[Sigia-l] RE: Data vs. Information

[Michael Albers]

Here's my take on data versus information.  This comes out of a book I'm 
working on.

It even somewhat takes on the LIS has lots of useless data.  It's only 
useless to most people, to a librarian, it is information.  All depends on 
context.

Data
Raw numbers, facts, and figures are data.  Alone, a collection of data 
means nothing.  A table listing daily stock values contains data, the 
numbers carry nothing more than a value.  Are the numbers higher or lower 
than last year, last month?  What caused a major jump between two 
consecutive days?  Are the number so inconsistent that they make no sense 
and must be checked (think of external understanding required to even know 
the numbers are inconsistent)?  If a table only contains the values, it 
cannot help answer these questions.

Data provides a foundation developing into information, but it must be 
combined and integrated with other data before it becomes useful in a more 
than trivial sense.

Information
Information is data with semantic association.  It relates to the situation 
and contains the  relationships that give it the semantic associations.  An 
information system's most important role is present the information so 
users can perform meaningful tasks.  An effective information system must 
support the changing information needs and not focus on only one (Elam & 
Mead, 1990; Shneiderman, 1992), especially since users constantly adjust 
their plans to reflect changing conditions and information (Jirotka and 
Goguen, 1994).  In other words, information is data in context.  The 
readers look at the available data and apply it to a specific context or 
situation.  Within that specific situation, the data has relationships 
between different data elements that assist the reader in interpreting and 
understanding it.  Most of those relationships arise out of the situation 
itself and only make sense within a limited range of contexts.  Thus, to be 
fully useful, the person must be able to modify or adapt the 
information.  Analyzing the situational context to uncover and define the 
data and information interrelationships make up the most important part of 
supporting complex problem solving.

Gaining this understanding often requires bringing in situational 
information that is not contained in the data.  For example, a manager 
knows certain numbers should be trending down based on long-term corporate 
goals.  The data may show an up or a down trend, but it requires the 
manager to know other facts outside the data to understand if the trend is 
good or bad.  Is the trend down too fast or too slow?  What factors are 
driving the trend?  Supporting problem solving in these situations requires 
understanding the questions that may be asked and having the data available 
to answer them.

Good information designers provide readers the ability to transform data 
into information because as part of the design process the information 
designer gains an understanding of the potential situations, and makes the 
relationships and contributing factors easy to extract from the data.


Mike Albers
-------------------------------
Dr. Michael J. Albers
Professional Writing Program
Department of English
University of Memphis
Memphis  TN  38152