Another side of our difficulty, as scholars of the impact of information, is that it is difficult for us to exchange data among ourselves. But, we rarely see publications in this field in which one researcher has used data taken from another. What is needed is a standardization of the variables used. In physics, it is possible to share or compare data taken by different experimenters because the definitions of the variables used or observed are standardized and well understood. A clear, smooth line fitted to the data shows how thermal conductivity varies with temperature, as a composite of the work of many people.
Many observations fall off the smooth line.
Points falling off the line may indicate experimental error or that other factors may bear on the measurement. I believe it would be possible and certainly desirable to prepare similar composites for measurements of system performance, user performance, even just measurement of relevance under varying conditions. Achieving the standardization I suggest is no small task. We could approach it by creating a standardized way to describe data. We would need, and I believe we could construct, a thesaurus of descriptors for such data elements as user characteristics and, of course, information.