Chapter 3 – Evaluating Information Information Systems, First Edition John Wiley & Sons, Inc by...

Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Chapter 3 – Evaluating Information

Information Systems, First Edition John Wiley & Sons, Inc

by France Belanger and Craig Van SlykeContributor: Brian West, University of Louisiana at

Lafayette

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Learning Objectives

• Discuss why it is important both personally and professionally to be an informed information consumer

• Describe information overload, its consequences and approaches for dealing with information overload

• Discuss the relationship between information overload and information evaluation

• List and describe the dimensions of information quality• List and describe the elements of an information evaluation

framework• Given an information-related task, evaluate information for

its usefulness and believability

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Biased Information in a trusted outlet

Information is often biased, sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally. A particular article was about an output device called a plotter. A plotter is used to produce large-format drawings, such as architectural and engineering plans. The article was very positive about a plotter that used pencils rather than inkjet or laser. Inkjet and laser-like plotters were much faster than pencil plotters and more versatile.The author was the national marketing manager for the only company that manufactured pencil plotters (at that time).

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Focusing Questions

Making these decisions based on biased or otherwise low-quality information can lead to serious consequences, such as spending thousands of dollars on an inferior plotter.• Give two examples of instances where you

encountered biased information. What made you think the information was biased?

• What are some of the consequences of relying on biased information?

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Being a smart information consumer

• Being successful in today’s knowledge society requires being a good information consumer

• The goal of this chapter is to help you improve your information evaluation skills.

___________________: The systematic determination of the merit and worth of information.

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Evaluating Information

• One of the great things about the Internet is that there are almost no “_____________” who determine what can be posted.

• This means that there is no quality control• In more traditional media, the responsibility for

evaluating the quality and correctness of information was the job of editors and publishers.

• With the Internet, that responsibility shifts to the information consumer

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• In business, we often use information to reduce uncertainty

• The more uncertainty, the more we seek information in order to reduce that uncertainty

•

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My online life

We all face a daily torrent of information. The more “connected” you are, the more information you face. As you go throughout the next day, pay attention to how you deal with the information you face each day• What strategies do you use to determine what

information is important and to reduce the amount of information you deal with?

• How successful are these strategies? • How could you improve your approach to

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Information Overload

___________________: Being faced with more information than one can effectively process.• The more information we have to sift through,

the less attention we have to devote to other tasks

• It reduces productivity, increases stress and can actually lead to physical health problems.

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Information Overload

Managers know the value of information and gather information for many different reasons• In a belief that more information improves decision

making• To justify decisions• To verify previously-acquired information• To “play it safe” by making sure they do not miss any

relevant information• In the belief that the information may be useful later

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Dealing with Information Overload

Two major strategies for dealing with information overload are filtering and withdrawal • Withdrawal essentially involves disconnecting from

sources of information; not checking email, turning off the television, not surfing the Web and so on

• Filtering information involves knowing what information we need and what information merits attention and use, which makes knowing how to evaluate information a critical skill in today’s information rich world

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Dimensions of Information Quality

There are many views on what constitutes “high quality” information. Search the Web to discover different views on the dimensions of information quality.• What, in your opinion, are the three most

important dimensions of information quality?• Why do you think these are the most

important?

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Information Quality

• Garbage in, garbage out• If you use bad information as the basis for a

decision, you are probably going to make a bad decision

• Dimensions of information quality; the characteristics of information that make it useful or not useful.

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Dimensions of Information Quality

• Intrinsic quality includes dimensions of quality that are important regardless of the context or how the information is represented.

• Contextual quality includes the dimensions that may be viewed differently depending on the task at hand.

• Representational quality concerns how the information is provided to the user.

• Accessibility quality has to do with whether authorized users can easily access the information.

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Information Quality

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Information Quality

Intrinsic Contextual

Figure 3.1 Information Quality Dimensions


Intrinsic Dimension

Intrinsic Dimension Definition: Extent to which the information is:

Accurate

Believable

Objective

Understandable

Consistent

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Contextual Dimension

Contextual Dimension Definition: Extent to which the information is:

Relevant

Timely

Complete

Current

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Information Quality

• There needs to be emphasis on the importance of considering context when thinking about information quality.

