Metrics M etrics are a form of information and are ideally developed to answer specific sorts of questions. Which measures a society collects and analyzes about the effects of a technology depends largely upon what it wants to know, and we would not expect that all societies necessarily want to know the same things.
Available metrics exhibit considerable weaknesses in their ability to answer the above questions.
The single most important obstacle to effective data collection is the lack of standardized definitions of IT, and the exclusion of important costs associated with IT use. For example, in some economic studies, IT reflects only computers, while in others it captures computers and telecommunications hardware. Research shows that IT support personnel and training expenses are significant elements of the cost and effective use of IT, but that these expenses are not always included in research studies or data collection. To fully capture the extent of the technology, IT should be defined as computers and telecommunications equipment. One major obstacle to more effective data collection is the lack of appropriate budgeting and accounting reporting systems at the organizational level.