Thriving in the Information Age compels organizations to deploy information as an actual business asset, not as an IT asset or merely as a business byproduct. This demands creativity in conceiving and implementing new ways to generate economic benefits from the wide array of information assets available to an organization. Unfortunately, information too frequently is underappreciated and therefore underutilized.

This first course in the two-part Infonomics series provides a non-technical perspective on and methods for understanding and taking advantage of information’s unique economic characteristics. Starting with dissecting whether the information is or isn’t an asset or even property, students will begin to appreciate the challenges and opportunities with treating it as one. Then the course examines how information behaves in the context of various familiar micro-economic concepts, and what can be gleaned from this to improve the way information is managed and leveraged. This leads to exploring the various ways information can generate economic benefits—or be monetized, including how various styles of business analytics can increase information’s potential and realized value for organizations.