Research Activity #2

The Value of Information

Every single piece of information is highly valuable and also holds substantial monetary value because that information belongs to someone, it supplies knowledge, and producing it costs money. Any piece of information, public or not, belongs to and has value to someone. Whether people are willing to pay money for any sort of information, it is up for debate on if that information is actually worth the monetary value. The entire concept of information supplies the basis of knowledge, without it there would be no foundation for intelligence and expertise. Therefore, all information put out into the world has some sort of direct or indirect financial value.

Whether information is published to the public or not, it has value to somebody. Other people, companies, organizations, and governments use information to their benefit. Many free of charge internet services such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google, and even credit cards make some sort of profit from selling the data they collect about their users and consumers. The parent company reaps the benefits of selling the personal data and information footprints of its users. These apps and services collect data on their consumers, which is then sold to third-party companies called “data brokers” that aggregate that data, which in theory makes it more valuable. Furthermore, academic literature and research is still incredibly valuable and actually costs the most. In the world today, we expect everything to be free and accessible anywhere, since the Internet has rewritten expectations for consumers. According to Kalev Leetaru, about “The Internet made Information Free: Now it has Come for Academic Research”, “academic literature has to date been one of the few bastions that has escaped this transformation, due in no small part to the fact that institutional subscriptions have largely hidden the costs from researchers who remain blissfully unaware that their library pays $100,000 a year for a set of journals they use” (Leetaru, 2017). This truly shows that out of all aspects of information value, academic information holds the bar at the highest.

While producing and sharing information costs money, many publishers and editors choose to have their work or collection of data protected, such as with copyright. Some even require people to pay in order to view and use their information. Scientific information and data has educational and social value, it should not be sold but instead shared as much as possible. Guaranteed, some information does carry a significant amount of monetary value, however not every single piece of information should have a price tag on it. The company iA Incorporated, shares its thoughts in its newsletter “The Value of Information,” “Science needs to be funded by society; a rational society is built on the knowledge of its citizens. Call me an idealist, call me European, call me naive, but if you charge a kid if it asks you why Australians don’t fall off the planet, there is something wrong with you” (iA Inc., 2020). This shows a very valid argument about just how far some companies will go to charge such small pieces of information.

Others can argue that while producing information costs money, information does not in fact carry monetary value. It carries intellectual, social, artistic, and practical value. Information is infinite, which makes it difficult to measure its value, more importantly its price. No one is actually sure if the money spent on information is worth it because “we have difficulties spending money for digital information because at the end of the transaction we neither save time nor do we hold anything concrete or limited in our hands. It feels like buying air” (iA Inc., 2020). It is true that information costs money, but should it?

To conclude, information holds plenty of value and does cost money. Once information is put out into the world, it belongs to someone. They are the rightful owner of that information, which may cause them to charge money for access to their information. Second, information is the foundation of knowledge and without it, knowledge would not exist. Lastly, all information has some sort of direct or indirect financial value. Whether it comes in the form of journals, newsletters, advertisement, sponsoring, or even subscriptions, valuable information always finds its way to the recipient if they need it, which is why it gets monetized quickly.

References

Ia.net., 2020. The Value Of Information – Ia. Retrieved from <https://ia.net/topics/the-value-of-information

Leetaru, K., 2020. The Internet Made Information Free: Now It Has Come For Academic Research. Forbes. Retrieved from <https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2017/07/31/the-internet-made-information-free-now-it-has-come-for-academic-research/#5033b2654640

Qureshi, S., 2006. Why Is the Information Society Important to Us? The World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis. Retrieved from <https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/itdj.20035

Teaching Privacy. 2020. Information Is Valuable. Retrieved from <https://teachingprivacy.org/information-is-valuable/