[Sigia-l] RE: Data vs. Information

[Boniface Lau]

> From: sigia-l-admin at asis.org [mailto:sigia-l-admin at asis.org]On
> Behalf Of Thomas Vander Wal
>  
> On 1/9/03 8:28 PM, "Boniface Lau" <boniface_lau at compuserve.com>
> wrote:
> 
[...]
> > Do we know enough about the process of understanding to tell
> > whether a definition of "information" is _correct_?
> 
> It seems you have gone at this backwards.  Knowledge and
> understanding are largely interchangeable.  The RSW approach you are
> using is not widely used as is the use of knowledge continuum, but
> that is minor as they use the same process with nearly identical
> approaches.  Both knowledge and understanding require a user to
> interpret the information.

I am not sure I understand what you were trying to say. Care to try
again?


> You as if we know enough about the process of understanding, well we
> had better if we are charging anybody for our services.

Did you mean to tell us that you have a good grip on what goes on in
people's head when they are understanding things?


[...]
> The approach you want to take is whether the users understand the
> information you have put before them.  The process of understanding
> is at the center of User-centered design and as a part of that
> community Information architecture as well.  If a user does not
> understand the information structures the information is unusable.
> IA also takes an approach of finding information the user is seeking
> to increase their understanding.  Because information is not
> understood, does not mean it is not information, it is still
> information, but not usable by that user.

Pardon me for being confused here. What were you trying to say in the
above? 


Boniface