). Theconcept also highlights the importance of understanding information as a multi-faceted strand which bridges betweenthe social and the technical. An understanding of the systemic nature of the interaction between human activity,information and ICT is critical to the modern world. However, it also offers a distinct lens for understanding the wayin which this interaction has played out across time periods and across cultures. In this sense, our discipline maycontribute to a better understanding of the universals of human communication and collaboration.

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Professor Paul Beynon-Davies is currently Chair in eBusiness and Director of the eCommerce Innovation Centre, Cardiff Business School,

Cardiff University. Before taking up an academic post he worked for several years in the Informatics industry in the UK both in public

and private sectors. He still regularly acts as a consultant to the public and private sector particularly in the area of information and

communications technology (ICT) and its impact on organisational performance. He has published widely in the field of Informatics

having nine books and over 50 academic papers to his name. Beynon-Davies has engaged in a number of government-funded projects

related to the impact of ICT on the economic, social and political spheres. He was involved in an evaluation of electronic local government

in Wales and was seconded part-time to the National Assembly for Wales (NAfW) as an evaluator of its Cymru-ar-Lein/Information Age

strategy for Wales.

Documents

Calendario de los Incas