• Consider stock price information. It is common for free information services to delay stock price information by fifteen minutes.

• This is acceptable for a casual investor but devastating for a day trader

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Quality Costs

• On the surface, it may seem like we should want the highest quality information possible

• Few individuals or organizations are willing to invest the resources necessary to ensure the highest possible information quality.

• We want information that is of sufficient quality to carry out tasks effectively.

• In other words, we want “good enough” information quality.

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Evaluating information sources

You are thinking about investing in real estate. While doing some initial research you obtained the following sources of information• A 2004 book on investing in residential real estate• A local real estate broker• A database of historical sales prices from your local tax collector

Rank these three sources based on how willing you would be to rely on the information from the source. Briefly justify your rankings.

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Now that you understand a bit about information quality, the question of how to evaluate information comes into play• Is the information useful? • Is the information believable?

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Useful?

• Relevant• Appropriate• Current

Believable?

• Credible• Objective• Supported• Comprehensive


Evaluating Usefulness

• If the information is not useful, then there is no need to assess its believability.

• To determine whether information is useful, evaluate whether the information is relevant, appropriate and sufficiently current.

• Each of these is a “____________” assessment.

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Evaluating Relevance

• Information relevance is the degree to which the information is pertinent to the task at hand.

• Will this information help me accomplish my task? • There are varying degrees of relevance• With experience you will be able to determine

what degree of relevance merits further evaluation

• Context-dependent

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Evaluating Appropriateness

• Is the information suitable for your purpose? • You will need to assess the level of detail and

the depth of the information in light of your information needs.

• If you are researching a new technology when preparing a report for your manager, the information contained in a high school student’s report may not be appropriate for your use

• Context-dependent

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Evaluating Currency

• How current you need the information to be?• If you are seeking information related to

rapidly evolving topics, such as information technology, you may need information that is very up-to-date

• Determining the currency of Web-based information is often difficult

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Evaluating Credibility

• Evaluating the credibility of an information source can be tricky in many cases and relatively straightforward in others

• More formal publications, such as peer-reviewed journals, often include short author biographies

• If the author has written widely on the topic in reputable sources, s/he probably has sufficient expertise to merit using the information

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Evaluating Objectivity

• First consider the source of the information• Using factual information from Dell’s Website

is fine, but relying on Dell to provide an unbiased comparison of their computers to Hewlett-Packard’s is a bad idea

• Language that is more fact-based and neutral is more likely to be objective

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Evaluating Support

• Claims without support should not be trusted• When support is offered, you should evaluate

the quality of the support• Consider the reasonableness of the claim• The claim should be testable• This does not mean that you have to actually

test the claim, but if you can see no reasonable way to test the claim be reluctant to rely on the information.

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Evaluating Comprehensiveness

• Assessing comprehensiveness requires assessing the depth and breadth of the information.

• Breadth concerns whether all aspects of a topic are covered while depth concerns the level of detail provided.

• Look for obvious gaps in information.• Throughout your evaluation, keep in mind the

context of your particular task3-29


Summary• Being able to evaluate information is a key element of information

literacy, which is an important skill for both our professional and personal lives.

• Career and personal success depends, in part, on the outcomes of the decisions we make. Our ability to evaluate the information we use to make these decisions affects the quality of our decisions.

• Information overload occurs when we are faced with more information than we can effectively process.

• Increasing our information evaluation skills helps us deal with information overload by reducing the amount of attention and time we devote to low-quality or non-useful information.

• Intrinsic dimensions of information quality include accuracy, believability, objectivity and consistency.

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Summary

• Contextual dimensions of information quality include relevance, timeliness, completeness and currency.

• Evaluating information concerns determining whether the information is useful and believable.

• Useful information is relevant, appropriate and sufficiently current for the task at hand.

• Believable information is credible, objective, well-supported and comprehensive.

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Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or translation of this work beyond that permitted in section 117 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without express permission of the copyright owner is unlawful. Request for further information should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. The purchaser may make back-up copies for his/her own use only and not for distribution or resale. The Publisher assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions, or damages caused by the use of these programs or from the use of the information herein.

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