��<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> <head> <meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=unicode"> <meta name=ProgId content=Word.Document> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 15"> <meta name=Originator content="Microsoft Word 15"> <link rel=File-List href="diss-avh.fld/filelist.xml"> <title>Quality Control of Information</title>  <link rel=themeData href="diss-avh.fld/themedata.thmx"> <link rel=colorSchemeMapping href="diss-avh.fld/colorschememapping.xml">  <style>  </style>  </head> <body lang=SV link=blue vlink=purple style='tab-interval:65.2pt'> <div class=WordSection1> QUALITY-CONTROL OF INFORMATION: On the concept of accuracy of information in data-banks and in management information systems<o:p></o:p> (Version 240507-1625)  This page's URL web address <<a href="http://www8.informatik.umu.se/~kivanov/diss-avh.html">http://www8.informatik.umu.se/~kivanov/diss-avh.html</a>> and <<a href="https://archive.org/details/diss-avh/AvhDunn1972">https://archive.org/details/diss-avh/AvhDunn1972</a>>)<o:p></o:p>  <o:p></o:p> BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA <o:p></o:p> Ivanov, Kristo (1972). Quality-control of information: On the concept of accuracy of information in data-banks and in management information systems. Stockholm: The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KTH_Royal_Institute_of_Technology">Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)</a>. (Doctoral dissertation, 258 pages). <o:p></o:p> Copies can downloaded as instructed below, while earlier they could be ordered from the USA's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Technical_Information_Service">National Technical Information Service NTIS</a>, order # PB-219297. Ref. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissertations_Abstracts">Dissertation Abstracts International</a> 1974, Vol 35A, 3, p. 1611-A. Internationally the text is catalogued at the National Library of Sweden-Library Information System: <a href="http://libris.kb.se/bib/256993?vw=full">LIBRIS</a>.  The PhD dissertation was presented to the faculty of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Institute_of_Technology">Royal Institute of Technology</a> (KTH) for public disputation and defense on 11 December 1972, at 2:00 pm in the hall of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College#Other_uses">college</a>, Valhallav�gen 79, Stockholm. <![if !supportLineBreakNewLine]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p>  <o:p></o:p> PREFATORY NOTE<o:p></o:p> (rev. 240508-1120)<o:p></o:p>  <o:p></o:p> IN GENERAL <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> For a proper reading and appreciation of this text and its numerous links, please refer initially to my <a href="https://ia800107.us.archive.org/14/items/Research_201802/Research.html#Disclaimer">General disclaimer</a>. This prefatory note consists of some updating and overlapping texts that were written on different occasions, starting from the publishing of the dissertation in year 1972, and that I have not yet had the occasion of melt them down in a single text, which would amount to an updating and extension of my original dissertation.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The doctoral dissertation on Quality-control of information develops the scientific meaning and foreshadows the necessity of what later came to be named the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki">Wiki</a>-concept, especially as related to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki#Trust_and_security">Trust and security</a> . Quality-control in terms of the wiki-concept can be seen as a theory of security of computer systems as indicated in the conclusions expressed at the end of other texts about <a href="https://archive.org/details/hci_20200910">human-computer interaction - HCI</a>, on <a href="https://archive.org/details/Debate_201801">Information and debate</a> and about <a href="https://archive.org/details/kant-gramont">Computerization</a> of the whole society that today unfolds into the hype of <a href="https://archive.org/details/chat-gpt-agi">Artificial General Inteligence and ChatGPT</a>, while struggling about <a href="https://ia804505.us.archive.org/15/items/kivanov_informatik_BLOG/BLOG.html#Conspiracy">fake news and conspiracy theories</a>. The implications for Artificial General Intelligence in my dissertation written mainly in 1971 are outlined in its Appendix 11, pages A11.6-A11.9 on Human thinking and manipulation of symbols , extended to pages A11.10-A11.13 on Information quality and Law , all the while, as remarked on page A12:2, I had not yet available West Churchman s, at the time newly published synthesizing book <a href="https://archive.org/details/Index_20180206_1053">The Design of Inquiring Systems</a>.