K-Praxis - Topic: Text Analysis & Text Analytics - Inquiries, Information Availability, and Text Analysis-Print

Inquiries, Information Availability, and Text Analysis
February 4, 2004

The final report submitted by The Hutton Inquiry is now available for public scrutiny. This report - rather than closing off issues - has opened a Pandora's Box and has shaken an old establishment like the BBC. This K-Praxis editorial looks at the possibility of using text mining and text analysis to arrive at a neutralized analysis of publicly available information such as the very large volumes of information made available through the Hutton Inquiry website.

The Hutton Inquiry: Information Transparency and Availability

The Hutton Inquiry has been a very significant event from a variety of aspects. One of the most striking aspects of the Inquiry has been that it showed the triumph of information transparency and public information availability. The inquiry revealed the entrails of inner processes of the inquiry by making available information in digital format on its website - emails, private notes, reports and "aide memoires" - information one never thought would come out in a publicly accessible format.

Public Information and Information Intelligence

K-Praxis had, back in August 2003, suggested (See the earlier K-Praxis article: Public Information: A Need for Automated Content Analysis) that given the volume of publicly available information, the average reader will be crumble under the information burden and might miss out on key parts of this information. This information glut makes it necessary that we find a way to make sense out of more and more information that is being made available to us. Even more so, since public information is critical to people - it affects peoples' lives, or for some others, their jobs and duties revolve around interpreting this public information.

Given the significance of publicly available information, it seems appropriate that we should have technological tools for analyzing publicly available information. These technological tools could equip general public with information relationship maps, visualizations and analyses, allowing them better to understand and act upon the information provided, rather than just feel satisfied in the feel-good factor of information availability.

Public Interest Information: A Need for a Neutralized Analysis

The use of such technology would be effective, for example, for information made available through the Hutton Inquiry website. Now that the Hutton Inquiry report has come out, we think a technology based analysis of information could prove very useful, especially for the general public who otherwise have to rely on Lord Hutton's interpretation of evidence submitted to the Inquiry.

Using text analysis could bring about neutralization, allowing the information to speak for itself, balancing out the human descriptive and interpretive interference. There is a possibility that there is something hidden in the documents provided to the Inquiry that has not come out in the report because of such human interference and human interpretation of the large amounts of information submitted.

K-Praxis has elsewhere on this site argued (Political Risk Analysis and Unstructured Information Management) that intelligent and automated information management technology can serve as a neutralizing factor in some of the very sensitive areas like the Hutton Inquiry or the causes of the 9/11 disaster.

	Making sense of online textual information and information management technologies

	Inquiries, Information Availability, and Text Analysis February 4, 2004 The final report submitted by The Hutton Inquiry is now available for public scrutiny. This report - rather than closing off issues - has opened a Pandora's Box and has shaken an old establishment like the BBC. This K-Praxis editorial looks at the possibility of using text mining and text analysis to arrive at a neutralized analysis of publicly available information such as the very large volumes of information made available through the Hutton Inquiry website. The Hutton Inquiry: Information Transparency and Availability The Hutton Inquiry has been a very significant event from a variety of aspects. One of the most striking aspects of the Inquiry has been that it showed the triumph of information transparency and public information availability. The inquiry revealed the entrails of inner processes of the inquiry by making available information in digital format on its website - emails, private notes, reports and "aide memoires" - information one never thought would come out in a publicly accessible format. Public Information and Information Intelligence K-Praxis had, back in August 2003, suggested (See the earlier K-Praxis article: Public Information: A Need for Automated Content Analysis) that given the volume of publicly available information, the average reader will be crumble under the information burden and might miss out on key parts of this information. This information glut makes it necessary that we find a way to make sense out of more and more information that is being made available to us. Even more so, since public information is critical to people - it affects peoples' lives, or for some others, their jobs and duties revolve around interpreting this public information. Given the significance of publicly available information, it seems appropriate that we should have technological tools for analyzing publicly available information. These technological tools could equip general public with information relationship maps, visualizations and analyses, allowing them better to understand and act upon the information provided, rather than just feel satisfied in the feel-good factor of information availability. Public Interest Information: A Need for a Neutralized Analysis The use of such technology would be effective, for example, for information made available through the Hutton Inquiry website. Now that the Hutton Inquiry report has come out, we think a technology based analysis of information could prove very useful, especially for the general public who otherwise have to rely on Lord Hutton's interpretation of evidence submitted to the Inquiry. Using text analysis could bring about neutralization, allowing the information to speak for itself, balancing out the human descriptive and interpretive interference. There is a possibility that there is something hidden in the documents provided to the Inquiry that has not come out in the report because of such human interference and human interpretation of the large amounts of information submitted. K-Praxis has elsewhere on this site argued (Political Risk Analysis and Unstructured Information Management) that intelligent and automated information management technology can serve as a neutralizing factor in some of the very sensitive areas like the Hutton Inquiry or the causes of the 9/11 disaster.