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This chapter explains where information is gathered, and how it affects change and innovation. It starts by providing examples on how the Japanese adapted to technology change by using methods that would change the way they obtain information. The chapter continues by providing obvious sources of information that would fit the needs of a certain organization. External sources of information are also explained. It is then related to the not-invented-here (NIH) syndrome, a situation in which organizations reject external sources of information that when applied would seem to change the way they obtain information, and in turn affect their products. The chapter ends by explaining how external information can be controlled and screened to meet the organizations' specifications. Less obvious sources of external information are also provided.

This chapter discusses how information should flow in an organization. There are only two ways in which information can exist in any location — either it was created there, or it was transferred there from somewhere else. It is often assumed that information is transferred from a single source as a complete package, a finished innovation. However, rather than a complete package delivered from a single source, bits of information are much more likely to be transferred, and an innovation is a contribution to yet more innovation. The Epidemic Model of Diffusion further explains the flow of information: sent information is not likely to arrive in parts from multiple sources. What is transmitted is what arrives, and all that is required to be known about its transfer can be known from the location and timing of its further incidence.

This chapter discusses the Venetian Chronicles and archives as potential sources of information regarding the history of Byzantium and the Crusades. It shows that the histories of the crusades, Venice, and Byzantium are interlinked, and the scholarly approaches to this relationship are presented. The Venetian sources are categorized into three main groups – narrative sources, diplomatic sources, and commercial documents – which are discussed in the chapter. The Fourth Crusade and the Crusader states are also examined.

This chapter describes the sources of information and the methods used to arrive at the statements and conclusions in this book about slavery in the Northwest Coast of North America. It explains the concept of the approach developed to establish generalizations about Northwest Coast cultures, specifically the tribal unit sample, and discusses cultural variations in space and the problem of change over time. The chapter highlights the problem of missing information and the bias in some sources used for the book.

This chapter lays out the logic and the structure of the book. The book follows a trajectory that begins by examining the underlying causes of change of our economic environment and that does not stop until readers have a firm grasp on the right strategic and investment steps to take in the new business world: a world that will merge as a result of the changes brought about by the falling cost of information. The introduction explains that the framework that the book has developed for creating extraordinary returns is consistent with the emergence of perfect information and with the economics of perfect economics. Many of the parts of the economics of perfect information are developed over the course of the book. For instance the book establishes the economic validity of three lessons that the author observed from practical business experience—as an executive at PepsiCo, Royal/Dutch Shell and AT&T, as a senior investment banker, as a strategy consultant and as an entrepreneur—but that would have been considered heresies in traditional mainstream economics. These three heresies are: aspiring to achieve extraordinary returns in a world of perfect information; asserting that profit power is an economic concept, that it can be wielded ethically and reliably in a competitive setting, and that it can improve returns for others as well. And thirdly, daring to reveal that, contrary to mainstream economic doctrine, perfect information does not bring about perfect markets; even worse, that perfect information is the source of an entire new class of market failures or imperfections.

In order to more closely examine the process of constructing legality for LGBT parents, the authors highlight sources of legal information in this chapter. An important aspect to understanding LGBT parents’ legal consciousness involves examining the sources from which they receive cultural messages about the law as it pertains to their families. Some participants described gaining legal knowledge through traditional channels, such as consulting attorneys or legislation, whereas others relied upon social networks, media, movies, books, or the Internet. The authors explore the manner in which learning about the law varies for LGBT parents across individual characteristics, as well as legal context. Legal context can affect whether individuals even pursue information about the law; some participants living in legally positive states articulated an assumption that they had legal rights, and some living in legally negative states an assumption that rights were absent. For LGBT parents, whether and how they gain information about the law plays an important role in how they then choose to interact with formal and informal law in their lives.

This chapter explores an analogy between our reliance on memory and our reliance on news coverage. The analogy derives from a certain sort of counterfactual reasoning that might be employed to support beliefs in either domain, in cases involving the silence of a relied-upon source. Thus one might form the belief that p on the grounds that if p were false one would have heard about it by now (or would have remembered it). Elsewhere an account of the conditions under which counterfactual reasoning of this sort is epistemically fruitful has been developed. This chapter addressess a related matter: whether resources within the epistemology of memory might be helpful in thinking about the epistemic significance of silence from any relied-upon source—whether that source is one's own memory, or the news groups on which one relies for coverage.

Occupational and environmental health covers a wide spectrum and presents many challenges and opportunities. This chapter describes categories of occupational and environmental hazards, the nature and magnitude of problems, the contexts in which occupational and environmental health problems occur, and the prevention of occupational and environmental disease and injury. In addition, the chapter covers the changing nature of work and the workforce, evolving roles of government, liability, climate change, new directions for research, and economic globalization. It also discusses additional challenges for low- and middle-income countries. A final section of the chapter describes disciplines and careers in occupational and environmental health sciences and basic sources of information.