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> A general problematization of so called fake news and conspiracy theories beyond alternative facts (in Swedish f<a href="https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faktaresistens">aktaresistens</a> ) or in deeper meaning <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm_shift">paradigm shift</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldview">worldview</a>, is found in my paper on <a href="https://archive.org/details/kivanov_informatik_Theo">Information and theology</a>, especially in the chapter on <a href="https://ia601405.us.archive.org/17/items/kivanov_informatik_Theo/Theo.html#Galileo">The Galileo affair</a> . Such problematization is applied later in my papers on <a href="https://archive.org/details/rus-ukr">The Russia-NATO-Ukraine information crisis</a>, <a href="https://archive.org/details/israel-hamas-240210">Information: Massmedia and Israel-Hamas war</a>, and <a href="https://archive.org/details/WikiDemoCracy">Wikipedia democracy and Wikicracy</a>. The theological dimension of the problem is emphasized by the phenomenon of governmental censorship in democratic western countries of the world, where early censorship based on criminalization of atheism, such as in the historical case of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism_dispute">Atheism dispute</a> of philosopher Gottlob Fichte, has been substituted by criminalization of antisemitism, depending upon its various controversial <a href="https://www.unz.com/runz/israel-gaza-the-masks-come-off-in-american-society/">definitions by controversial mass media</a>, including the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_Holocaust_denial">Legality of Holocaust denial</a> .<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The narrow academic approach to the discussion of alternative facts is, else, basically done in terms of simplified Kantian philosophy, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/�sa_Wikforss">as implicitly done in Sweden</a>. The discussion starts rhetorically with the presentation of an oversimplified conflict between reason and overpowering feelings that undermine the logic of facts. Philosophically, however, Reason was split into (the critiques of) theoretical and practical reason, and both are synthesized in the (critique) of judgment into an aesthetics which is soon reduced to art and further down to design , as outlined in the historical criticism of Kant s approach that I revive in my paper on <a href="https://archive.org/details/kant-gramont">Computerization as abuse of formal science</a>. The concept of design, that <a href="https://archive.org/details/index.htmll/GeaAvhSummary/">only exceptionally is sometimes problematized in academic research</a>, risks to become a <a href="https://www.bokus.com/bok/9780262526708/the-design-way/">catchword that today lends prestige to all engineering effort</a>, not the least to computer-related efforts. <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Design is an approach based on a volume and kind of literature that is routine for philosophers. It is, however mind-blowing , overwhelming the minds of most common educated modern citizens (see for instance the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy s <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-reason/">Kant s account of reason</a> ). It divorces the question from common sense and from advanced psychology that historically was derived from philosophy, and from theology and religion, which are replaced by a nominal democracy that cannot work without the participation of common educated citizens. The whole approach is criticized in my above-mentioned essay on the phenomenon of computerization of the whole society.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> In this previously mentioned paper on the Ukraine information crisis, I report the ultimate observation and insight that fundamentally all information is fake (the more so in war, when "the first victim is truth") if it is not accompanied by what my dissertation focused on: an estimate of an error term. And that ultimately the determination of the error term depends upon the people s ethics and aspects covered in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Shapin">Steven Shapin</a> s <a href="https://www.amazon.se/-/en/Steven-Shapin/dp/0226750191">Social History of Truth</a>, as well as the possibility of citizens' <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech">freedom of speech</a>. It is usually guaranteed in democracy, but it is highly problematic as historically analyzed in the classic <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Democracy-America-Alexis-Tocqueville/dp/0226805360">Democracy in America</a> by Alexis de Tocqueville, and forcefully exposed by e.g. <a href="https://archive.org/details/tage-lindbom">Tage Lindbom</a> in his book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Democracy-Tage-Lindbom/dp/0802840647">The Myth of Democracy</a>. <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Today these aspects tend to be trivialized by their unconscious reduction to (Wikipedia s) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_facts">alternative facts</a> (and its section on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_facts#See_also">see also</a> ), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_news">fake