single source of truth

During the COVID-19 outbreak it has been vital that we have clear communications from the government and the medical authorities.  There has been a demand for a single source of truth when it seemed that mixed messages were being sent out by the federal and the state governments, and that the public was becoming confused by the different requirements operating in each state.

 This idea comes to us from IT where there was a need to control data and to ensure that multiple versions were not being created by people editing the data in different locations.  A system needed to be designed so that there was one database that could be edited under strict controls, and all editing procedures, wherever they happened, were referenced to the main database.  This means that everyone in an organisation is actually looking at the same information and basing their decisions and actions on a single source of truth.

 The idea seems to be transferring  to the world outside IT computer systems architecture to communications generally.  We all need to be getting the same message from the same authoritative source.