Information is Good?

I’ve just come out of a Internet conference session where most of the delegates were proselytizing the merits of maximizing the amount of public information disseminated for free on the Web. They see a Brave New World,  with the Internet overflowing with data sets. By magic, Britain would be the centre of a spontaneous combustion of new enterprises. I can hear them now: information is good, more information is better, and computerized information is best. But nothing is that simple.  

I say this for two reasons. First, sometimes with data, less is more! Who knows what form of litigation is lurking around the corner if some awkward data is hiding in the volume. Some things it’s best not to know! I always confront the so-called ‘wisdom’ of more is best by telling those who collect information like a squirrel does nuts, to find out the blood type of their mother’s husband, and then to compare it with their own. For about a quarter of the population this is likely to produce a very unwelcome surprise. “It’s a wise man that knows his father.” 

And secondly, with data, whether gleaned from the web or in general, quality is far more important than quantity. Remember, when a man has a watch he knows the time. If he has two watches he isn’t so sure!

Related posts:

1. Is your information correct?
2. A new standard for personal information management