news</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misinformation">misinformation</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disinformation">disinformation</a>, seasoned with references to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink">groupthink</a> (and its <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink#See_also">see also</a> ). Further trivialization takes place when information is qualified by ad-hoc terms such as those catalogized in my above-mentioned text on quality-control of information. Examples I give in my dissertation are validity, reliability, dependability, correctness, timeliness, exactness, usefulness, consistency, authenticity, completeness, degree of detail, recency, controllability, goodness, trueness, relevance, pertinence, acceptability, refinement, approximation, currency, rightness, coverage, etc. A final and definitive example of trivialization appears in a cynical interpretation of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensemaking#Weick's_approach_to_sensemaking">simplified post-modern thought</a> that, I have seen, appeals to careerist post-doctoral students who promote their dissertation by means of <a href="https://ia601800.us.archive.org/4/items/Debate_201801/Debate.html#A6">socialization</a> in an academic subculture of sense-making , by adducing the additional qualifier of information plausibility where<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> People favour plausibility over accuracy in accounts of events and contexts [& ]: "in an equivocal, postmodern world, infused with the politics of interpretation and conflicting interests and inhabited by people with multiple shifting identities, an obsession with accuracy seems fruitless, and not of much practical help, either."<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Wikipedia s page on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie">Big Lie</a>, can be finally seen as an oblivion of the basic problem of the myth of democracy since it forgets the basic problem and presupposition of democracy, namely the question of who wants what and why, and that a majority, <a href="https://archive.org/details/ConscienceAndTruth">even if feeling of having a good conscience</a>, does not necessarily want the good and right. A whole book that logically illustrates the limitations of democracy but without theological grounds ends in a sort of cynicism is the not yet translated Brazilian essay by <a href="https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo�o_Uch�a_Cavalcanti_Netto">J. Cavalcanti Netto</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com.br/Democracia-Joao-Uchoa-Cavalcanti-Netto/dp/857823264X">Democracia, um Mito</a> [Democracy, a Myth]. Anybody who perceives having a good conscience can feel authorized to conceive a big lie, with all the complexity which is hidden in the theological discussions under the classical label of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credo_quia_absurdum">Credo quia absurdum</a> [I believe because it is absurd].<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The intellectual insight obtained from the mentioned sources regarding the myth of democracy was finally supported by other insights obtained during my above-mentioned work in understanding the information system of the Russia-NATO-Ukraine crisis. A complementary demonstration came from the debacle of democratic free expression, or official mistrust of freedom in communication and power of argumentation, as displayed in governmental <a href="https://www.journalisten.se/nyheter/russia-todays-sajt-blockerad-i-sverige">western censorship</a> of news from the Russian network <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_(TV_network)#Responses">Russia Today</a> (RT) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_(news_agency)#International_bans_and_restrictions">Sputnik News</a>. In Sweden this was directed by decision of <a href="https://www.pts.se/en/">The Swedish Post and Telecom Authority</a> (corresponding to USA s FCC), following <a href="https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2022/03/02/eu-imposes-sanctions-on-state-owned-outlets-rtrussia-today-and-sputnik-s-broadcasting-in-the-eu/">EU imposed sanctions</a> announced 2 March 2022, while all those western countries are not in war. This is one main reason why the quality of information ultimately converges on theological questions that motivated my blog on <a href="https://ia904505.us.archive.org/15/items/kivanov_informatik_BLOG/BLOG.html#Conspiracy">Conspiracy theories</a>, my early essay on <a href="https://archive.org/details/BeliefAndReason-InSystemsDesign">Belief and Reason</a>, later on <a href="https://archive.org/details/kivanov_informatik_Theo">Information and Theology</a> already mentioned above, and finally a comment on <a href="https://archive.org/details/ConscienceAndTruth">Conscience and Truth</a>.