Getting The Right Information with Nicole Brocato, PhD

Musings That Matter: Expansive Thinking About Humanity's Problems

I recently spoke with Nicole Brocato, PhD, about Getting The Right Information.

Nicole Brocato, PhD, is a research psychologist with over 20 years of experience in positive psychology, measure design, program evaluation, and advanced research methods. She works at Wake Forest University as the Director of Institutional Effectiveness and also does private consulting.

What problem are you facing? (see graphic)

• Giving people the best possible information in the way they need it

What part of the problem are you trying to solve? (see highlighted path in graphic)

• Address resource limitations by being an expert in tailoring software and information to be accessible

How are you meeting this need?

• By identifying ways to use readily available software

• By compiling information libraries that are trustworthy and accurate

What do you need to better meet this need? (see outlined box in graphic)

• Artificial Intelligence (AI) needs to work better (e.g., not making information up)

• Design software that is useful ‘out of the box’ and doesn’t need a degree to use well

• Public access to the best information

What support do you need one layer in and out from where you are trying to solve the problem?

• AI developers need to value the accuracy and limitations of the returned results

• Decision-makers who are more aware of varied information sources and characteristics

What does this problem space look like to the outside observer?

• People are feeling information overload (too technical and abundant) and information starvation (accuracy and applicability concerns)

What can someone do today for long-term activism?

• Public, government, and industry need to consider the moral and legal implications of information rights, access, the public domain, etc.

• Policy and funding decisions need to support the removal of pay walls for high-quality information access (e.g., explicit grant funding, organizational support, and other business models)

What magnificence can we imagine?

• For example, what if an organization could ask the internet how to conduct an internal program evaluation and receive responses from an AI-enabled search engine that were tailored to their unique situation and communication needs (e.g., slides, worksheets, report templates, etc.)

What’s next for you?

• Continue filling this gap while software and information systems are being refined, and society works through issues surrounding information access

Want to learn more? Reach out via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolebrocato/ or email: nwbrocato[@]gmail.com