Information, Control and Privacy - Chapter 4 PDF

Information, Control and Privacy CHAPTER 4 Learning Outcomes At the end of this chapter, the students should be able to: 1. Distinguish a physical resource from a conceptual resource; 2. Identify the characteristics of information as a resource; 3. Analyze the phenomeno...

Information, Control and Privacy CHAPTER 4 Learning Outcomes At the end of this chapter, the students should be able to: 1. Distinguish a physical resource from a conceptual resource; 2. Identify the characteristics of information as a resource; 3. Analyze the phenomenon of information overload brought by high internet penetration; 4. Explain the major points of the revised Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines (Republic Act No. 10372); 5. Highlight the importance of information control and privacy by creating a video advertisement/awareness campaign. Introduction to Resources  Organizations treat company assets, such as buildings, equipment, and their manpower as important resources.  Resources are the total means available to a company for increasing production or profit, including land, labor, capital, and raw materials.  Without resources, organizations would cease to exist. Imagine a bank without money, a manufacturing plant without forklifts, or a school without teachers. These resources are known as physical resources. They are tangible and can be easily identified. Introduction to Resources  Physical resources usually start from acquisition and are then assembled to be available for use when needed. Very often, the assembly process entails converting an essentially raw material into a refined form, such as wood, cement, and steel for building construction.  Once these resources have been assembled, A manager strives to maximize their use; this includes allocating space for office use and identifying key areas in the building plans. Finally, the manager asks for replacement or repairs and maintenance of these resources at a critical time before they inefficient or obsolete. Introduction to Resources  The other type of resource is called conceptual resources. Conceptual resources are non-tangible and are considered valuable for what they represent rather than their physical make- up. Money is considered a conceptual resource as each paper bill represents a specific monetary value as opposed to the paper where it is printed. Introduction to Resources  Managers use conceptual resources to manage physical resources or vice versa. One such example is the use of computers in organizations. A computer unit, by itself, may cost thousands of pesos. However, once used, the content saved in those computer units become even more valuable resources, making the computer unit irreplaceable.  The integrity of the saved files may be compromised, so security checks are often identified on the computer units-e.g., firewalls, anti-virus, biometric access, etc. Information as a Resource  Information can be simply defined as "facts about something or someone that are provided or learned," Facts are considered relevant truths which have been validated and identified.  Data are considered facts; therefore, processed data are considered as information as they are organized in such a way that they have additional value beyond the value of the facts themselves. Information as a Resource  Unlike other organizational resources, information is considered:  Expandable - Information can be expanded without compromising its integrity. In fact, by having additional information, much more can be understood from it. An example is a person's personal information. While knowing his or her name, contact details and current work may be useful, having the person's full curriculum vitae becomes more useful for those in, for example, the HR Department. Information as a Resource  Compressible - Although expanded information can give a more detailed explanation, it may not always be needed. An example of this is in news sites. Instead of a barrage of details, news sites would often give one-liner headlines that provide enough information about the news. Another example is research abstracts. An abstract is normally a half- or a one-page summary of the entire research. Information as a Resource  Transportable - Information, especially digital information, is easily transportable. With the use of the internet and various technologies, information can be sent though any of the following: 1. send via email 2. share via Facebook 3. copy onto a flash drive 4. upload on YouTube Information as a Resource  Diffusive - Gossip or rumors tend to spread easily. Unfortunately, the same applies to any kind of information-be it true or not. Information as a Resource  Sharable - Since information can be easily spread, it is considered sharable as well. Information can be kept calling it a secret. However, once a person decides to tell it to someone, then he or she will no longer have control over it. In some cases, certain parts of the secret can be kept. One such example is the secret recipe of KFC. It is known that there are 11 secret herbs and spices, but as to what these herbs and spices are, people can only guess. Valuable Information  Accurate - Accurate information is error-free. In some cases, inaccurate information is generated because inaccurate data was processed. Analysts call this as "garbage-in-garbage- out." By typing "parts of a computer" in the search bar, Google gives you a list of several websites which contain the information you are looking for.  However, how do you determine which are accurate and which are inaccurate? Usually, it is better to trust sites that are formal in nature rather than informal ones such as blogs or forums. Valuable Information  Complete - Complete information contains all the important facts. This is especially important in the field of medicine. Missing information could spell disaster, or worse, lead to death. If the information regarding allergies has been left out, doctors might inadvertently give wrong medication that could cause severe allergic reactions to the patient. Valuable Information  Reliable - Reliable information can be depended on. In many cases, the reliability of information depends on the validity of the data collection method. In other cases, reliability depends on the source of information, which brings us back to valuable information being economical.  