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> WITH REPEATED AND ADDITIONAL DETAILS<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The dissertation, written long ago in 1971-1972 in a naturally narrow disciplinary context of a university, and prior to all above-mentioned refinements, forestalls the possibilities of computer technology more than twenty years before the advent of its initial partial implementation in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiWikiWeb">WikiWikiWeb</a> (see below). An ultimate most known example is the online encyclopedia <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia">Wikipedia</a>, the most popular wiki-based website, and one of the most widely viewed sites in the world. It also foreshadows by 40 years the scientific meaning and one main answer to the problem of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_news">fake news</a> as triggered by social media. <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The consequent problems of all this were addressed later in articles about <a href="https://archive.org/details/WikiDemoCracy">Wikipedia democracy and wikicracy: editing Wikipedia</a>, and conceptually in <a href="https://archive.org/details/Debate_201801">Information and debate</a>, while the search for ultimate theological implications is outlined in essays on <a href="https://archive.org/details/kivanov_informatik_Theo">Information and Theology</a>, and <a href="https://archive.org/details/ManKvi1979">Reason and Gender</a>. The main ideas of the dissertation itself and their juridical implications are summarized in the book (in Swedish) <a href="https://archive.org/details/SysutvecklRattsakerhetSAF">Systems development and rule</a><a href="https://archive.org/details/SysutvecklRattsakerhetSAF"> of law</a>. Further technical details are found in the account of the computer programmer who developed the first wiki by starting to code the WikiWikiWeb in 1994: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Cunningham">Ward Cunningham</a> with his book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wiki-Way-Quick-Collaboration-Web/dp/020171499X">The wiki way</a> (2001), co-authored with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Leuf">Bo Leuf</a>. The latter also expressed the core of the consequent idea of participatory design and computer-supported cooperative work in his book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Peer-Collaboration-Sharing-over-Internet/dp/0201767325">Peer to peer: Collaborating and sharing over the Internet</a> (2002). <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> An example of more recent research on related detailed secondary issues is <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3290605.3300247">Effects of moderation and opinion heterogeneity on attitude towards the online deliberation experience</a> (CHI'19 Proceedings of the 2019 Conference on Human Factors in Computing). At a less detailed level, with the diffusion and increased use of the Internet news areas of research have been opportunely created building upon the very same basic idea, displaying new problems and old ones under new names. New split areas that are often divorced from basic considerations of philosophy of science have been catalogued under such names as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-supported_cooperative_work">Computer-supported cooperative work</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participatory_design">Participatory design</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_intelligence">Collective intelligence</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn-taking">Cooperative overlap/Turn-taking</a> (see also other related areas in their respective Wikipedia-sections named See also ). Contrasting artificial and human intelligence, in lack of understanding of what intelligence is to begin with, leads also to studies such as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=k1m13jkAAAAJ&citation_for_view=k1m13jkAAAAJ:M7C5BM2v8n8C">Human trust in artificial intelligence</a>. It requires, in turn, an understanding of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Design-Inquiring-Systems-West-Churchman/dp/0465016081">The design of inquiring systems</a> (complementary index <a href="https://archive.org/details/chuindex">here</a>) and <a href="https://archive.org/details/hci_20200910">The meaning of human-computer interaction</a> that today is challenged when seen in the context of <a href="https://archive.org/details/chat-gpt-agi">Artificial General Intelligence and ChatGPT</a>. For a proper reading and appreciation of this text and its numerous links, please refer initially to my <a href="https://ia800107.us.archive.org/14/items/Research_201802/Research.html#Disclaimer">General disclaimer</a>.