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Saturday, November 21, 2009
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ISSUE 43
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Managing information: conquering the great enigma.
Aimee Zahora, Dow AgroSciences LLC
Managing information is a complex concept because it has enormous scope. Everyone deals with information and its related task of management in some manner. Whether you are a mother in Brazil preparing a meal for your family, a football coach in Kenya planning a tactic for the team, or the chief information officer at a Fortune 500 company managing hardware for the organization, you need information to complete your duties.
In each scenario, information is important. However, the information needs of each individual differ. This implies that not all information has the same importance or value. Managing information allows for discernment between what is valued and what is not valued. Managing information includes many facets: identifying, categorizing, filtering, interpreting, integrating, pruning, restructuring, and synthesizing (Davenport, Thomas H,. Information Ecology: Mastering the Information and Knowledge Environment. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. p35-36). Let’s examine the following three questions in more depth:
- What is information?
- Why do we need to manage information?
- What does it mean to manage information?
What is information?
Information means different things to various people. Davenport suggests that information can be defined on a continuum (Figure 1). On the left side is data; data are “raw facts” which are easily quantified. In the middle is information; information is data plus human context or involvement. Human context involves a person analyzing, interpreting, and formatting or packaging the data so that it has meaning for someone else.
On the right side of the continuum is knowledge. Knowledge is information with an added dimension—time. The amount of time it takes to reflect on and synthesize information to make it valuable brings about a transformation, which results in knowledge or value.
Assume that data is relatively simple in nature. As we shift from left to right on the continuum, the complexity grows. Davenport describes this complexity when he states, “The amount of human involvement increases as we move along this continuum of data-information-knowledge” (p10).
Figure 1 
The data-information-knowledge continuum is somewhat abstract in nature. Let’s briefly examine the process of baking a cake, in an effort to move from the abstract to the concrete (Figure 2). To bake a chocolate cake, you must have several raw ingredients including flour, oil, eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt, cocoa, baking soda, and water (the data). If you follow a recipe to combine specific quantities of these ingredients together in a particular order, then you have used information (data that someone analyzed at one time or another). The next step in the process is to place these combined ingredients in the oven to bake for a period of time and produce a valued item--the cake.
Figure 2
Why do we need to manage information?
The volume of information available globally is staggering. Information sources such as television, radio, film and video, the Internet and print media compete daily for our attention.  Both the enormity of information that exists currently and the technological ability that we possess to broadcast it all over the world seems to suggest that we are privy to a gain compared with the generations who came before us.
The mass of available information should somehow correlate to better, faster, and smarter people and performance. Theoretically, this assumption may indicate that we are ‘ahead of the game,’ but William Harvey defines the reality of the situation with these words, “All we know is still infinitely less than all that still remains unknown” (Logan, Debra Kay. Information Quotations. 7 Jan. 2002. Mount Gilead High School. 2 Feb. 2003 http://www.deblogan.com/quo.htm).
The world changes constantly and information changes with it, so technology developed to manage information must take into account its dynamic nature. Today’s technology must account for some growth capacity as information continues to multiply.
What does it mean to manage information?
 Picture a jigsaw puzzle and imagine each puzzle piece represents a piece of information. A single puzzle piece doesn’t hold much value. Arguably, neither do two or three puzzle pieces in the context of a 500-piece puzzle. However, the right combination of fifty to one hundred puzzle pieces begins to form a picture. On the other hand, information in isolation, information at the wrong time, or information in a poor format for its intended audience contributes to a devaluing of information.
Let me share with you a personal example to further illustrate the meaning of managing information. I work for a leading agricultural company in their Government and Public Affairs (G&PA) department. Part of my role involves serving as the G&PA focal point for competitive intelligence. I gather pieces of information from the individuals within my department and capture that information in the company’s competitive intelligence database.
Our G&PA department include individuals with expertise in science policy, corporate communications, media relations and crisis communications, eCommunications, public policy, federal government affairs, state government affairs, guest relations and community/industry affairs, environmental, health and safety, and industry relations. Each individual within G&PA has his or her own realm of information that he or she manages on a daily basis.
Each individual (according to Davenport’s definition of management) takes their information and sets about categorizing, filtering, interpreting, integrating, pruning, restructuring, and synthesizing. (Albeit some are better than others at this task.) The management of this information often results in a transformation from information to knowledge. The information or knowledge manifests itself in a variety of forms: documents, scribbles on a post-it-note, information in someone’s head (not yet manifested), posters, conversations on the phone, presentations, reports, e-mails, sketches on a whiteboard, etc.
If each individual in G&PA aggregated his or her multiple forms of information or knowledge, the resulting output would reveal exponential growth. Yet, such exponential growth would likely be unmanageable, especially considering the breadth of content areas that the department spans.
 Returning to the competitive intelligence role, the pieces of information that I collect from G&PA have had some initial pruning and filtering done. One individual might read a lengthy report and then paraphrase the key learnings from that report. Another person may send me a sentence or two in an e-mail about a rumor he or she heard during a telephone conversation. Someone else may leave a phonemail message relaying some information read in a trade publication.
The pieces of information that I receive from the group vary greatly in content and in form. Some of the information is readily quantifiable and can be captured as data, while other pieces are “fuzzy” (Davenport 21) and can be categorized as knowledge.
 The collection of information (competitive intelligence in this example) does not end with me. Competitive intelligence focal points exist within each of our business units, regional units and functions. These focal points around the world collect agricultural information relating to insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, pest management, plant genetics and biotechnology, law, finance, research and development, government and public affairs, and manufacturing.
Each focal point is collecting information from his or her respective group and capturing it in a central competitive intelligence database. The competitive intelligence database is the technological tool that helps the company manage the information; the value of the database itself is dependent upon the information that is captured in it.
The individuals in the competitive intelligence group gather pieces of information from the database by doing keyword searches on specific topics. They review, analyze, and synthesize the pieces retrieved from the search and deliver that managed information to senior management. This managed information enables informed decision-making by senior management.
Remember that information is data plus human context or involvement. Transforming content into information that holds inherent value for the information receiver and enables him or her to take action (i.e. identify a problem, recommend a solution, make a decision) captures the essence of managing information. To manage information is to give it value.
Quotes are from:
Famous Library and Librarian Quotes & Quotations. 4 Feb. 2004 http://www.useful-information.info/quotations/library_quotes.html#information .
The Columbia World of Quotations. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. 2 Feb. 2003 http://www.bartleby.com/66/94/25794.html.
The Columbia World of Quotations. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. 2 Feb. 2003 http://www.bartleby.com/66/86/46086.html .
Aimee Zahora is an Indianapolis-based Communications Specialist for Public Policy at Dow AgroSciences, a global leader in providing pest management and biotechnology products that improve the quality and quantity of the earth's food supply and contribute to the safety, health and quality of life of the world's growing population. Aimee is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Information Science at Indiana University. She received her BS in English Education from Ball State University. Aimee travels internationally for pleasure to Europe and Latin America and enjoys tasting international cuisine, interacting with the local people, and learning about other cultures. Her next excursion will include a first trip to Africa to explore the cities of Casablanca and Marrakech, Morocco.
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