Valuing information

The value of an observation is the increase in expected utility from making it:

VOI(O) = sum over outcomes P(o) * max_a EU(a | o)  -  max_a EU(a)

It is never negative. It is exactly zero whenever the best action is the same whatever you learn. That zero is the entire point of this skill: most proposed research is decoration, and this is the calculation that says so before the money is spent rather than after.

Workflow