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The doctoral dissertation on Quality-control of information develops the scientific meaning and foreshadows the necessity of what later came to be named the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki">Wiki</a>-concept, especially as related to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki#Trust_and_security">Trust and security</a> . In this latter sense of trust and security it can be seen also as a theory of security of computer systems as indicated in the conclusions expressed at the end of other texts about <a href="https://archive.org/details/hci_20200910">human-computer interaction - HCI</a>, on <a href="https://archive.org/details/Debate_201801">Information and debate</a> and about <a href="https://archive.org/details/kant-gramont">Computerization</a> of the whole society that today unfolds into the hype of <a href="https://archive.org/details/chat-gpt-agi">Artificial General Inteligence and ChatGPT</a>, while struggling about <a href="https://ia804505.us.archive.org/15/items/kivanov_informatik_BLOG/BLOG.html#Conspiracy">fake news and conspiracy theories</a>. The implications for Artificial General Intelligence in my dissertation written mainly in 1971 are outlined in its Appendix 11, pages A11.6-A11.9 on Human thinking and manipulation of symbols , extended to pages A11.10-A11.13 on Information quality and Law , all the while, as remarked on page A12:2, I had not yet available West Churchman s, at the time newly published synthesizing book <a href="https://archive.org/details/Index_20180206_1053">The Design of Inquiring Systems</a>.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> A general problematization of the latter so called fake news and conspiracy theories beyond alternative facts (in Swedish f<a href="https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faktaresistens">aktaresistens</a> ) or in deeper meaning <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradigm_shift">paradigm shift</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldview">worldview</a>, is found in my paper on <a href="https://archive.org/details/kivanov_informatik_Theo">Information and theology</a>, especially in the chapter on <a href="https://ia601405.us.archive.org/17/items/kivanov_informatik_Theo/Theo.html#Galileo">The Galileo affair</a> , and applied in the paper on <a href="https://archive.org/details/rus-ukr">The Russia-NATO-Ukraine information crisis</a>. The usual approach to the discussion of alternative facts basically is in terms of Kantian philosophy, as implicitly done in the Swedish approach by the philosopher <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/�sa_Wikforss">�sa Wikforss</a>. The discussion starts rhetorically with the presentation of an oversimplified conflict between reason and overpowering feelings that undermine the logic of facts. Philosophically, however, Reason is split into (the critiques of) theoretical and practical reason, and both are synthesized in the (critique) of judgment into an aesthetics which is soon reduced to art and further down to design . Design, in turn, risks to become a <a href="https://www.bokus.com/bok/9780262526708/the-design-way/">catchword that today lends prestige to all engineering effort</a>, not the least to computer-related efforts. <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> It is an approach based on a volume and kind of literature that is routine for philosophers. It is, however mind-blowing , overwhelming the minds of most common educated modern citizens (see for instance the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy s <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-reason/">Kant s account of reason</a> ). It divorces the question from common sense and from advanced psychology that historically was derived from philosophy, and from theology and religion, which are replaced by a nominal democracy that cannot work without the participation of common educated citizens. The whole approach is criticized in my above-mentioned essay on the phenomenon of Computerization of the whole society.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> In this previously mentioned paper on the Ukraine information crisis, I report the ultimate observation and insight that fundamentally all information is fake (the more so in war, when "the first victim is truth") if it is not accompanied by what my dissertation focused on: an estimate of an error term. And that ultimately the determination of the error term depends upon the people s ethics and aspects covered in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Shapin">Steven Shapin</a> s <a href="https://www.amazon.se/-/en/Steven-Shapin/dp/0226750191">Social History of Truth</a>, as well as the possibility of citizens' <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech">freedom of speech</a>. It is usually guaranteed in democracy, but it is highly problematic as historically analyzed in the classic <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Democracy-America-Alexis-Tocqueville/dp/0226805360">Democracy in America</a> by Alexis de Tocqueville, and forcefully exposed by e.g. Tage Lindbom in his book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Democracy-Tage-Lindbom/dp/0802840647">The Myth of Democracy</a>. <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Today these aspects tend to be trivialized by their unconscious reduction to (Wikipedia s) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_facts">alternative facts</a> (and its section on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_facts#See_also">see also</a> ), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_news">fake