From: LIBPACS@UHUPVM1.BITNET (Public-Access Computer Systems Forum)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.pacs-l
Subject: Data Question
Date: 17 Nov 92 19:56:24 GMT
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU

10 Messages, 196 Lines
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From: ssoward1@cc.swarthmore.edu
About "data" and "information":
This isn't original with me and I don't have time to find it...the wording
is no doubt better in the original.
Data is raw facts, piled up without organization.
Information is some organized version of the data, selected, sorted,
evaluated, or whatever, to make the data serve some purpose or question.
I have usually seen this as a trio: the third one is "wisdom" which is
knowing how to make intelligent use of the information.
--Steven Sowards
  Swarthmore College Library

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From:     <RHADDEN@USGSRESV>
The difference between data and information is similar to the difference between
knowledge and wisdom. Data is unformatted, un-interpreted facts. Ifnoinformation
is the interpretation of those facts. A good example might be a table of
weather data. Information is that it is going to (is, has) rain(ed). One
is raw data from which one can draw (accurate or inaccurate) informative
conclusions.
   Like many words in english borrowed from other languages, the differences
are subtle, and may bnot be ubniversally applied.
lee hadden
usgs library
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From: jennie@reed.edu (Jennie McKee)

I can give you three different definitions for distinguishing the
difference between data and information that I have been given in my
Systems Science courses:

1.  In formation is some pattern of matter and energy with emergent
qualities.
 (The whole is more than the sum of the parts therefore the information is
more than the pieces of data that support it.)

2.  Information is a reduction in uncertainity. --Shannon

3.  Information is user dependant.  It must have meaning to the user.  What
is information of one person may be data for another.

Hope this helps.

**************************************************************************
Jennie L. McKee
Technical Services and Systems Librarian
Reed College Library
Portland, OR  97202

Phone: (503) 777-7752      Fax:  (503) 777-7786
Internet:  jennie@reed.edu
**************************************************************************
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From:         Jack Smith <LHL0006@UABDPO>
Subject:      Question data v info
Glenis Pickering asks about the difference between data and information.
When I last gave an oversimplified explanation of this to my son (13 yrs.)
I told him that data could be like the individual letters of the alphabet.
It is when you put the letters together to make words that you have information
.

I said that it was oversimplified, but it worked and satisfied him at the
time.  He has since gotten more technical about this subject as have his
friends.  For example, who decides when data becomes information?

Jack Smith
Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences
University of Alabama at Birmingham
E-Mail   lhl0006@uabdpo.bitnet
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What a great question: the difference between data and information.

Data is information in its most basic form, without benefit of any
organization or intelligence. Data is around us (and inside us) at all times.
Organization and intelligence are used to apply some form of meaning to this
mass of data, to convert it to information. (Or perhaps extract some meaning
from it?) This applies equally to the information in a bee's dance telling
another bee the location of the best flower--or to the Human Genome Project
telling a scientist the location and implication of a specific gene.

The next step is to take information, turn it into knowledge (through
understanding?)--and then to use that knowledge in combination with intuition
to create something totally new.
Anyone want to tell us how that works - - -
Carolyn
---Carolyn Anne Reid, Cornell Medical Library, New York City
---Phone: 212-746-6069        Fax: 212-746-6494
---E-mail: carolyn_reid@qmcumc.mail.cornell.edu

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From: Sanjay_Chadha@library.tmc.edu
That's a good one, and generally the most confused one.  That is also
the first question that I try to address when I talk to people about
Management Information Systems.  Here one sentence that does it

"Information is data placed in context"

eg. Data: Red Light
Context: Traffic Signal        Information: Stop the car
Context: Microwave             Information: Done cooking
Context: Odometer              Information: Low on gas
Context: Nuclear reactor       Information: Get the hell out of dodge!
(:-))

Sanjay R. Chadha
HAM-TMC Library, Houston
sanjayc@library.tmc.edu
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From: Craig McDonald <MCDONALD@zac.riv.csu.edu.au>
One idea about the distinction between the nature of data,
information and knowledge that appeals to me is that :

- data seems to be about reflections of some phenomena, whether it
is ever used or not.  We are surrounded by data (visual, auditory
...) most of which we ignore or filter out.  Databases hold lots of
data that is never accessed.

- information is data that is pertinent to some situation or
purpose.  When we are 'informed' of something we are taking in data
that is relevant to the situation at hand - a well informed person
is one with lots of relevant data (information).  Information
retrieval systems make data into knowledge by selecting relevant
facts.

- Knowledge is 'know-how' (I know how to send this message), while
'know-that 'is really just information (I know that your address is
...).  Knowledge is active - expert systems contain the know-how of
experts and can act on that knowledge.  Other computer systems also
have knowledge - like the pay-roll system that knows how to
calculate your pay - but we don't normally consider this to be
knowledge for some reason (if a person did it we would!).  In
computing it is knowledge defines how data & information is
manipulated and made meaningful.

If this is useful, more has been published in John Weckert & Craig
McDonald (1992) Intelligent Library Systems ISBN 0-949060-18-6.

    ... Craig McDonald

        cmcdonald@csu.edu.au
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From:  David.White@LONDON.british-library.uk
No, the "information" about Clinton is in fact "Knowledge"
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From: ldavids@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Lloyd Davidson)
Subject: Re: Data Question, Pt I
While it does not answer the philosophical question of the
difference between data and information, there is a nice
four page article on how information relates to the digital
world in the 7 November 1992 New Scientist V.136(1846).  It
makes up the "Inside Scientist" section between pages 40 and 41.

Lloyd Davidson
L-Davidson@NWU.EDU

*-----
From:          <PEMMONS@WCU>
Subject:      Data Question, Pt. II
 Two definitions of data have been proffered with which I cannot quite agree:
 (1) "Data is a collection of symbols... not necessarily human readable."
     But so is garbage.  Whatever data are, they must be presumed to represent
     facts.
 (2) "Data are the electoral results of the States.  Information is that Clinton
     won the election."
     Perhaps this was meant as an analogy.  Although it would hold for casual
     observers, if you are the chairman of a state's political party, it might
     come as a surprise that you should treat as mere data the carefully
     compiled conclusions for your territory, on which your job might depend.
     This illustrates what someone observed, that context plays a role.

 Quite by chance, I encountered yesterday _Questions_and_Information_Systems_,
 ed. by Thomas W. Lauer et al., which considers several measures of information.

 One approach evaluates information in terms of decision-making: information
 is the removal of uncertainty or of false possibilities.  If, out of a universe
 of 1000 possibilities, message A leaves 100 to be considered and message B
 leaves only 10, then message B is more informative.  The definition of the
 universe of possibilities is problematical, but then so is the definition of
 the denominator in our definition of recall = no. of relevant documents
 retrieved / no. of relevant documents available.   Yet the concept remains
 useful.

 D.M. MacKay expands on this definition ot say that information can make one
 of three alterations to a representation of reality (e.g. to the beliefs in
 one's mind): (1) Select an alternative from a set of alternatives; (2) Add
 elements, dimensions, and values to the representation; (3) Modify the
 validity of the representation by corroborating parts and refuting parts.

 The book introduces both formulations to illustrate that information answers
 questions, and that forming questions is an important skill in the process of
 acquiring information.  If you don't ask the right questions, the data will
 not inform you, even though the potential is there for them to do so.

 Paul Emmons, West Chester University.