Knowledge Power : Quality Information and Knowledge [Textbook Binding]

This book presents the readers with an objective and scientific description of IQ (information quality) and a systematic way of measuring, analyzing and improving IQ. It is valuable for enterprise IQ personnels to read this book before fulfiling DQM (Data Quality Management) tasks.

This the best book on the subject of data and information quality! The authors have provided us we the means to implement a practical and simple way to achieve data and information quality with the notion that data are products. The emphasis of IT is shifted towards supporting the production of data and information products. Data and information as products, also encourages interactions with consumers of these products. The authors illustrate the importance of this with long chapters devoted to consumers surveys about information timeliness, packaging, content, meaning, and packaging. My organization was fortunate enough to have Dr. Wang offer a seminar based on his book. In the seminar, Dr. Wang emphasised the importance of data and information as products whose quality ia judged by access, interpretation, content, and timeliness. The depth of knowledge and pratical use of basic quality principles to achieve consumenr satisfaction is well demonstrated by Dr. Wang and his co-authors. As all of us must live in a world where data, information and knowledge are commodities of trade, this book is a necessary guide for success.

This book succeeds in promoting a dialogue about information quality and knowledge management. This is a timely and useful undertaking. It contains an original synthesis of best of class ideas on information, quality, and knowledge. In a way, it is an argument by analogy. The language of total quality management of physical products is applied in detail to information and information products (knowledge). This can be seen in the way information is described as being "fit for use" (p. 43). This is the language of the uniform commercial code (UCC) where material products are "fit for use," a use incidentally which is often covered by warranty and conditions of legal liability (not studied here). Chapter One proposes that by boot-strapping quality information the creation of knowledge occurs. The implication: knowledge is information that satisfies the quality attributes so that it is fit for use. In my reading, knowledge is explained as - reduced to - quality information. Chapter Two makes the case for managing information as a product -- the product being reusable knowledge. Chapter Three drills down into the sixteen quality attributes of information - attributes like complete, unambiguous, meaningful,correctness. This builds on the work of one of the authors (1). A framework is provided for formalizing how computer systems succeed (or fail) in representing the world about which data is captured. This perspective on information quality changed my way of viewing information. The authors claim is the framework is ontological (p. 35) - having to do with the order and structure of reality in the broadest sense (p. 35). The authors may or may not be familiar with the early Wittgenstein and his reliance on Hertz's model building in physics (2). Nevertheless, this framework, in my opinion, is a productive and engaging one. Chapter Four looks at the survey method used to gather intelligence on how an organization is performing in terms of quality information. Chapters Five through Nine turn to the explicit dimension of knowledge management. Experience with Intranets by knowledge workers at IBM serve as examples. Here we get a new definition of knowledge as a capacity to perform -- a "core competency," which is explicitly invoked. The authors specify ten strategies for knowledge management, which include establishing methods, managerial visibility, collaboration, sharing best practices, and related. Thomas Stewart's (3) distinction between intellectual capital as human, structural, and customer capital is deployed and adds value to the discussion (p. 134). The text is peppered with many useful references, and it is a minor oversight, easily corrected, that Stewart is not included in them. Nevertheless, the fundamental insight endures -- the royal road from information to knowledge crosses the bridge of quality. In my opinion, the authors' work has enough integrity and coherence to withstand criticisms. The way they write about "hardening" knowledge is misleading. It is true that we do speak of "hard data." But "hardening" knowledge is easily confused with organizational Alzheimer's disease (p. 92) referenced elsewhere (clearly undesirable). The "hardening," however, is a positive feature. It refers to indexing, ormalization, preparation for reuse, and storing as an accessible asset in a library or database. That would ordinarily be described as the "systemization" of the knowledge. Further, no where do the authors say, "OK, here is our definition of knowledge . . ." Instead, several useful working definitions are provided: knowledge as quality information, knowledge as competency, knowledge as a "hardened," systematic product. The authors distinguish between "know-how," "know-what," and "know-why" knowledge (p. 62). This is a useful classification between factual, instrumental, and explanatory kinds of knowledge. Note, however, that each presumes an implicit definition of knowledge. In the final analysis, the most original definition of knowledge provided is -- When information has a suitable number of quality features, then that information becomes knowledge in the full sense. Knowledge is made relative to information; but gains in engagement with real world contexts. It acquires the dignity and respect we accord something when we say "we know . . ." rather than "we hope . . ." or "we believe . . ." While the theoretically inclined may find many problems with this approach, the result is a practical success. Knowledge is operationalized in pragmatic and instrumental terms; and that is indeed a valuable result. References (1) Wang, Richard Y. 'A product perspective on total data quality management,' Communications of the ACM, 4, 2 (Feb 1998), 58-65). See Computing Reviews, July 1998, Vol. 39, No. 7, p. 384 [9807-0554]. (3) Stewart, Thomas A. Intellectual capital: the new wealth of organizations , Doubleday, New York, 1997. See Computing Reviews, December 1997, Vol. 38, No. 12, p. 617 [9712-0981]. (2) Wittgenstein, Ludwig, Tractatus logico-philosophicus, trans. D.F. Pears and B.F. McGuinness, Humanities Press, New York, 1971.