news</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misinformation">misinformation</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disinformation">disinformation</a>, seasoned with references to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink">groupthink</a> (and its <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink#See_also">see also</a> ). Further trivialization takes place when information is qualified by ad-hoc terms such as those catalogized in my above-mentioned text on quality-control of information. Examples I give in my dissertation are validity, reliability, dependability, correctness, timeliness, exactness, usefulness, consistency, authenticity, completeness, degree of detail, recency, controllability, goodness, trueness, relevance, pertinence, acceptability, refinement, approximation, currency, rightness, coverage, etc. A final and definitive example of trivialization appears in a cynical interpretation of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensemaking#Weick's_approach_to_sensemaking">simplified post-modern thought</a> that, I have seen, appeals to careerist post-doctoral students who promote their dissertation by means of <a href="https://ia601800.us.archive.org/4/items/Debate_201801/Debate.html#A6">socialization</a> in academic an academic subculture of sense-making , by adducing the additional qualifier of information plausibility where<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> People favour plausibility over accuracy in accounts of events and contexts [& ]: "in an equivocal, postmodern world, infused with the politics of interpretation and conflicting interests and inhabited by people with multiple shifting identities, an obsession with accuracy seems fruitless, and not of much practical help, either."<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Wikipedia s page on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie">Big Lie</a>, can be finally seen as an oblivion of the basic problem of the myth of democracy since it forgets the basic problem and presupposition of democracy, namely the question of who wants what and why, and that a majority, <a href="https://archive.org/details/ConscienceAndTruth">even if feeling of having a good conscience</a>, does not necessarily want the good and right. A whole book that logically illustrates the limitations of democracy but without theological grounds ends in a sort of cynicism is the not yet translated Brazilian essay by <a href="https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo�o_Uch�a_Cavalcanti_Netto">J. Cavalcanti Netto</a>, <a href="https://www.amazon.com.br/Democracia-Joao-Uchoa-Cavalcanti-Netto/dp/857823264X">Democracia, um Mito</a> [Democracy, a Myth]. Anybody who perceives having a good conscience can feel authorized to conceive a big lie, with all the complexity which is hidden in the theological discussions under the classical label of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credo_quia_absurdum">Credo quia absurdum</a> [I believe because it is absurd].<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The intellectual insight obtained from the mentioned sources regarding the myth of democracy was finally supported by other insights obtained during my above-mentioned work in understanding the information system of the Russia-NATO-Ukraine crisis. A complementary demonstration came from the debacle of democratic free expression, or official mistrust of freedom in communication and power of argumentation, as displayed in governmental <a href="https://www.journalisten.se/nyheter/russia-todays-sajt-blockerad-i-sverige">western censorship</a> of news from the Russian network <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_(TV_network)#Responses">Russia Today</a> (RT) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_(news_agency)#International_bans_and_restrictions">Sputnik News</a>. In Sweden this was directed by decision of <a href="https://www.pts.se/en/">The Swedish Post and Telecom Authority</a> (corresponding to USA s FCC), following <a href="https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2022/03/02/eu-imposes-sanctions-on-state-owned-outlets-rtrussia-today-and-sputnik-s-broadcasting-in-the-eu/">EU imposed sanctions</a> announced 2 March 2022, while all those western countries are not in war. This is one main reason why the quality of information ultimately converges on theological questions that motivated my blog on <a href="https://ia904505.us.archive.org/15/items/kivanov_informatik_BLOG/BLOG.html#Conspiracy">Conspiracy theories</a>, my early essay on <a href="https://archive.org/details/BeliefAndReason-InSystemsDesign">Belief and Reason</a>, later on <a href="https://archive.org/details/kivanov_informatik_Theo">Information and Theology</a> already mentioned above, and finally a comment on <a href="https://archive.org/details/ConscienceAndTruth">Conscience and Truth</a>.