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Configurational Information as Potentially Negative Entropy: The Triple
Helix Model <http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/10/4/391> 

Entropy 10(4)(2008), 391-420

Abstract: Configurational information is generated when three or more
sources of variance interact. The variations not only disturb each other
relationally, but by selecting upon each other, they are also positioned in
a configuration. A configuration can be stabilized and/or globalized.
Different stabilizations can be considered as second-order variation, and
globalization as a second-order selection. The positive manifestations and
the negative selections operate upon one another by adding and reducing
uncertainty, respectively. Reduction of uncertainty in a configuration can
be measured in bits of information. The variables can also be considered as
dimensions of the probabilistic entropy in the system(s) under study. The
configurational information then provides us with a measure of synergy
within a complex system. For example, the knowledge base of an economy can
be considered as such a synergy in the otherwise virtual (that is, fourth)
dimension of a regime.
 
Keywords: Information theory; probabilistic entropy; anticipation; triple
helix; transmission; configuration; university-industry-government
relations; scientometrics; emergence
 
<pdf-version <http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/10/4/391/pdf> >
 
________________________________

Loet Leydesdorff 
Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR)
Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam
[log in to unmask] <http://www.leydesdorff.net/>  

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