ABSTRACT
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In the past decade, the word fusion has become familiar in most households. There is “Fusion,” the car; “Fusion,” the cuisine; bottled “Fusion” drinks, cold “Fusion,” and a multitude of other uses of the word, including its being occasionally associated with data and information.* It is this latter domain where fusion may be the most important. The immense changes in the nature of the information environment, driven by rapid evolution in communications technology and the Internet, have made raw data and processed information available to individual humans at a rate and in volumes that are unprecedented. But why is fusion important? Why do we fuse? We fuse because fusion is a means to deal with this glut of readily available data and information that we might organize and present information in ways which are accessible and capable of supporting decisions, even decisions as simple as where to go for dinner.
