RCA
Elite Member
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2017
- Professional Status
- Certified General Appraiser
- State
- California
I would like to suggest adding a new standard to USPAP for "Information Valuation", so that businesses and the general public have a way of differentiating fact from opinion when it comes to news and other important such types of information; as well as assigning a value to critical information for decision making purposes.
Licensing for news journalism requires enforcement and you would likely never get the Association of Journalists or any similar organization to adopt stringent licensing of its information providers. https://bizfluent.com/info-12056426-need-license-journalist.html
There are increasingly major problems determining the value of information that is stolen, lost or otherwise compromised through hacking:
https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/06/09/study-hackers-cost-more-than-445-billion-annually
As an Intangible Asset, it appears that Information, as an asset, has never yet been considered by USPAP.
A relatively easy way to set up licensing of "News Journalists" as opposed to "Opinion Journalists" (and at the same time cover all information appraisal) would be to expand the existing USPAP Standards to include "Information Valuation". Under USPAP, that would require expanding the concept of property to include "Information".
In fact, in many cases, information is considered property with value. Contracts are created based on agreements to the dissemination (or non-dissemination) of information, the secrecy and security of information, the extent to which given assertions do or don't represent reality. Information (and disinformation) is often very prized and is associated with monetary value.
Security Analysts and IT Administrators expend considerable time, effort and expense designing networks and server configurations to protect information based on its value to corporate, government and other legal entities. Their numerous tasks would be made easier if they could assign value to the different categories of information they need to store and protect.
Information that can be sold on the open market has associated with it a "market value". The monetary value of information is often associated with a measure that could be called "probability of truth" - which depends on the amount and quality of supporting documentation, much as in real estate appraisal. It is also often associates with damage losses through theft or mismanagement. Stealing information is often undertaken simply to cause severe damage to a company, the government or some other entity.
While information can have a monetary value; additional measures of value are also needed, e.g. the probability that one or more statements represent the truth. Licensed News Journalists should be able to give a range or probabilities that some statement reflects the truth. And, there should be standards that specify how such estimates are derived. Likewise, there should be standards for estimating the value of corporate information that has been compromised via hacking or mismanagement.
The new professional designation would be something like "Licensed Information Appraiser". Would the public and media latch on to this as a means to enhancing their own marketability? I certainly believe so! Facts from "Licensed Information Appraisers" would take precedence over statements by non-licensed news journalists.
If you are interested, I have a petition to this effect: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/pe...ractice-service-types-include-newsinformation
Licensing for news journalism requires enforcement and you would likely never get the Association of Journalists or any similar organization to adopt stringent licensing of its information providers. https://bizfluent.com/info-12056426-need-license-journalist.html
There are increasingly major problems determining the value of information that is stolen, lost or otherwise compromised through hacking:
https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/06/09/study-hackers-cost-more-than-445-billion-annually
As an Intangible Asset, it appears that Information, as an asset, has never yet been considered by USPAP.
A relatively easy way to set up licensing of "News Journalists" as opposed to "Opinion Journalists" (and at the same time cover all information appraisal) would be to expand the existing USPAP Standards to include "Information Valuation". Under USPAP, that would require expanding the concept of property to include "Information".
In fact, in many cases, information is considered property with value. Contracts are created based on agreements to the dissemination (or non-dissemination) of information, the secrecy and security of information, the extent to which given assertions do or don't represent reality. Information (and disinformation) is often very prized and is associated with monetary value.
Security Analysts and IT Administrators expend considerable time, effort and expense designing networks and server configurations to protect information based on its value to corporate, government and other legal entities. Their numerous tasks would be made easier if they could assign value to the different categories of information they need to store and protect.
Information that can be sold on the open market has associated with it a "market value". The monetary value of information is often associated with a measure that could be called "probability of truth" - which depends on the amount and quality of supporting documentation, much as in real estate appraisal. It is also often associates with damage losses through theft or mismanagement. Stealing information is often undertaken simply to cause severe damage to a company, the government or some other entity.
While information can have a monetary value; additional measures of value are also needed, e.g. the probability that one or more statements represent the truth. Licensed News Journalists should be able to give a range or probabilities that some statement reflects the truth. And, there should be standards that specify how such estimates are derived. Likewise, there should be standards for estimating the value of corporate information that has been compromised via hacking or mismanagement.
The new professional designation would be something like "Licensed Information Appraiser". Would the public and media latch on to this as a means to enhancing their own marketability? I certainly believe so! Facts from "Licensed Information Appraisers" would take precedence over statements by non-licensed news journalists.
If you are interested, I have a petition to this effect: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/pe...ractice-service-types-include-newsinformation
Last edited: