The field was fundamentally established by the works of Harry Nyquist and Ralph Hartley in the 1920s, and Claude Shannon in the 1940s. Information theory is the scientific study of the quantification, storage, and communication of information. A 2011 Science article estimated that 97% of technologically stored information was already in digital bits in 2007, and that the year 2002 was the beginning of the digital age for information storage (with digital storage capacity bypassing analog for the first time). For example, the information encoded in one 'fair' coin flip is log 2(2/1) = 1 bit, and in two fair coin flips is log 2(4/1) = 2 bits. It is 'that which reduces uncertainty by half'.

The bit is a typical unit of information. Information theory takes advantage of this by concluding that more uncertain events require more information to resolve their uncertainty. Uncertainty is inversely proportional to the probability of occurrence. The uncertainty of an event is measured by its probability of occurrence. It can also be encrypted for safe storage and communication. Information can be encoded into various forms for transmission and interpretation (for example, information may be encoded into a sequence of signs, or transmitted via a signal). That which is perceived can be construed as a message in its own right, and in that sense, information is always conveyed as the content of a message. Information is expressed either as the content of a message or through direct or indirect observation. Information can be transmitted in time, via data storage, and space, via communication and telecommunication. Data can represent redundant symbols, but approaches information through optimal data compression. The difference is that information resolves uncertainty. Thus the concept becomes synonymous to notions of constraint, communication, control, data, form, education, knowledge, meaning, understanding, mental stimuli, pattern, perception, proposition, representation, and entropy. The concept of information has different meanings in different contexts.

More technically, information can be thought of as the resolution of uncertainty that manifests itself as patterns it answers the question of 'What an entity is' and thus defines both its essence and the nature of its characteristics. It provides context for data and enables decision making processes.ДЇor example, a single customerвЂ™s sale at a restaurant is data вЂ“ this becomes information when the business is able to identify the most popular or least popular dish. Information is processed, organized and structured data.

Other words for content definition