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> WITH REPEATED AND ADDITIONAL DETAILS<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The dissertation, written long ago in 1971-1972 in a naturally narrow disciplinary context of a university, and prior to all above-mentioned refinements, forestalls the possibilities of computer technology more than twenty years before the advent of its initial partial implementation in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiWikiWeb">WikiWikiWeb</a> (see below). An ultimate most known example is the online encyclopedia <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia">Wikipedia</a>, the most popular wiki-based website, and one of the most widely viewed sites in the world. It also foreshadows by 40 years the scientific meaning and one main answer to the problem of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_news">fake news</a> as triggered by social media. <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> The consequent problems of all this were addressed later in articles about <a href="https://archive.org/details/WikiDemoCracy">Wikipedia democracy and wikicracy: editing Wikipedia</a>, and conceptually in <a href="https://archive.org/details/Debate_201801">Information and debate</a>, while the search for ultimate theological implications is outlined in essays on <a href="https://archive.org/details/kivanov_informatik_Theo">Information and Theology</a>, and <a href="https://archive.org/details/ManKvi1979">Reason and Gender</a>. The main ideas of the dissertation itself and their juridical implications are summarized in the book (in Swedish) <a href="https://archive.org/details/SysutvecklRattsakerhetSAF">Systems development and rule</a><a href="https://archive.org/details/SysutvecklRattsakerhetSAF"> of law</a>. Further technical details are found in the account of the computer programmer who developed the first wiki by starting to code the WikiWikiWeb in 1994: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Cunningham">Ward Cunningham</a> with his book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wiki-Way-Quick-Collaboration-Web/dp/020171499X">The wiki way</a> (2001), co-authored with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Leuf">Bo Leuf</a>. The latter also expressed the core of the consequent idea of participatory design and computer-supported cooperative work in his book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Peer-Collaboration-Sharing-over-Internet/dp/0201767325">Peer to peer: Collaborating and sharing over the Internet</a> (2002). <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> An example of more recent research on related detailed secondary issues is <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3290605.3300247">Effects of moderation and opinion heterogeneity on attitude towards the online deliberation experience</a> (CHI'19 Proceedings of the 2019 Conference on Human Factors in Computing). At a less detailed level, with the diffusion and increased use of the Internet news areas of research have been opportunely created building upon the very same basic idea, displaying new problems and old ones under new names. New split areas that are often divorced from basic considerations of philosophy of science have been catalogued under such names as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-supported_cooperative_work">Computer-supported cooperative work</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participatory_design">Participatory design</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_intelligence">Collective intelligence</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn-taking">Cooperative overlap/Turn-taking</a> (see also other related areas in their respective Wikipedia-sections named See also ). Contrasting artificial and human intelligence, in lack of understanding of what intelligence is to begin with, leads also to studies such as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=k1m13jkAAAAJ&citation_for_view=k1m13jkAAAAJ:M7C5BM2v8n8C">Human trust in artificial intelligence</a>. It requires, in turn, an understanding of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Design-Inquiring-Systems-West-Churchman/dp/0465016081">The design of inquiring systems</a> (complementary index <a href="https://archive.org/details/chuindex">here</a>) and <a href="https://archive.org/details/hci_20200910">The meaning of human-computer interaction</a> that today is challenged when seen in the context of <a href="https://archive.org/details/chat-gpt-agi">Artificial General Intelligence and ChatGPT</a>.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> DOWNLOADS Local download from this site of the dissertation in pdf-format: <a href="IvanovDissQualityControlInfo.pdf">Whole download (18 MB, 259 pp.)