Torrent sites offer pirated software, music, and movies for free. However, the resolution of the movie downloaded, for example, might not be clear and might even contain malware and virus that could infect the computer system. Valuable Information  Flexible - Flexible information can be used for different purposes. Depending on the situation, personal information can be used for a variety of ways. A school ID can be used to enter the school premises. The same ID can be used to transact business with the registrar's office during enrolment. It can be used to open a bank account or to apply for a student driver's permit. Valuable Information  Relevant - Relevant information is important to the decision-maker. For example, your assignment calls for searching "parts of a computer" online. You do not visit sites that tackle "parts of the human body" because they are irrelevant to your research topic. Valuable Information  Simple - Information should also be simple, not overly complex. Sophisticated and detailed information may not be needed. Complex information may sometimes lead to confusion which could result in inaccuracy of details. Valuable Information  Timely - Timely information is delivered when it is needed. This is true in the case of weather predictions, stock market forecasts, and traffic management.  Verifiable - This means that information can be checked for correctness and authenticity. Most authors include references, bibliography, or citations in their works to enable readers to verify the content. Valuable Information  Timely - Timely information is delivered when it is needed. This is true in the case of weather predictions, stock market forecasts, and traffic management.  Verifiable - This means that information can be checked for correctness and authenticity. Most authors include references, bibliography, or citations in their works to enable readers to verify the content. Valuable Information  Accessible - Information should be easily accessible by authorized users to be obtained in the right format at the right time to meet their needs. In Korea, the U.S., the U.K., and China, a mobile phone can be used to pay for day-to-day transactions. A mobile pay app can be downloaded on the smartphone in which the user's credit card or debit card is enrolled.  Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, and Google Pay all use near-field communications (NFC) technology so instead of swiping the physical card for payment, the mobile phone is simply tapped on the card reader or terminal and payment is immediately recorded Valuable Information  Secure - Information should be secure from access by unauthorized users. Mobile pay systems such as Samsung Pay and Apple Pay use biometric authentication, typically a fingerprint scan, before a transaction is made. This ensures that only the owner of the phone can use the app for payments. Value of Information  Information is considered valuable mainly for business purposes as businesses depend on it to produce quality products and services. This helps organizations become globally competitive and be up to date with the latest trends and technology.  With businesses gearing towards IT automation, the strategy now is to come up with business activities that shorten time frames while increasing productivity. All of this is possible if companies have access to valuable information. Value of Information  Information, as a resource, has four characteristics, namely it (1) has zero marginal cost; (2) is non-rivalrous; (3) is non- exclusive; and (4) does not exhibit high degrees of transparency Value of Information  Zero-marginal cost The cost of producing the first copy of an information good may be substantial, but the cost of producing (or reproducing) additional copies is negligible. Avengers: Age of Ultron released in 2015 is one of the most expensive Hollywood movies ever made with an estimated budget of US$250,000,000. However, buying a DVD copy of the said movie today would cost about $20 in Amazon.com. Value of Information  Non-rivalrous Simultaneous consumption of information by consumers is possible. Movies nowadays are sold not only as DVD copies. There are also digital formats which anyone can watch online or download on their mobile devices, either as a rental or paid subscription. Value of Information  Non-exclusive Exclusion is not a natural property of information goods, though it is possible to construct exclusion artificially. However, the nature of information is that if it is known, it is difficult to exclude others from its use. Through emails and SMS, one can identify only intended recipients of the message through a specific email address or a phone number. Value of Information However, emails and SMS have the capability of forwarding the exact information to other recipients, without the original sender knowing it. This is much more evident in social media such as Facebook, in which a "share" automatically means sending to everyone else. Value of Information  No transparency To evaluate the information, the information must be known, so one has to invest in learning how to evaluate it. A programmer undergoing boot camp training to learn a new programming language needs to invest time, money, and effort. The more complicated the training, the more expensive the cost and the longer the time needed to learn it. Information Economics  Since people have widely different values for a particular piece of information, value-based pricing leads naturally to differential pricing. In economics, a good is considered to be an experience good if consumers must experience it to value it. Virtually any new product is an experience good, and marketers have developed strategies such as free samples, promotional pricing, and testimonials to help consumers learn about new goods. Information Economics  The tension between giving away your information to let people know what you have to offer-and charging them for it to recover your costs, is a fundamental problem in the information economy. These strategies include browsing previews, branding, and reputation. Information Economics  Browsing previews An example of this strategy is movie trailers. Movie trailers that normally run from 1 to 3 minutes give viewers a glimpse of what the film is all about. Trailers normally include highlights from the film which can leave the audience excited to watch the entire film later on. Information Economics  Browsing previews Another example is music downloaded from iTunes. A 5- to 15-second preview of the song can be listened to prior to buying it. This gives the user an idea of the song he or she wants to download if it is worth the amount to be paid. Information Economics  Branding Big names such as Microsoft and Apple have no issues when it comes to launching new products as people have already established their trust on these brands. According to American telecommunications (telco) company, Sprint, when Apple introduced iPhone 7 in September 2016, pre-order sales shot up by 375% compared to the launch of iPhone 6. Information Economics  Reputation When a movie is announced, people would often be skeptical if it would be good enough. However, the reputation of directors and the cast of actors and actresses normally remove this skepticism. For example, Michael Bay is known for successfully directing the Transformers movie franchise. This reputation has made his movies blockbuster hits as people have made a connection that if it is a Michael Bay film, it must be good.  To be continued… THANK YOU FOR LISTENING