Information must inform, they held, while data have no such mandate. Information must be bounded, while data can be limitless. For data to become useful to a decision maker as information, it must be presented in such a way that he or she can readily relate to it and act upon it. For McGee and Prusak, the key to corporate competitiveness is the ability to acquire, manipulate, interpret, and use information. They argued that information is the basis of competition and provides the greatest potential payback to organizations.
Information is an asset, and it requires management.
Unlike other assets though, information is reusable. It does not deteriorate or depreciate, and it has a value that is determined solely by its users. In March 1997, FHWA, BTS, and the Federal Transit Administration held a conference to assess the information needs of State and local transportation decision makers in the 21st century. The conferees stated the need for a clearinghouse that would store and disseminate all publicly available transportation data and provide technical assistance to its customers. They also called for the creation of an effective coordination process for data exchange, one that relies on common formats, flexibility, aggregation, sampling, and methods.