[Sigia-l] RE: Data vs. Information

[Philip Hall]

Hi folks,

Just when I'm not paying attention, along comes a subject I can really 
get my teeth into :-(

So, maybe you're all sick of this but, unless I missed it,  I didn't 
see anyone point out this definition of information:
"Information is what we extract from the flow of experience".
This is from Hobart & Schiffman's Information Ages. I think it's well 
worth reading. Their definition of information comes in the context of 
the development of the written alphabet and their thesis, among other 
things,  is that oral societies didn't really have information because 
everything, including stories, teachings, and oral histories, were 
experienced in a kind of real-time event.

This definition is proving to be surprisingly useful as I'm now dealing 
with an organization who want me to make a metadata standard for their 
professional practice manual so it can be incorporated online with 
various manuals from other organizations in the same discipline. This 
org has printed manuals that are highly structured (somewhat like a law 
text). They might say that each paragraph in their manual is a piece of 
information. And I say, that's great but what about the other manuals 
from other orgs who use a different kind of arrangement.

If I equate a data with the 'flow of experience' then I can use this to 
start to work towards defining a unit of information to base this 
standard upon.

Regards,
Phil
www.philphall.ca