[Sigia-l] RE: Data vs. Information

[John Fullerton]

> it could be fun to do something a bit less scientific with the help of
this list 
> and IAWiki.  

> I have collected a few definitions from this list and other places on
IAWiki, 
> and it would be interesting if other people could add the definitions
they 
> have lying and around to the page.

Here are some quotes and comments from about three years ago. I'm
stating these quotes and following questions as possibly prompting
attention to the subjects--not necessarily as stating my point of view.

OED, knowledge, 8.c. Philos. knowledge about, knowledge by
description:
knowledge of a person, thing, or perception gained through information
or facts about it rather than by direct experience (opp. knowledge by
(or of) acquaintance)

9. a. Intellectual acquaintance with, or perception of, fact or truth;
clear and certain mental apprehension; the fact, state or condition
of understanding.

While thinking about the field of "Information Architecture", I've been
trying to get useful definitions of information and knowledge. (The
definition of information architecture is the immediate goal.) Perhaps
someone could offer book references or comments.
 
My questions follow these quotes.
 
"knowledge is stratified in layers of decreasing consciousness" 
 
comment--knowledge is in the mind
 
"In the postmodern condition, then, what decides whether knowledge is
legitimate or not are the prescriptive utterances that govern the
formation of valid denotations."
 
comment--view of how knowledge is proven to be correct
 
"According to the most widely accepted definition, knowledge is
justified true belief." Encyclopedia of Philosophy
 
a priori knowledge and a posteriori knowledge, things known apart from
experience (maybe?) and after experience
 
content of knowledge, the truth value of propositions
 
"Information--Generally, information is whatever is
capable of causing a human mind to change its opinion
about the current state of the real world."
 
"Information must be distinguished from any medium that
is capable of carrying it."
 
"If an identical memorandum is received twice, it does
not convey twice the information that its first occurrence conveyed"
(240) 
 
"Knowledge--Information that can be expressed as a set
of facts and is known to an agent or program. Knowledge
can be distinguished from information or data by its 
embodiment in an agent; for example, an agent might
receive information that increases its knowledge." (265)
 
"Data--Information, in any form, on which computer
programs operate." (118)
 
Dictionary of Computing, Fourth Edition, 1996.
 
Questions
 
1. Is it agreed that knowledge is "known information", meaning
information that an individual in question knows or has in mind?
 
2. Given that that is so, is the phrase "book of knowledge" using
knowledge colloquially, because the knowledge is not in focus as
information that a person knows?
 
3. How does one refer to "all possible information" or "all information
about programming" or "all information about a field"? My reference is
to unobserved by me information.
 
4. Is the full relationship of knowledge to information that knowledge
is the mental record of information?
 
5. Information architecture has to do with ordering of information.
Now, information intrinsically must have order or else it could not be
decoded or received. So, information architecture has to do with the
addition of order (more information, more designation of importance,
more indication of relatedness) and thus more information about the
information in focus, thus meta-information. Consider my comment to be a
question. Is that right?

Given the view that information architecture is an addition of
information to an established set of information items, that the added
information is meta-information or information about the established set
of items, we could go further in defining the added information. From
the perspective of defining information architecture, the added
information cannot simply be another item. It must be the kind of
information about the established set that serves to help the user
understand and use the established set (and could include any
indications shown in a browser window, given that those indications add
such information). Perhaps information architecture could be thought of
as an additional layer of explained codes added to the set. (For
example, all items preceeded by 5 stars have been reviewed and given
that classification from field experts.) As one of the quotes from a
computing dictionary says, the information must be considered apart from
the media. Maybe even directories (on a server) could be thought of as
an understood code, thus as information added to the items within that
directory.

Have a nice day
John Paul Fullerton
j-fullerton at tamu.edu