[Sigia-l] data as information?

[Dan Saffer]

On Jun 29, 2005, at 9:20 PM, Listera wrote:

> Dan Saffer:
>
>> Dick was picking a random number as an example of data.
>>
>
> Can randomness be an attribute of data? What the heck is that?

No that wasn't the point. Data isn't random, but it's all around us.  
I think Dick used the phrase, "like a swarm of dust."

Let me give examples of non-random data:

5
Cheyenne
8
Pepsi

Fairly meaningless, until I make the data into sentences, providing  
context: I have been writing this for 5 minutes. I am in Cheyenne. I  
drove 8 hours to get here. I am drinking Pepsi.

>
>
>> It's  meaningless until it's part of a relationship with other data.
>>
>
> This makes no sense at all to me. Since data is not going to  
> connect itself
> to other data autonomously, you're going to do that yourself. Well,  
> at that
> point why do you call it data?

Because data is the building blocks of information. Atoms aren't very  
useful either (unless you are splitting them). But by combining them,  
you eventually make stuff.


> It's already got a context, relationships,
> etc.

There's no connection until someone provides one. Those four bits of  
data above could connect to any number of things.

> So how does the assertion: "[Data] is the evidence of a relationship
> between two things" make any sense?

5 minutes is the measured time between me and this email. It's one  
bit of data that binds me to it. There are probably hundred of  
others: the number of pauses I took, the number of words I've  
written, ad nauseum. But all of them are between me and this email,  
establishing a relationship and thus a context.

> How's that different from what some here
> call information?
>

Information is the creation of something meaningful from otherwise  
senseless bits of data. Eric's summation is right on the money:

noise -> data -> information -> knowledge -> wisdom