[Sigia-l] RE: Data vs. Information

[Boniface Lau]

> From: sigia-l-admin at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-admin at asis.org]On
> Behalf Of Jan Egil Hagen
>  
> * Boniface Lau <boniface_lau at compuserve.com>
> | In "Information Anxiety 2", RSW wrote on page 19, "information is
> | that which leads to understanding."
> 
> There are at least two ways to go about exploring definitions for
> information.  One is to try to find the one correct definition, and
> the other way is to find out how different people actually use the
> word.  I don't believe that getting a community to agree on one
> correct definition is _totally_ futile,

Do we know enough about the process of understanding to tell whether a
definition of "information" is _correct_?

Agreeing on something is easy. But if what we agree on does not
reflect the reality, it is like agreeing that the world is flat. Such
"flat" world view will get IAs into troubles while clients are seeing
a rounded world. IAs will get laughed out of the door, let alone
helping clients to solve problems.

Thus, ISTM, the issue is not about getting a group of people to agree
on a definition. The issue is about acknowledging the messy reality
regardless of how much our mind would like to deal with a clean cut
concept.

The reality is that people/clients use the terms "data" and
"information" interchangeably. The more discriminated ones see the
differences between data and information like shades of grey.

Terms reflect what we know about a subject matter. They are the fruits
on a tree. Until a tree is mature enough to produce its own fruits,
bringing fruits from other trees for attaching to the immature tree
just doesn't work. Similarly, when a field has gathered a significant
understanding of its subject matter, well-defined terms emerge like
fruits ripe for picking. Until then, efforts to produce term
definitions are not very productive.


> but it is certainly a lot less hard work to explore how the word
> information is used in the real world.

Actually, it is not as hard as it seems. Just look up an English
dictionary. A dictionary reflects the real world usage of words.


Boniface