Bus 172
October 19, 2014

Monga, Vipal. "The Big Mystery: What’s Big Data Really Worth?" The Wall Street Journal (2014): 4. Web. 10 Oct. 2014.

Measuring the information value according to how much money it will generate sounds logical. However, if measuring the value of information by itself it is hard it is even harder to know how much money it will generate, which is another unanswered question. Another possibility is that information can be valued according to stock prices, which reflect how investors perceive the value of information (Monga). But yet again it is not an accurate way of valuing information and it may never be unless another method comes along. The reasons that the two methods may not be the best in valuing information is because they depend too much on opinion. Everyone has different opinion and while one person may value an organizations information high according factor “A” another may value it low according to factor “B”. Everyone has a different benchmark. Therefore, the source of value of information is hard to find. Also, information value changes as time passes and it becomes old or new information may arrive and add to existing information making it even harder to value (Monga).
Information value can be negative, positive, and even neutral. It can be negative if, for example, a student is going to a party very excited but then he gets an email from the professor telling the whole class about a surprise exam the next day. The student reads the email and is now disappointed now he knows that he will not be able to drink and he will also have to come home early. The value of information or better yet the value of the email alerting him about the exam has negative value. The student may have been better off or happier without knowing that information. Because he is now aware of that exam he is now a bit upset and he will choose not to maximize his happiness when he goes out to the party. Nevertheless, on the other hand he will have the chance to maximize his grade in the class. If he would have not known that there was going to be a surprise exam he would have not had the chance to review the night before, he would probably not gotten a good night sleep, and he would have probably had a hangover as he took the exam which would have minimized