期刊名称：Informing Science: The International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline
印刷版ISSN：1547-9684
电子版ISSN：1521-4672
出版年度：2007
卷号：10
页码：17-39
出版社：Informing Science Institute
摘要：The essential elements of an informing system are a sender, a communications pathway, and a
client. Academic informing systems, however, are best viewed as two interacting informing systems,
one that informs clients of a discipline, one that informs clients of the institution. The paper
proposes that the greater the degree of overlap between the clients of these two systems, the
stronger the position of an individual discipline is likely to be.
MIS is presented as an example of a disciplinary informing system that has ceased to inform external
clients. This situation, it is argued, is likely to result in the discipline's downfall. The informing
sciences transdiscipline itself is then examined using the same lens. While much younger
than MIS, the paper argues that informing sciences needs to begin its search for clients in earnest.
Building upon lessons learned from another transdiscipline, complex systems, a series of concrete
recommendations are presented.