</a>, all parts in one <o:p></o:p> Earlier arrangement, download in three parts: <a href="diss1of3.pdf">Part 1 of 3 (22 MB)</a> - Abstract, Contents, Introduction, and up to including chapter 3, see "<a href="diss-avhcontents.html">Contents</a>" <a href="diss2of3.pdf">Part 2 of 3 (44 MB)</a> - Chapters 4 and 5, including Conclusions <a href="diss3of3.pdf">Part 3 of 3 (48 MB)</a> - Appendixes 1-12, and References/Bibliography <o:p></o:p>   ABSTRACT This paper is intended to assist those who develop, use, maintain, audit, or in general may be affected by so-called Data-Banks and Management Information Systems. <o:p></o:p> One purpose of the paper is to recognize the importance of accuracy, or more generally of quality of information. Data-Banks and Management Information Systems may typically imply some processing performed on externally obtained measurements and pre-processed inputs, while their outputs may be stored and used by people in unknown contexts. <o:p></o:p> To the extent that this happens it becomes more difficult to expect that the quality of information can be represented by a measure of effectiveness of systems and subsystems in relation to operational goals. Thus, a second purpose of this paper is to suggest some possibilities of attaching a measure of quality to discrete items of information, such as coded observations and intermediate computational results. <o:p></o:p> The paper consists of five chapters supporting five sets of statements regarding the consequences of present practices, and what can be done to implement the most necessary improvements. Illustrative examples emphasize administrative applications such as in public planning and in industrial manufacturing. <o:p></o:p> <a href="diss-avhcontents.html">CONTENTS</a> <o:p></o:p> <a href="diss-conclusions.html">CONCLUSIONS</a> <o:p></o:p> KEY WORDS (updated list) Information system design, data integrity, privacy, security, secrecy, reliability, validity, precision, EDP auditing, system management, data-management, data base, actor network, inquiring systems, dialectics, cybernetics. ---------------- <o:p></o:p> SOME EVALUATIVE REFERENCES<o:p></o:p> (1) By <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churchill_Eisenhart">Churchill Eisenhart</a> (1972). U.S. Dept. of Commerce, National Bureau of Standards. (Letter, pdf-format: Click <a href="AvhEisenhart1972.pdf">here</a>.) (2) By <a href="http://books.google.se/books?id=A2R9jyqHwHcC&pg=PA200&lpg=PA200&dq=edgar%2Bs.%2Bdunn%2Bjr.&source=bl&ots=BsHCEnPalS&sig=90Z1WWqthA-ZIbSxD1qsiqS674Q&hl=en&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=edgar%20s.%20dunn%20jr.&f=false">Edgar S. Dunn, Jr.</a> (1972). Resources for the Future Inc., author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Social-Information-Processing-Statistical-Systems-change/dp/0471227471">Social information processing and statistical systems</a> (1974). (Letter, pdf-format: Click <a href="AvhDunn1972.pdf">here</a>.) (3) By <a href="http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hsdept/bios/shapin.html">Steven Shapin</a> (1994): Long after the publication of the dissertation a book by Steven Shapin, <a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3626633.html">A Social History of Truth</a>, indirectly details and confirms many historical roots of its scientific approach. It can be seen as extending the dissertation and its applicability in discussing truth vs. secrecy in communication and information technological (CIT) systems as related to the following keywords: measurement, reasonable agreement, accuracy-precision-certainty-exactness, error-failure, probabilistic discourse, conflict-cooperation, power-politics-religion, political correctness, system trust, and CIT-users-specialists as "invisible technicians". Most relevant pages: 24, 26, 30, 32, 211-3, 216-220, 223-4, 226-8, 230-1, 310-1, 314, 318, 328-9, 338-9, 342, 350, 352-3, 355, 389, 412-3. (4) By <a href="https://www.dataqualitypro.com/blog/measuring-data-quality-for-ongoing-improvement-laura-sebastian-coleman">Laura Sebastian-Coleman</a> (2013). <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780123970336/measuring-data-quality-for-ongoing-improvement">Measuring Data Quality for Ongoing Improvement</a> (see <a href="http://booksite.elsevier.com/9780123970336/downloads/Sebastian-Coleman_Appendix%20D.pdf">Appendix D</a>.) <o:p></o:p> (5) Further evaluative references are contained in reviews of the book (in Swedish) about privacy vs. security that was published in 1986 on the basis of the published doctoral dissertation, [permitted download, pdf-format 66 MB] <a href="https://archive.org/details/SysutvecklRattsakerhetSAF">Systemutveckling och R�ttss�kerhet</a> [Systems development and rule of law]. Cf. e.g. the <a href="SysutvecklRattsSeipelReview1988.pdf">review</a> by Peter Seipel (in Swedish) in Cecilia Magnusson & Olav Torvund (eds.) Myndighetsdata och R�ttss�kerhet: Nordisk �rsbok i R�ttsinformatik, (Norstedts, 1988, ISBN 91-1-887351-0, pp. 193-196.) <o:p></o:p> (6) The permanent timeliness of the subject of the dissertation and its further development is also suggested by more recent problems of scientific method as exposed in Lachlan J. Gunn, et al. "Too good to be true: when overwhelming evidence fails to convince." Proceedings of The Royal Society A. To be published (as per Jan. 7, 2016.). Arxiv pre-print: arxiv.org/abs/1601.00900. Summary by Lisa Zyga in <a href="http://phys.org/news/2016-01-evidence-bad.html">Why too much evidence can be a bad thing</a>. (January 4, 2016.), also at: <a href="http://phys.org/news/2016-01-evidence-bad.html#jCp">http://phys.org/news/2016-01-evidence-bad.html#jCp</a>. <o:p></o:p> </div> </body> </html>