The ¿IQ Method

Information quality (IQ) theories and frameworks have been increasingly applied to assess, improve and monitor the quality of information products. An important example is the energy domain. Numerous agencies, organizations, institutions, and companies create, collect, and distribute information to help meet the needs of the energy industry. But what are the qualities of their information products? What can be done to address quality issues so that data consumers can trust that the critical data they are relying on are of high quality? To help address these important issues, this work develops the ¿IQ method for combining multiple information sources, each with several dimensions each with its own information quality. The first problem is estimating total world oil reserves by combining estimates obtained from various well-known sources. The second problem is predicting the Hubbert Peak of world oil production by combining prediction data from various sources. Both problems are addressed using the ¿IQ method, an information quality framework that can be applied to a wide range of information assessment problems in the oil industry and beyond.