Missed Information: Better Information for Building a Wealthier, More Sustainable Future

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David Sarokin (United States Environmental Protection Agency) Jay Schulkin (Research Professor, Georgetown University)

Missed Information

Better Information for Building a Wealthier, More Sustainable Future

David Sarokin (United States Environmental Protection Agency), Jay Schulkin (Research Professor, Georgetown University)

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English

MIT Press
01 September 2017

Communication studies; Environmentalist, conservationist & Green organizations; Sustainability; Ethical & social aspects of computing

Series: Missed Information

How better information and better access to it improves the quality of our decisions and makes for a more vibrant participatory society.

Information is power. It drives commerce, protects nations, and forms the backbone of systems that range from health care to high finance. Yet despite the avalanche of data available in today's information age, neither institutions nor individuals get the information they truly need to make well-informed decisions. Faulty information and sub-optimal decision-making create an imbalance of power that is exaggerated as governments and corporations amass enormous databases on each of us. Who has more power- the government, in possession of uncounted terabytes of data (some of it obtained by cybersnooping), or the ordinary citizen, trying to get in touch with a government agency? InMissed Information,David Sarokin and Jay Schulkin explore information-not information technology, but information itself-as a central part of our lives and institutions. They show that providing better information and better access to it improves the quality of our decisions and makes for a more vibrant participatory society.

Sarokin and Schulkin argue that freely flowing information helps systems run more efficiently and that incomplete information does just the opposite. It's easier to comparison shop for microwave ovens than for doctors or hospitals because of information gaps that hinder the entire health-care system. Better information about such social ills as child labor and pollution can help consumers support more sustainable products. The authors examine the opacity of corporate annual reports, the impenetrability of government secrets, and emerging techniques of ""information foraging."" The information imbalance of power can be reconfigured, they argue, with greater and more meaningful transparency from government and corporations.

By: David Sarokin (United States Environmental Protection Agency), Jay Schulkin (Research Professor, Georgetown University)
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 17mm
ISBN: 9780262534505
ISBN 10: 0262534509
Series: Missed Information
Pages: 264
Publication Date: 01 September 2017
Recommended Age: From 18
Audience: General/trade , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

David Sarokin is an environmental scientist with the Environmental Protection Agency. Jay Schulkin is Research Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Georgetown University, where he is also a member of the Center for the Brain Basis of Cognition.