Harnessing: information, knowledge and intelligence for development and decision making

Abstract

Information considered not as a product but as a factor of the use made of it and the way it fits into decision making may be defined as follows: information is an actual or potential action which must be processed and analyzed but raw data have meaning only for the knowing that places it in perspective. Because of its intangible and abstract nature, information has quite distinctive characteristics, located as it is on the borders of economics and business science, where material and immaterial goods, products and services consumable, but non-degradable, costly to assemble but easy to duplicate, have a considerable but diffuse impact (often far removed in time and space but, at times instantaneous) on transactors who are generally not easy to identify. Information is difficult to pin down, defies measurement, falls beyond the control of economists and can be quite a discouraging prospect