aUTHORED BY tOM gROOMS
“Information Service - Information System"
Now you see the difference between information
and intelligence. In each of the
previous examples presented in this continuing story, the same raw information
was enhanced, refined, shaped and distributed to meet the unique needs of one
specific entity - an entity being either an individual or a business - and of
no one else. In no two cases was the
intelligence product the same. Again,
organizing information to meet one entity's unique needs creates
intelligence. And the more effectively
and precisely a piece of information is organized to meet the unique needs of
its intended recipient, the more complete and successful is the conversion of
information into intelligence.
Whatever delivers information is an information
service or an information system.
Likewise, whatever delivers intelligence is an intelligence service or
an intelligence system. And it should be
clear from all the monthly briefs that an information service or system is
different from an intelligence service or system. An information service or information system
is the aggregate of whatever communicates an entity to the outside world. It might include the television or cable
seen, the computer web sites, newspapers or magazines read, the people one
meets with, the cell or telephone calls that are made and received, the
observations of key persons when they travel - literally everything has meaning
and that provides an entity with facts, figures or data of whatever sort from
the outside world.
Information systems occur, more or less, naturally. Literally everyone has at least one. Indeed, a person cannot help having an
information system. Look over someone's
shoulder for a week - a housewife, merchant, government bureaucrat, business
executive, CEO or even the leader of a country - and at the end of that time
you will be able to draw a diagram of that person's information system. Also, this is likewise for an entity. Of course, some persons and entities have
better information systems than others.
Some systems are found lacking and maybe even haphazard; others,
carefully accurate, even cunningly constructed.
But there is simply no such thing as a person or entity without an
intelligence information system.
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information does not purport to be complete; therefore, consult with expert
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maxim "caveat emptor" applies.