Data, Information and Knowledge

 

DATA

What do the numbers  123424331911, 211192 or perhaps the letters 'aab' mean to you?

Probably nothing - this is because they have no specific meaning or application. They are examples of DATA.

Data consist of raw facts and figures - it does not have any meaning until it is processed and turned into something useful.

Data comes in many forms, the main ones being letters,numbers and symbols.

However, it is essential that DATA is available because it is the first step in creating meaningful INFORMATION.

For example the three data items above could represent some very important information:

 

DATA	INFORMATION
123424331911	Your winning Lottery ticket number
211192	Your Birthday
aab	The grades you want at your exam.

Usefulness of Data

Just like an apple or a cake - data often has a 'use-by' date after which  it becomes irrelevant.

For example, "Mrs. Smith", the librarian is keeping data on who has borrowed a popular book. This is valuable data, as she can make sure it comes back on time.

A day later, 'John' duly returns the book and 'Sarah' borrows it - now the data that said 'John' has borrowed the book becomes irrelevant - the data is out of date!

Date-stamping is important, so that people don't rely on out of date information.

INFORMATION

Information is data that has been processed in such a way as to be meaningful to the person who receives it.

INFORMATION = DATA + CONTEXT + MEANING.

Example of Information

Data	21041926	This has no meaning or context
Context	It is a British date	This allows us to register it as 21st April 1926 It still has no meaning and is therefore not information
Meaning	The Birth date of Queen Elizabeth II	This gives us all the elements required for it to be called 'information'

 

Uses of Information

Businesses and organizations need information to enable them to operate.  Some of the main things they use information for are summarized below.

1. Planning: All businesses need to plan for the short, medium and long term.  Planning includes decision-making about staff, premises, equipment and customers.  Accurate and up to date information is required to enable planning to take place.

2.Recording: In order to have the necessary information for planning purposes, it must be collected in the first place.  Businesses collect a wealth of information as part of their normal operations.  They record details of purchases, sales, returns, deliveries etc.  Much of this is required to be collected by law - e.g. details of financial transactions.

3.Controlling: Once a business has made decisions and produced plans, it needs to regularly monitor progress against the plan.  Information is needed to help identify whether things are going better or worse than expected, and to spot ways in which corrective action can be taken.

4.Measuring: A business must measure their performance in order to be successful.  They need to know for example, whether sales have improved since last year, whether customers on average are spending less than before.  Information is used as the main way of measuring performance. For example, this can be done by collecting and analyzing information on sales, costs and profits.

5.Decision making: Information used for decision-making is often categorized into three types, i.e., Strategic information, Tactical Information, and Operational Information.

 

KNOWLEDGE

The next level up from collecting information is having wisdom - the capability of understanding the relationship between pieces of information and what to actually do with the information.

This ability is called Knowledge

Consider this scenario: Person puts a finger into very hot water.
Data gathered: Finger nerves sends pain data to the brain.
Processing: Brain considers the data and comes up with...
Information: Painful finger means it is not in a good place.
Action: Brain tells finger to remove itself from hot water.
Knowledge: Sticking finger in hot water is a bad idea.

Knowledge is having an understanding of the "rules". Knowledge is how humans experience and wisdom is applied to information in order to make sense of it and form a bias of prediction.

Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO)

Mistakes in entering data will result in problems with the information produced, e.g.

• Date of birth entered wrongly could result in incorrect pension payments,
• Number entered twice. e.g. 44 items bought instead of 4 will result in customer being overcharged for goods,
• Extra numbers added, e.g. 100 hours worked instead of 10 will result in employee being overpaid for hours worked,
• Incorrect data selected, e.g. student ticks the wrong box or the wrong item chosen from a drop down menu will result in student being registered for subjects they do not want to study.