[Sigia-l] data as information?

[Conal Tuohy]

Ed Housman wrote:

> I ocurrs to me that those who treat data as a *plural* are 
> speaking of data (plural of datum) as they are conceived in 
> *Information Theory*, a methematical framework for analyzing 
> signals moving across a communication medium.  The focus is 
> NOT on meaning of the signals being sent, but on achieving 
> reliability, reducing errors, and minimizing required 

Agreed.

> bandwidth; in this context data and information are 
> essentially synonymous.  

They are actually 2 very closely related concepts in Information Theory,
but they are distinct and not at all synonmous. Information is really a
property of data, in Info Theory. So here in fact there is a
distinction, but it's not a distinction that would satisfy e.g.
Boniface, because he doesn't want to use the "Information Theory"
semantics of "data" and "information". Which is perfectly fine of
course. 

> Those who consider data as *singular* think of it (not them) 
> in a different context -- as a bit stream with content.  This 
> is the realm of *Information
> Science* which focuses more on the messages, data stores, 
> data creation, data retrieval and things not directly related 
> to channel capacity.  Data in this context is potential 
> information.  And here data and information are NOT 
> synonymous.  Information is a richer concept.

I'll leave you to elaborate on that :-)

> When people have a different perspective on a word, that's 
> called semantics. 
> And we begin clashing over belief systems.   

I think this is part of why the discussion has been so fruitless. What's
the point of having the two concepts and making a distinction (or not
making a distinction) between them? Why would you? I can see why you
would if you're using the terms in the "Information Theory" sense, but
if you don't want to use the semantics of Information Theory, then why
would you? What do people expect to gain from it? Unless that's clear, I
don't see how there can be a consensus on the semantics, which would be
required for the discussion to progress.

Anyway, to bring the thread back towards the original question (which
WAS couched in terms of Information Theory!) ... I think that in Info
Theory terms, providing context is a kind of data compression, whereas
providing multiple representations or expressions of something is the
opposite (redundancy). And I think both are important - the first to
optimise bandwidth, and the second to ensure reliability of
communication. 

Con