Example of an information ground - the bus stop
The information ground I have chosen is the bus stop outside my door (see picture below). This is temporal setting where you come for the purpose of waiting for the bus, but can end up exchanging oral information about 'weather and wind', the critical discussions of the Dublinian non-existence of proper timetables, etc.
The bus stop is a valid information ground. It is freqented by many different social types with different contexts for being there: the student trying to catch a lecture in time in the morning standing beside the woman who is going shopping before her late shift at work, and so on. It is temporal: the sign remains but buses arrive and depart, and the amalgamation of people changes all the time, when two people get off and three new individuals appear from nowhere and quickly acquire a waiting place in the queue. The instrumental purpose is to wait for the public transport. The creating of social interaction is never direct or obvious, but certain time trends can be observed, e.g. people are not that energetic and vigorous in the early morning hours.
The differences in the formal and informal information flows can be difficult to discern, and no particular rule can be conceived, but that discussions in this direction takes place is recognized. In the bus stop in the example, in inner city Dublin, it can be seen that 'two-person exchanges' (Fisher, 2005: 186), and not so much 'group exchanges': in a majority of cases you wait for the bus alone, you don't have arrive there with the whole troop of friends. Fisher talks about expression of needs indirectly or directly, but the need in the bus stop is mostly summarized in the statement that you wait for the bus, and are not so much bothered about conversation, sometimes you even come there to get 'conversation peace'. Perhaps you wear an iPod and prefer to listen to your music instead of opening your mouth. This behaviour is totally contained in the designation of the information ground, and can be encapsulated in the realm of 'quiet information', or what Fisher chooses to call 'alternative forms of information'. Thus, even if you interact in the information ground, you persevere with your context of being there, waiting for the bus, and maybe next time you will feel the urge or need to share information spontaneously, in another temporal setting, possibly the next morning if you are a regular commuter with the same starting point every day.
Sub-contexts lead to grand contexts. For example, a car can pass by, and you see a company logo on the vehicle, and talks to somebody about it, because you know that company from before. In another scenario, an ambulance rushes by with sirens on, and you say to the weak tie beside you, 'What happened there - someone got a heart attack?', alternatively you just say 'Oh my God, what a horrible sound - now the ambulance is out again.' These are just snippets, and doesn't even need an answer, but they can nourish a conversation, in situations where all you wait for, is for the stranger close to you to open his or her mouth first - then you can revert a comment, illustrating what the other person just said, or changing the direction of the light conversation.
Central activities, actors and social type roles. The activity is, as mentioned in the introductory paragraphs, to wait for the bus, maybe use the setting for reading a newspaper or just taking a look at other people passing by on the other side of the street. Hence, you can imitate what you normally do when sitting on a cafe sipping on a latte: glimpsing on on those strolling across to you. Here, you can benefit in an affective way, in an alternative way, simply by introspecting in yourself. Additionally, you can 'pick up new information to be shared at their next information ground.' Assume, for example, that you pick up something that's happening in the bus stop, e.g. somebody doesn't see you and bangs into you. This is an incident that can benefit you later on in the day, if you are a student and end up in the lecture hall, where you can reiterate this confrontation for your friends. This can give rise to laughters among your mates, and they benefit physically abd socially (cf Fisher's alternative forms of information use). The actors in this information ground are the people waiting. Having different roles, some people at the bus stop know 'everything' about a certain route, and can inform somebody who is an 'apprentice' in taking a specific route and doesn't know so much about it yet. Thus, to go back to Fisher (2005: 185), 'some actors ... play heavier roles, than other ... in facilitating information flow through providing ... communiction needs'.
Effect of information exchanged. Mostly, the information exchanged at the bus stop is just trivial, and not 'life changing' in any important way. The information flow is facilitated by means of the fact that everyone has experience of the public transport system, and thus has at least one discussion topic in common. Nobody is 'insider' or 'outsider' (Fisher, 2005: 188), but at the same time you are there as a 'hostage', similar to remaining in a waiting room at the GP clinic when your appointment has been slightly postponed. The same problem arises at the bus stop, because you never know when the bus will arrive, but in the doctor's office you know that the waiting time will not be excessively long and painstaking to endure, but in the bus stop you run the risk of being late to something, due to a possible engine breakdown of the bus, and as a cause big delays. This can halter the information flow a bit - you are occupied thinking about the next step in your agenda for the day, and the information ground can suffer when you consider which impact your lateness can have on your schedule. On the other hand, the uncertainty about the next bus to arrive can soothe you down and let you give in and have a discussion with somebody just to forget about 'the next step' for a while. Establishment of an information flow happens once again.
The bus stop is an open setting, and people constantly walk in and out of it. Someone decides that they have waited just too long, and voluntarily walks the distance the bus would take them. The characteristics making this the bus stop a successful information ground is the fact that it is temporal and you never know whether you will meet the same persons in another situation later on. For this reason, you can be spontaneous: the conversation will not be remembered and accumulated in the mind of the dialogue partner - the encounter will be blanked out and you will not be held responsible for it and embarrassed about it at a later stage in time. Viewing the information provision as a by-product of the social interaction when receiving the 'service' of bus transport, the bus stop assists the participants in finding a never-changing place in a quickly changing world. In this light, the information flow is not a crucial component. As Fisher points out, between the gatherings in the information ground, 'new situations arise in people's lives, local and global events continue to occur' (2005: 186). In this chaos, the bus stop is reliable, it's 'always' there, providing a repetitive but highly appreciated acitivity, which also serves as an information ground.
Reference
Fisher, K E (2005a). Information grounds, in Fisher, K E, S Erdelez & L McKechnie (eds): Theories of information behavior, pp 185-190, New Jersey: Information Today Inc.
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Johan Bjornson, undergraduate student
School of Information and Library Studies
University College Dublin, Ireland.
Lecturer: Jessica Bates
Module: Human Information Behaviour