Information vs. Negative Information

The effective utilization of vast new galaxies of information has
made a new information management paradigm absolutely essential. 
Consider the implications of the following statements:

-  "The amount of paper behind a battleship weighs more than the
ship" (Larson, 1988).

-  "In the commercial aircraft industry, the standard rule of
thumb is -- when the weight of the paper equals the estimated
weight of the plane, it will fly" (Larson, 1988).

Although these statements are rather tongue-in-cheek, they
accurately express the dilemma faced by contemporary society. 
Professionals of all disciplines are becoming overwhelmed by the
ever increasing amount of information available to them.  When
the volume of information is more than the human brain can
process effectively, the result is not the faster decision making
that was predicted, but instead, a delay in or even abdication of
the implementation of the decision process.  This paradox might
be called "negative information - that is, information that
reduces rather than increases one's knowledge" (Weiner and Brown,
1989).  The superimposition of a coherent data structure can put
information resources into useful contextual perspectives.  The
application of several contemporary software programming concepts
has demonstrated promise in providing ordering systems that
facilitate the extraction of knowledge from information resources
and, as a consequence, enhance decision processes. 

<cfile12>   Data Processing Technologies
<cfile18>   Problems in Information Science
<cfile20>   Database Management Systems (DBMS)
<cfile22>   Authoring Systems Using Macro Commands
<cfile25>   Hypertext Introduction
<ffile20>   Information Glut
<ffile71>   Preservation News Monitor