The terms data, information, knowledge and understanding are often confused. It is therefore appropriate to explain these important terms.
Data are recordings of reality. They are often stored as numbers, letters or images. Data has no meaning on its own. It must be interpreted by some kind of data processing system in order to give
meaningful information.
When data is interpreted by e.g. a computer or the human brain, the goal is to extract structure (or patterns) and reject noise. This structural part is information. When processing large amounts of data,
extracting the structural part may be a complicated task. It is therefore essential to have tools for extracting information from data.
Information is potential knowledge. When information is used in a specific context, new knowledge may be gained. Combined with previously acquired knowledge, we may get understanding or
"wisdom".
The best definitions of data, information, knowledge and wisdom that I've ever found, comes from FOLDOC:
data: <data, data processing, jargon> /day't*/ (Or "raw data") Numbers, characters, images, or other method of recording, in a form which can be assessed by a human or (especially) input into a computer, stored and processed there, or transmitted on some digital channel. Computers nearly always represent data in binary.
Data on its own has no meaning, only when interpreted by some kind of data processing system does it take on meaning and become information.
People or computers can find patterns in data to perceive information, and information can be used to enhance knowledge. Since knowledge is prerequisite to wisdom, we always want more data and information. But, as modern societies verge on information overload, we especially need better ways to find patterns.
1234567.89 is data.
"Your bank balance has jumped 8087% to $1234567.89" is information.
"Nobody owes me that much money" is knowledge.
"I'd better talk to the bank before I spend it, because of what has happened to other people" is wisdom.
A suggestion for a data processing model is given as an attachment below. When e.g. reading a newspaper, the eye act as the input device, and the brain must do all the data processing.
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| dpm.png | 15.08 KB |
