Information Quality

What is information quality (IQ) exactly? So far, our answers have been less than satisfactory. In the United States, the Information Quality Act, also known as the Data Quality Act, enacted in 2000, left undefined virtually every key concept in the text.  In the UK, some of the most sustained efforts in dealing with IQ issues have concerned the health care system. However, in 2004, the NHS Information Quality Assurance Consultation stressed that “Consideration of information and data quality are made more complex by the general agreement that there are a number of different aspects to information/data quality but no clear agreement as to what these are”.

There is still no agreed definition of information quality, indeed there is no agreed classification of information quality dimensions; and even the definitions of some generally accepted dimensions, such as timeliness, accuracy, consistency, completeness and accessibility is far from settled.  Lack of agreement causes costly errors, confusion, impasse, and missed opportunities. Part of the difficulty lies in constructing the right conceptual and technical framework necessary to analyse and evaluate such standards, and to translate them into implementable requirements.

This workshop seeks to contribute to our understanding of IQ by bringing together epistemological and ethical research, developed in the philosophy of information, with scientific and technical research developed in computer science, ICT, AI, and information management.

In association with the AHRC project ‘Understanding Information Quality Standards and their Challenges’: