[Sigia-l] RE: Data vs. Information

[Thomas Vander Wal]

Philip hits the nail on the head below stating that the difference between
data and information is very discernable from the knowledge perspective.
Data must become information to gain knowledge.  Knowledge is gained from
usable bits of information

On 1/7/03 12:31 AM, "Philip Hall" <philipnhall at telus.net> wrote:

> Maybe I can add a bit more here. There's some marvellous discussions
> going on here and I think we need to look at a slightly bigger picture.
> Folks keep mentioning that knowledge continuum and then only
> concentrate on the first half of it (data -- information) but it's a
> continuum, after all, and I don't think you can have part of it without
> all of it. That means that knowledge -- wisdom -- enlightenment (or
> whatever name you put on that end) are also part of the picture. Just
> because we understand these less (and, as IAs,  are able to have
> increasingly less affect as one goes up the line) does not mean they
> must be ignored. I'm especially concerned with knowledge. That is, I
> would hope that the web-documents that might be created out of my work
> can help create knowledge in those who use them.

I certainly agree that the knowledge component of the data > information >
knowledge continuum is essential to keeping tied together.  It is definitely
not from a lack of understanding or experience, but trying to help provide
distinction between data and information (as this is the topic of the
tread).  

I think IAs have a very strong role in knowledge building (from the Polar
Bear, LIS, and IS perspective).  IAs construct usable structures for
information and provide connections between salient pieces of information
(small and large chunks) that when strung together can become knowledge.
Our job is to connect the user to the information the are trying to attract
to their screen.  Once the user finds this information we have worked to
construct elements that help the user find other information they would be
attracted to and would want to bring on their screen.  IA provides the
information stepping stones to knowledge, if we leave one out the user does
not cross the stream.

> We might normally think that knowledge is gained by education. That is
> certainly the case, but as people leave behind formal education  they
> increasingly need to be re-educated as methods in their profession
> change. But too often, they don't go back to school or even enroll in
> continuing education. Part of my project is to try build a system that
> can allow them to more easily gain new knowledge by using resources
> that usually live separately (a CE course syllabus, a text-book, a
> practice manual). I hope to even be able to include something that
> tells the user that a course is being offered that contains the
> information they need to gain the new knowledge that they are seeking
> and that they should take that course.
> 
> Anyway, what this means to me in terms of this discussion is that data
> and information are certainly distinguishable. Perhaps the difficulty
> in this concept is that, since we are talking about a continuum, the
> *line* between data and information is not really distinguishable but
> when you move along closer to the 'knowledge' part of the continuum,
> then information is very much different from data (or from the flow of
> experience). In fact, this might be why, as i said in my previous post,
> I don't think Ed is mad. When I think of information as a 'wave' or
> 'substance', I'm looking at rich information that is much closer to
> knowledge than it is to data. In that part of the continuum things get
> really slidey and you have to keep your wits (and in my case, all those
> library science concepts I'm now so grateful to have had driven into
> me) about you. At that point, empirical ('bit'-like) definitions are
> not as much help to me, I don't think.

I completely agree that we as IAs should think in this continuum.  I also
like thinking in the *rich* information context.  We can provide one large
chunk of information that is not rich in the same vein we can provide a
string of small chunks of information that in total provide a rich
information string.

All the best,
Thomas

-- 
www.vanderwal.net

The future is mine, not Microsoft's