[Sigia-l] Serious Discussion of IA Research?

[Conal Tuohy]

> From: Conal Tuohy
>  
> To me, it's precisely the ACQUISITION and STORAGE of that data which
> constitutes "information". Not the data themselves. 

Boniface Lau:

> Are you saying that information is the act of acquiring and storing
> data?

More or less, yes. Or at least, "new data" rather than just data. So if I tell you something then I've given you information, but if I tell you again and again, then I haven't given you any more information, because you already had it (assuming you were paying attention the first time :-)

This is how the term "information" is defined in Information Theory, BTW: information depends on the person receiving it. 

For instance, if you don't speak Spanish, then "esto no significa nada" is not information to you. It's just noise. It's data, but not information. Or if you know how to recognise the songs of different birds, then you can acquire information from listening to birds which other people cannot (they would only acquire the information "there is a bird in the tree", rather than "there is a bellbird in the tree"). That's why I think it's not very useful to consider information a substance in its own right, independently of the person (or computer system) being informed. 

Cheers

Con