1,720,969 research outputs found
ASSESSING THE VALUE OF INFORMATION: PROBLEMS AND APPROACHES
Get PDFSeveral approaches to assessing the value of information are reviewed and their usability is discussed. The first approach is that used by economists, where the value of information is reflected through market prices and changes in probabilities. It is claimed that the applicability of this approach to information systems (IS) is limited. The second approach is based on measuring the quantity of information and then assigning value to quantity. An example of this approach is the entropy function. It is explained why the use of this method is limited to cases where data capacity or probability changes are the only issues to be considered. Three other approaches that are more useful to IS are discussed: the nonnative value, the realistic value, and the perceived value. These values are explained and discussed through a review of theoretical studies, real-life cases, and empirical research. The concluding section provides a comparative discussion of the various information values, and suggests the conditions to which each is best suited
The Value of Knowing that You Do Not Know
Get PDFThe value of knowing about data availability and system accessibility
is analyzed through theoretical models of Information Economics.
When a user places an inquiry for information, it is important for the user to
learn whether the system is not accessible or the data is not available, rather
than not have any response. In reality, various outcomes can be provided
by the system: nothing will be displayed to the user (e.g., a traffic light that
does not operate, a browser that keeps browsing, a telephone that does not
answer); a random noise will be displayed (e.g., a traffic light that displays
random signals, a browser that provides disorderly results, an automatic
voice message that does not clarify the situation); a special signal indicating
that the system is not operating (e.g., a blinking amber indicating that
the traffic light is down, a browser responding that the site is unavailable, a
voice message regretting to tell that the service is not available). This article
develops a model to assess the value of the information for the user in such
situations by employing the information structure model prevailing in Information
Economics. Examples related to data accessibility in centralized
and in distributed systems are provided for illustration
ORTHOGONAL INFORMATION STRUCTURES: A MODEL TO EVALUATE THE INFORMATION PROVIDED BY A SECOND OPINION
Get PDFThe paper discusses the value of information when a number
of independent sources provide information related to a
common set of states of nature.
The starting point is the Information Economic model of
Information Structures. The model is augmented to represent
independence of informational sources by means of
orthogonality of the information structures.
A new mathematical operator, orthogonal product, is defined
and its properties are probed. It is shown that this
operator maintains some mathematical properties such as
closure, association, unity element, null element, etc. It
is demonstrated how the orthogonal product represents the
notion of multi-source information.
The paper proves that an orthogonal product is generally
more informative than its multipliers, namely, if cost is
not considered a constraining factor, then there is a nonnegative
value to obtaining a second opinion.
The paper concludes with a numerical example and a
discussion on the applicability of the model of
orthogonality.Information Systems Working Papers Serie
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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