[Sigia-l] RE: Data vs. Information

[James Robertson]

Hi all,

The disctinction between Data -> Information -> Knowledge
is one that has been discussed (argued?) extensively in
the context of Knowledge Management.

I believe you will find some useful material by doing
a search of the archives of lists such as:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/act-km
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KM-Framework

Regards,
James

>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
>
>
>
>
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-------------------------
James Robertson
Step Two Designs Pty Ltd
Knowledge Management Consultancy, SGML & XML

Content Management Requirements Toolkit
112 CMS requirements, ready to cut-and-paste

http://www.steptwo.com.au/
jamesr at steptwo.com.au