A person who knows how to select, apprehend, describe, reproduce, and manipulate information has a good chance of controlling it effectively. Once a person reads this hypertext, she should be able to recognize information and know how to identify and discuss its content, structure, and behavior. She should also be able to select appropriate tools for manipulating both existing information and situations that affect the state of information. These skills should improve her ability to communicate efficiently and make well-reasoned arguments.

The first section of this hypertext provides and proposes general, abstract definitions of information, then explains how a person can use these definitions to test what and when information exists. It also explains the relationship between information and information systems and shows how different types of information relate to various examples of existing substance-- like the electric current that makes a light bulb glow.

The next section of the hypertext classifies information and into two types-- simple and complex-- and describes properties of each category. Then it discusses how information relates to the system that contains it and how people discover and describe new information and information systems.

Once the reader is enlightened about the nature of information, she is prepared to learn about different specific abstract and physical tools people use to describe, manipulate, communicate, and otherwise gain control over it. Linguistic, mathematical, and diagrammatic notations are abstract tools that may be used individually to represent and manipulate concepts and physical substance, or combined to form a sophisticated conceptual tool such as information theory. Physical tools such as microscopes, telescopes, optical lenses, ultra-violet sensors, and x-rays can be used to manipulate the substance of information or the conditions around it so a person can observe it more easily.

The author hopes this hypertext is useful and accessible, and welcomes any critiques that will improve its quality. The main body of the hypertext consists of eleven pages organized sequentially. Hyperlinks embedded in the text body provide access to topics that may broaden, deepen, or clarify the subject matter in the main body. One can read through the hypertext linearly by using the link at the bottom of each page to proceed to the next page, thus bypassing the hyperlinks embedded in the body of the text. Or the reader can pause to consider any of the hyperlinks as subtopics or as long footnotes.