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Characteristic of Information

Completeness
If information is not complete, bad decision can be made. For example, if you were choosing a
car, and had no information about safety on any of the models you were contemplating, you
could make a really skull-crushing decision.

Accuracy, correctness
It makes sense that accurate information is the best kind of information. Beware when you are
searching for information... especially on the Internet. Any old idiot can say anything he or she
likes. You must judge each piece of information based on
i) What you already know
ii) The reputation of the information source (have they usually been accurate in the past?)
iii) Has the information been checked by others? (books are carefully edited by experts,
webpages might not be)
iv) Is the author biased? (Do they work for the company who makes the product they are
praising? Are they prejudiced?)
v) Is the information up-to-date (timely)? Are you buying a computer with a 1998 magazine ad?

Timeliness - Information needs to be available when it's needed, not some time afterwards.
"Timely" means "appearing at the right moment".
Also, in a related sense, information needs to be up-to-date. Some info can be valuable one day,
and useless the next. A newspaper article examining the chances of candidates in a Federal
Election might be spot-on the day before the vote, and ridiculous the day after. All information
has a "use by" date. Be very wary of consuming information that is out of date!
With books, check the date of publication. Some topics rarely change with time (e.g. the themes
in Shakespeare). Others change by the minute (e.g. what stock is good value).
With webpages, check the "Last Updated" date, if there is one (be cautious if there isn't one and
the issue is changing constantly.) Old webpages are sometimes only good for historical
research...i.e. is it available when it's needed?
Consistency - Beware if your source of information changes its mind at various places, or
contradicts itself. It is the sign that it is untrustworthy. If a newspaper review of a film glows
about it, then later pans it, you can be sure the author is either confused or stupid. In either case,
treat all the information with the caution it deserves.
Validity To be valuable, information should be unbiased, representative and verifiable.
Bias can be conscious (e.g. advertisements) or unconscious (through prejudice or ignorance).
If information neglects key topics or issues, it might not represent the full knowledge-base you
need to know. If, for example, you wivit an American website discussing world history, don't be
surprised if it seems that America won both World Wars single-handedly - even though they
started late in each of them.
If information cannot be independently verified, it should be treated with utmost caution. In
court, "hearsay" evidence is treated with near-contempt. Just because someone says something
happened does not mean it really happened. There needs to be a way to investigate claims
beyond what a single person (or organisation) says. If you believed everything you were told
without checking out the facts, you'd be a fool. Sad to say, many people watching 6:30 current
affairs shows are fools.unbiased, representative, verifiable

Appropriateness Information can be presented in different ways. Some ways may be


meaningful and relevant, and formatted to suit the users needs : others may not.
If you are searching for basic information on networks and you find a site that discusses
intricate technical specification of file servers that you simply don't understand - the
information is worthless to you. It might be a pot of gold to someone else, but it has no value to
you.
Similarly, if you were researching the causes of the common cold and you found a book that
said, "Colds are caused by bugs, so be careful if your playmates sneeze near you", the
information might be valid, but in an inappropriate form.
Information might be presented in a fashion that is inappropriate to your needs. For example, if
you were a security operative in a large retail chain, and you suspected an employee was
stealing money, you'd want detailed transaction records, and not a summary graph showing the
store's sales over a month.
On the other hand, if you were the CEO of the company and you wanted an indication of the
company's progress, a thousand cash register receipts would be useless. You'd need the
information summarised or aggregated to be of any use to you.meaningful and relevant,
formatted to suit the users needs
Uniqueness - Sometimes, information is valuable if you are the only one who has it. If
everyone in year 12 knew that S.Dish, the all-time cutie of the whole world was looking for a
date for the formal, the information would not be too valuable. However, if you, alone, knew
that the most desirable creature on earth was looking for a partner, you'd certainly have some
powerful information and you'd be around to the Dish residence with offers and sweet words
before you knew it.
Similarly, a business that owns unique intellectual property will guard it with all its might
because it is valuable while they alone possess it. Patents, marketing ideas, ad campaigns, new
products etc all fall into this category. Once their secrets are known, they are worthless. That
explains why organisations tend to be quiet about initiatives and new products until they are
publicly released.
During World War 2, Polish and British codebreakers cracked the German 'Enigma' encryption
device*, letting them know every move the Germans were going to make. While the
information was of immense value to the British, they could not let the Germans know the
information had been compromised. Therefore, Winston Churchill allowed British cities and
shipping convoys to be knowingly attacked because if they had been unusually heavily
protected, the Germans would have guessed that their codes had been broken and would have
increased their level of security.no competitor has it
Relevance - If information is not relevant to the recipient, it is worthless. If you are not a
gambler and you hear a tip that a horse is a "dead certainty" at Randwick tomorrow, it is useless
information. For a puntser, however, the information might be pure gold. Information is not
universally valuable: it is valuable only to a person who needs it and can use it.
Usability - how well has the data been packaged and presented to let the user understand and
explore the data during decision making activities?
Accessibility - How easily can a person access the data or information? If it's hard to get to, its
value suffers.
Cost - Creating, collecting, storing, delivering, and protecting information is not cheap. They
require expensive personnel, hardware, software and time.
Security - the accessibility of data by all authorised users and the prevention of any
unauthorised users from accessing the data. The security of information

