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Practical and Theoretical Observations about Information Value and Quality

Interview with Dr. George Leal Jamil, Professor at FUMEC University

By IGI Global on Nov 26, 2013

Contributed by Kristen Stauffer, Discipline Manager

Released in September, Dr. George Leal Jamil’s recent IGI Global publication Rethinking the Conceptual Base for New Practical Applications in Information Value and Quality, also edited with Professor Armando Malheiro and Professor Fernanda Ribeiro from Universidade do Porto, Portugal, discusses the re-evaluation of the conceptual base of information value and quality found in different forms of media; and how these concepts can be analyzed in real applications and business scenarios. This book is a vital reference source for scholars, practitioners, IT specialists, and students interested in information and knowledge management.

Recently, Dr. Jamil attended and presented on this subject at both EDICIC 2013 at the University of Porto in Portugal and CENTERIS 2013, also in Portugal. Below, Dr. Jamil shares with us more information on his presentations there as well as his recent book and research.

Interview With Dr. George Leal Jamil, Professor At FUMEC University

IGI Global: Recently, you presented at both EDICIC and CENTERIS. Could you tell us a little about both of your presentations? Did you have any co-presenters?

Dr. George Leal Jamil: At CENTERIS, a congress with many areas and topics covered, I presented “Approaching Market Intelligence concept through a case analysis”, which focused on how Market Intelligence relates to competitive intelligence (CI), particularly within the information technology (IT) industry in Brazil. The main focus of the research was to improve the conceptualization of Market Intelligence based on the CI. It was done both theoretically and also through a practical observation of a group of IT firms.

At EDICIC, an academic encounter focused on information science, held by the prestigious FLUP - Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto - my work was about a review of a knowledge management model that I presented as the final work for my PhD in 2005 at Federal University of Minas Gerais, in Brazil, and use as a methodological tool for Market Intelligence analysis in the future (the presentation was also part revision of the model, which can be applied for other studies and an updated discussion about knowledge management in general). Both papers were developed and authored by me, but in the near future, it will be a base for subsequent studies.

For those who are unfamiliar with information science, can you explain a little more about your book, and the conceptual base of information value and quality? And what is the biggest and most important reason to rethink this subject?

One of the main questions in the information science area is: what is information? Although appearing to be a basic concept (and it is), it is still an interesting focus of debate, considering it as a process (the process of information) or an "object" or "thing" (intangible, which is almost a paradox consideration). Studies about information result in its continuous conceptualization and more learning about related processes. Generation, storage, sharing, application for several organizational scenarios – all of these processes are related to information, social and technological aspects, and so forth. Information not only is an opportune aspect to be discussed, promoting discussions about data, knowledge, intelligence, systems, and other related concepts, but also demands an observation about two apparent attributes of material productions: quality and value. These two aspects are also observed by several academic and scientific fields, as managerial sciences, computing, accounting, and many others.

Rethinking, therefore, was proposed to keep the discussion alive: debating about information and its relationships and widening it a bit more, introducing the quality and value analysis. The gains, as all book chapters propose, are theoretical and conceptual, as well as practical, and we have split the final work into two major sections each dedicated to each way of observing.

What forms of media did you examine, and which applications and business scenarios do you think will benefit most from the studies in this book?

We have in the book chapters that deal with theoretical reflections about information and its practical aspects, as detailed above. The first section covered theoretical evaluation, developing studies about information "personality", conceptualizations, and its relationship with other concepts. This approach results in what is mainly covered in the second section, defining scenarios and propositions for practical implementations, products and service offers, and so on.

It is interesting that information science is now being questioned as a formational, service-oriented area or as a theoretical, research-related, more academic field, designed to contribute to other fields, such as Management and Information Technology, for instance.

What are some of the challenges facing information value and quality today?

Mainly practical aspects. For instance, the huge abundance of data and information unexpectedly made available by Social Media services, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and many others. We really feel the need for a substantial set of scientific tools to analyze and study in detail the production of it to understand if it, for instance, is really useful for marketing plans or strategic proposition. Information science can contribute significantly with methodological alternatives and scientific production to make this understanding more clear through continuous discussion.

What projects are you looking forward to working on in the future?

We have approved, recently, a very challenging work with IGI called "Effective Project Management through the Integration of Knowledge and Innovation" in which we advance a bit further these studies, observing how information and knowledge management can be evaluated for project management related to innovations (projects for innovation and innovations for project management). This project will extend throughout 2014, and will result in this specific observation for innovation-related processes.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

We, I and my co-authors, are completely available not only to discuss these works and productions, but interested on deepening information and knowledge related subjects around the books!

George Leal Jamil is a professor of FUMEC University and several post-graduation courses from Minas Gerais, Brazil. He has a PhD in Information Science from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), master degree in Computer Science (UFMG) and his graduate area was Electric Engineering (UFMG) and is actually coursing a post-doctorate program at FLUP – Communication School at University of Porto, Portugal. He has written 14 books in the information technology and strategic management areas, with another 8 works in books as co-author and Editor, including Rethinking the Conceptual Base for New Practical Applications in Information Value and Quality.

Yearly, he manages the doctoral consortium of the International Conference on Information Systems and Technology Management at the University of Sao Paulo (USP) as one of his main activities. His main research interests are information systems management, strategy, knowledge management, software engineering, marketing and IT adoption in business contexts.

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