Information policy - the mounting tension (value additive versus uniquely distributable 'public good')

Abstract

This paper posits that there is a fundamental and less than adequately recognized tension underlying information policy issues. That tension is between the nature of infor mation as inherently a value-added product and the nature of information as a commodity with compelling 'public good' characteristics and with unique properties of trans ferability and distributability. These conflicting properties of information each attempt to drive information policy in opposite directions. The magnitude of those forces is to a large degree a function of information technology, and changes in information technology therefore change the balance between those forces and require new solutions. Furthermore, the present accelerating changes in informa tion technology are tending not only to change the balance point between those factors, but, even more interesting and less recognized, they tend to make more compelling the forces and the arguments on either side of that balance point. Thus, information policy decisions are inevitably becoming increasingly difficult to arrive at, as each side sees the logic of its side become ever more compelling, while often failing to see that precisely the same is happening to the arguments of the other side. We need to understand this phenomenon if we are to intelligently guide the information policy process.