TABLE OF CONTENTS Matthew Hinton
The term information management implies that information is a resource that can be managed. Information as a resource can be compared with money as a resource. Like money, information comes in and goes out. You can be information rich or information poor and there are rules that constrain what you can do with information. But there are also some important differences between information and resources such as money. For example, there is general agreement on what constitutes money. With money, there are limits, such as when organizational participants are given a budget of a clearly defined size. Organizational accounting systems and budget holders can keep track of each financial transaction. If you are a budget holder, you know how much has been spent and how much you have left. You can estimate how much you will need for planned expenditures. You can identify which money you own and distinguish your money from money owned by others. By contrast, what constitutes information can include almost anything. A packing assistant notices that an invoice is not attached to a completed order and tells the warehouse manager. This is information. But so are the company tax returns submitted to the Inland Revenue. The number of new customers each week for the last month displayed on a computer screen, an...
