- Uncodified knowledge cannot be transferred except by f2f interaction (apprenticeship etc)
- But knowledge codification is very time and space consuming (and much still remains implicit)
- As the amount of codified knowledge grows it becomes harder to find what you want
Hypothesis: Value of Information in Databank = Value of Information if it could be Accessed Perfectly x Ease of Finding Any Particular Item
Plausible to assume Ease of Finding Information = h(Amount) where h' less than 0
- Let Amount = n
- In standard Computer Science if we could sort items in some manner (by which we could also search). h(N) = log(n) (and sorting costs are n log(n) - bubble sort)
- Suppose only option is brute comparison (and it is useful to find a negative i.e. that what you want isn't in there). Then this suggests E(search time) = n/2 and h(n) = 2/n
Plausible to have diminishing return for Value of Information if it could be Accessed Perfectly = f(Amount). So f'' less than 0. Thus f grows at less than linear rate (eventually ...). * If h has form suggested i.e. 2/n then we would have eventually Value of Information Bank is /decreasing/ in amount of information in databank
Example: explaining how to use a computer ...
Info on Size of Databanks
- How Much Information? Varian and Lyman, http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/06-02/lyman.html
- Ithiel De Sola Pool. Communications Flows: A Census in the United States and Japan. Elsevier Science, New York, 1984