[Sigia-l] Professional Integrity (RE: data as information?)

[Boniface Lau]

> From: Peter Merholz
>  
> Because, you condescending person [<--not my first choice of words],  

I can understand the uneasy feeling when one's Achilles heel is
exposed. But that is not being condescended to.


> you don't bother to quote or cite where in the list archive you've  
> witnessed this. 

Because no one had asked for it. Now that you ask, an obvious starting
point is the thread "Data vs. Information".


> You instead attempt to stand upon a pedestal of superiority, 
> spewing your destructive commentary, instead of seeking to inform
> others of how folks have failed to make this distinction.

I have been informing others to the degree of detail that they had
asked for. For example, when someone asked for the support of my
assertion, I gave my reasoning as a form of support.


> 
> But, really, it's your tone of smug rightness, backed by no DATA
> <ha! > whatsoever, that pisses people off.

The DATA is the _absence_ of a way that IAs use to pragmatically
distinguish information from data. 

What really pissed people off is the exposure of Achilles heel, i.e.
although IAs claim that information is not data, they cannot
pragmatically distinguish information from data. Thus, IAs are being
forced to treat data as information. They are not walking their talk.

When an argument says there is none, the obvious way to refute it is
to show one. Thus, to refute my argument, all that people have to do
is pointing to one way that IAs are using to pragmatically distinguish
information from data. But no one did that.

Instead, people complained about the lack of quote or citation. That
is barking up the wrong tree.


> 
> Please either contribute to the community, or leave.

I happen to believe that professional integrity ("walking the talk")
is an important fundamental issue, albeit uncomfortable to some.


Boniface