[Sigia-l] Serious Discussion of IA Research?

[Boniface Lau]

> From: Eric Scheid
> 
> > Are you back-pedalling? "Oh, we didn't really insist that
> > information is not data. Thus, it is okay for Information
> > Architects not being able to tell information from data."
> 
> I'm not back-pedalling, because I haven't been insisting that any
> distinction is crucial.

I didn't mean back-pedalling for yourself, but for the IA field to
justify being an IA that cannot tell information from data.


[...]
>
> So who's back-pedalling now? Here's what you said earlier:
> 
>     > After all, that field [IA] has long been insisting that
>     > information is not data.
> 
> Meanwhile ...
> 
> > But walking the talk without the required skills to meaningfully
> > distinguish information from data makes IAs hair-splitters.
> 
> You might have a point regarding walking the talk, but you're using
> the wrong word to describe it. Hair-splitting is after all the act
> of over- attention to unimportant details and fine distinctions,
> especially in an argument, and giving undue significance to fine
> distinctions and details.

You've missed the point about skill. Let me explain.

An information-data distinction that can be used to pragmatically tell
information from data is not splitting hair. But it takes skills to
come up with such distinction. It is not as trivial as you might
think. If it is, the issue would have been resolved long ago on this
list and that certain individual who "helped create the profession"
wouldn't have ducked the issue in his co-authored book.

So, here we have IAs who don't really understand the differences
between information and data. But they want to walk their talk. So,
they walk around with a half-baked information-data distinction.
People will find the distinction arbitrary and therefore dismiss the
IAs as hair-splitters.

IAs justify their existence by insisting that information is not data,
as companies already have Data Architects. But IAs can't pragmatically
tell information from data. If they walk their talk, they risk being
kicked out as hair-splitters. If they don't, they have to turn a blind
eye to their own duplicity - "information is not data, but we treat
data as information anyway." Not a pleasant situation to be in.

If there can be only one IA research, it should be on the pragmatic
distinction between information and data.


Boniface