[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 Thomas Vander Wal
>  
> On 1/9/03 8:28 PM, "Boniface Lau" <boniface_lau at compuserve.com>
> wrote:
> 
> >> From: sigia-l-admin at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-admin at asis.org]On
> >> Behalf Of Jan Egil Hagen
> >>  
[...]
> >> 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.
> 
> Arg, I knew this would come up.  We are not defining data or
> information for the real world we are defining IA as a part of
> Information Science.  

When IA has made sufficient contributions to information science, IA
will naturally be a part of Information Science. Without the
contributions, no amount of "defining" will make IA a part of
Information Science.

Useful term definitions require a solid understanding of the subject
matter. Discussions about our practice will help to build a solid
understanding and, in the process, surface the appropriate term
definitions. Thus, discussing how we actually made a site useful are
much more helpful towards defining terms than the definition debates.

BTW, people compiling dictionaries do not dream up definitions. They
look into the actual usage to extract definitions. Thus, if we have to
dream up or look to other fields for the definitions of a term, we are
not ready to have an IA definition of that term.


Boniface