[Sigia-l] Data, information, knowledge, wisdom

[Boniface Lau]

> From: Scott Nelson
> 
> On Jun 28.2005, at 18:00, Boniface Lau wrote:
> 
> >> What is this? A binary number? A password? A pattern? Alone and
> >> out of context, data is quite meaningless.
> >>
> >
> > 010101 does have a context - the mind that perceives it. For
> > example, when people are looking for a binary number and come
> > across 010101, they are likely to interpret that as a binary
> > number.
> 
> that seems to be the meaning of the post to which you're 
> responding too.

Hmm... I understood Tom's post to mean data has no context while
information is data with context:

Tom> Information = data in context, i.e. "in formation"


Thus, I pointed out that in most cases everything perceived, including
data, has context.


[...]
> Thomas' point *was* that the mind that perceives it is what gives the

> data the needed context.

That was not my understanding of his post. For example, he wrote:

Tom> Information = data in context, i.e. "in formation"
Tom>
Tom> For example: January 1, 2001.
Tom>
Tom> Now that it's in the form of a date, it becomes a piece of
Tom> information.

His so-called context in the above example is the date format. That
alone, according to Tom, makes "January 1, 2001" a piece of
information, not data.


Boniface