[Sigia-l] RE: Data vs. Information

[Carol Butler]

Boniface said:
"What does it mean to use the blurry line? It means recognizing the
importance of context in presenting whatever to the users. One IA may
say I am presenting data; another IA may say it is information. Fine.
What matters is whether users have enough context to make sense of the
data/information. The rest is just angels on a pinhead."

I agree, what matters IS whether users have enough context.

And while in some senses the data-information debate is *just angels on a
pinhead* it's also perfectly appropriate that of all the people on the
planet, the dedicated community of IAs are the ones you would expect to
wrestle with the details.  As Thomas said:

"Understanding the finer points helps us understand when we have a product
that is usable and findable. ...  As IAs we work with full pieces of
information and other times it is smaller chunks of information that may be
just a collection of data points to some.  We should know the difference..."

(why do we always spend more time on the data-information part in these
discussions ... i've seen it happen over and over again ... then a few
people join in to remind us of knowledge and wisdom ... and we all concur
... but data/information keeps coming back as a discussion topic.)

--Carol