Information Access Problems and Policy

Expanding on an offline conversation with Russ of ICON on the general issue of non-governmental organizations and information access: the basic requirement of sound policy and decisionmaking is accurate information. NGOs have over time developed comprehensive means of gathering and analyzing this information. Perhaps the most promising distillation of this is the focus on developing conflict early warning resources along the same lines as the kind of early warning analysis (or indications and warning--I&W).

The problem, though is the assumption that greater access to information through things like spime intelligence translates into better analysis. It opens up new possibilities but it also means that better processing mechanisms for analysis are needed to cope with increased output.

Comments

[Curtis Gale Weeks]

The problem, though is the assumption that greater access to information through things like spime intelligence translates into better analysis.

This is a caution I hold in mind when considering the issue of transparency when proponents of transparency link its existence to Utopia.

[A.E.]

See today's NYtimes story on the Harvard professor representing music downloader as a case in point. In the real world, not the infoenthusiast world, information is most definitely NOT free.