determines its availability to users for problem solving and decision-making.


Confidentiality - the availability of data only to a very restricted set of users. It must not be
viewed by anyone for whom it is not intended. The data must be secure to
ensure its confidentiality.
Value - the usefulness of information to facilitate problem-solving and decision making
and to enable the organisation to gain advantage over its competitors. Since
information has value it is a saleable commodity and it is shareable. It may
be presented on different media (for example, diskette, CD, tape, book,
newsletter, email) and in a variety of formats (for example, table, graph, chart,
text, video, audio).

Distortion the presentation of data to induce a particular interpretation. Data may also be
disguised in order to discourage certain interpretations.

The value of data


Whether you are managing a business or you are a single home user, your data is worth a lot to you. Imagine your
hard disk crashed tomorrow and you had no data backup. What sorts of data would you lose?Imagine the time, pain
and effort it would take to re-create all those things.
Think of the things you'd really scream about if you found they'd disappeared from your computer: what do they have
in common? They are original. They are irreplaceable. You can't download your school work: they took a great deal of
effort and time to create and replacing them would involve incredible work.
Now imagine you're a business manager. Your information system stores most of the things listed above, but also a lot
more:
- client lists
- payroll information
- tax records
- accounting details
- transaction details
- records of who owes you money
- records of whom you owe money to
Imagine losing those: it would be more than a major pain in the rear end - it would be catastrophic. It would cost you a
fortune, it would cripple the company's productivity while the disaster recovery took place, employees would be taken
off normal profitable work to claw back what you had lost. To re-create lost or damaged data costs thousands upon
thousands of dollars and hours. The tax department would be after you with knives drawn.
Your company would be bankrupt.
Your beloved wife or husband would leave you.
Your dog would hate you. (A bit melodramatic, maybe, but you get the idea).
It cannot be stressed enough: DATA IS THE MOST VALUABLE THING A COMPANY OWNS.
An information systems manager simply cannot afford to have it happen. Ever.

Formal information is official and authoritative. It is meant to be taken seriously and is presented in a
formal manner. It is usually more carefully prepared and verified than informal information, and its
accuracy and reliability should also be higher. e.g. a company's annual report to shareholders, a

Principal's message in a school magazine.


Informal information is more casual, less authoritative, less formally presented, possibly less reliable
than is formal information. A company chairman's off-the-cuff comments over a cup of coffee with
colleagues would be informal. A quick email to a friend giving them some advice would be informal.

SO 4
Data... Data can be defined as raw facts and figures. Data may be meaningless or ambiguous. Data
often have little meaning until they are sorted or until we calculate something from them. This sort of
calculation is called data processing. When data is processed, it provides information.
Information... Information is data that have been put into a meaningful and useful context. Therefore,
Information = data + structure.
Knowledge... knowledge is applying information to solve problems or make decisions.

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