[Sigia-l] data as information?

[James Melzer]

I guess my question was, wherein lies the danger of discussing
information as data or vice versa? Is there actually a risk or is it
just a matter or perspective?

Data is fundamentally useless without context. It's not even worth
talking about. So all data can be assumed to have enough context to be
meaningful, so it has enough context to be treated as information.
>From a data perspective, a document is a collection of terms and
phrases organized into a hierachical and linear structure. Microsoft
Word looks at documents that way; so does Google. People don't. And
that is the distinction with which we, as IAs, are concerned. To us, a
document is much more than Title, Author, and BodyText fields.

Can we say IAs design information for people but data architects
design data for machines? Our audiences are entirely different but our
products may be congruous?

~ James

On 6/28/05, Eric Scheid <eric.scheid at ironclad.net.au> wrote:
> On 29/6/05 3:43 AM, "Listera" <listera at rcn.com> wrote:
> 
> >> Data = just the bytes
> >> Information = the bytes plus the interpretation of those bytes
> >
> > Like the proverbial fallen tree in a forest, what's data without
> > interpretation?
> 
> a bunch of numbers or other opaqe symbols.
> 
> > How does one even begin to talk about it, without
> > interpreting it one way or another?
> 
> Talk about the characteristics of the bunch of numbers.
> 
> For example: I have a bunch of numbers. Lots and lots of numbers. Each
> number ranges in value from 0 to N, integers only. The data collection
> device has 4MB of memory, and given the above size and shape of the data,
> and knowing that readings are taken every 6 minutes, we can store 'x' days
> of readings.
> 
> Now to interpret: We know these numbers are rainfall readings in a catchment
> area. We plot these readings against time, and against a map with other data
> collection devices. We can examine the numbers and see that the recent
> flooding was preceded by gentle rains in the west quadrant, while a heavy
> rain at a different time in the east quadrant didn't result in much flooding
> at all.
> 
> Or: We know these numbers are temperature readings [...]
> 
> Or: We know these numbers are the daily NASDAQ closing figures [...]
> 
> e.
> 
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-- 
James Melzer


--------------------------------------
"Choice, the problem is choice." - Neo