Harvesting the Value of Information

Abstract

The barriers to tapping into the abundance of available electronic information-whether it's within our own companies or on the Internet-have been removed and the tremendous value inherent in this information can now be easily harvested. Despite so much information at our fingertips, many of us still wonder why we don't extract more value from this information. The reason, in short, is information requires order. The question is how do we define that order? Why is it so hard to achieve and maintain? What are some approaches for imposing the order we need? We must transform the wealth of electronic information that now exists into an asset. We can increase information's value by making it available to as many others as possible-not by hoarding it. To increase information's value we must increase its effective use. In an engineering enterprise, three factors affect information's use: access, tools, and order.