The word information has many different definitions. The word information itself has a few different meanings, but here I’m going to define it as the act of gathering, processing, and distributing information in some way. In other words, it’s the act of collecting and organizing data. To put it in a simple way, it’s the act of making sense of the data that is in front of us.
This is a good definition because it encapsulates most of the complexities of information and how you should think about it. To put it in a more technical way, the act of gathering, processing, and distributing information in some way. That’s important because it can take many forms. For example, when I speak with a salesperson, I may ask them to explain the difference between sales data and order data. After the conversation, I might ask them to tell me how they got that data.
The most powerful information systems will include a variety of different systems that can process, store, and distribute information. For the most part, these systems are in the public domain. That means that their developers have created them for public use and the information they contain has been created for the purpose of public consumption. However, there are some instances where information needs to be protected from the public and these instances are called “closed information systems”.
In the case of a closed information system, the developers have decided that they don’t want anyone to know about it. In other words, they have built in some very strong security so that no one is able to access the information contained within. This in itself isn’t a bad thing. It’s just that there is a risk that anyone will try to exploit the information contained within.
the risk of exploiting an information system is much, much smaller than the risk of exploiting a computer program, or any other piece of software. So, you can’t really make a case for why it is in any way necessary for an information system to be public.
For instance, consider the two main categories of information systems: business and government. Most of the information in the government database is currently open to the public, so you cant really justify the need for a government database. But there is a valid case for a government database for the private sector, and for a private sector bank to keep track of the financial transactions of their clients.
However, the reason it is necessary for a business’s information to be public is because it is a business. A business wants to have the ability to understand the financial transactions of their clients. A business wants to have the ability to access information that is not available to the general public (the government).
The problem is that for many businesses, keeping financial records is not a priority compared with other things a business does. For example, a company that makes widgets might not be in the business of keeping financial records. That is, maybe the widgets are not a necessary part of the business. It might be that the company’s primary goal is to sell widgets. Or maybe the company’s only goal is to make widgets and keep them in inventory.
The government’s solution to this problem is to create “information systems.” It’s a fancy word for a set of software that allows you to store, process, and access information, all without needing a computer. But the fact is that information systems aren’t really anything new. They have been around for hundreds of years, and were originally used for military information systems.
Companies don’t produce widgets. They buy widgets from companies. And widgets are not created in a vacuum. They were created over time, and some of them arent that easy to replicate.
