Drowning in information
by Bernard McGrath, Inspection Validation Centre

Sometime ago, I sent off for a book from an American Institution. The book was delivered from a European book distributor who also sent me their catalogue of new books for 2010 and 2011. I love books and enjoy looking through such catalogues, but when skimming through this one I was struck by two thoughts: the diversity of speciality topics which must only appeal to a few readers; and why are we producing so many new books on topics which have been around for so long, such as leadership and team communications?
 
In a blog about information overload*, Ann Blair mentions Seneca who, in the 1st century, complained that: “the abundance of books is a distraction.” Well, they would be if I had the time to read them! And Blair provides a similar quote from the Dominican Vincent of Beauvais: “the multitude of books, the shortness of time and the slipperiness of memory.” He evidently decided to write a book which summarised the best bits of all the books he had read.

When I was at a friend’s house in January, he related a story about a prank that had been played on a colleague. The prank was quite complicated but involved going on to a well-known website and adding some false information to an entry which they knew the colleague would look at. The false information was minor and harmless and it was buried towards the end of the entry so that most people would not see it. The prank worked by the way.

Back in November last year there was a headline in the newspaper that caught my eye. There had been talk that a Spanish lender was facing liquidity problems. This was based on the fact that queues had been seen outside branches across Spain. The decrease in the share price and the fears of a banking crisis were not due to customers queuing to remove their money, but to runners queuing to get their numbers for a 10K run in Madrid which was sponsored by the bank.

In a recent cricket world cup match, one of the commentators stated that the bowler had done well because he had started to apply the tactic of bowling full and straight. The other commentator pointed out that it was not a new tactic but had been known for over 20 years. So why do people, professional cricketers, still insist on doing something different? I could describe to you similar poor application of known tactics in football and rugby. Or, there again, you could watch it for yourself on TV any weekend. And whilst we are on tactics, why, with all the books and all the websites available, do people not know the difference between strategy and tactics? Or the difference between mission statements and visions?

At this point I hope you are thinking: “It’s all very interesting but what have these anecdotes got to do with NDT?” But you are probably just thinking: “What has this gibberish got to do with NDT?” All the above cameos give us an insight into the use of information and knowledge, which is equally as relevant to NDT information and knowledge. If you look on the BINDT website you will find a number of speciality books on NDT. Not many have been written in the last five years because the information is now on the internet. BINDT has back copies of Insight available online to members and NDT.net is a cornucopia of papers from conferences around the world. With current search engines it is easy to identify items that will give you information about the topic you are interested in. But how reliable is it? How do you know if it is the whole story or if it is just part of the story?

The internet is great if you are undertaking research in new techniques or are looking for fundamental information about NDT: both BINDT and ASNT have done series of articles on the basics of techniques. But there is so much information out there, it sometimes doesn’t seem worthwhile seeking and sorting through it all, so we just carry on doing what we have always done. Yet, as we have seen above, we have a “slipperiness of memory”, especially if we don’t use the knowledge on a regular basis. Some practical information, which lies between basics and research, is valuable but not seen as sufficiently worthy of publishing. So, can you find out what happens when you use AC-PD on a branched crack: does the current follow the branch or cut across? What happens to the amplitude of an ultrasonic corner echo when the crack tilts over towards the beam? Other useful, practical information is buried away and not used. I published a poster in 1989 on the effect of couplant gap on ultrasonic amplitude: I am not aware that people bother about couplant gap except in automated inspections.

Then, when we are told about a new wonder technique like phased array, we all rush out to use it in every possible application, forgetting even the basic physics of ultrasonics. How does the couplant gap affect phased array? Do we know? I’ll stop there before I add too much to the mountain of information. But what about you? Would you like to be the Vincent of Beauvais of NDT? We need one.
*http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/03/information_overloads_2300-yea.html

Please note that the views expressed in this column are the author’s own personal ramblings for the purpose of encouraging discussion within the NDT Newspaper. They do not represent the views of the IVC, Serco Assurance or the HSE who funded the PANI projects.

Letters can be mailed to The Editor, NDT News, Newton Building, St George’s Avenue, Northampton NN2 6JB. Fax: 01604 89 3861; Email: ndtnews@bindt.org or email Bernard McGrath direct at Bernard.McGrath@sercoassurance.com