Chapter 1 : Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom

Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom

"Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it." Albert Einstein

Computers are often called data processing machines or information processing machines. People understand and accept the fact that computers are machines designed for the input, storage, processing, and output of data and information

However, some people also think of computers as knowledge processing machines and even explore what it might mean for a computer to have wisdom. For example, here is a quote from Dr. Yogesh Malhotra of the BRINT Institute:

Knowledge Management caters to the critical issues of organizational adaption, survival and competence in face of increasingly discontinuous environmental change.... Essentially, it embodies organizational processes that seek synergistic combination of data and information processing capacity of information technologies, and the creative and innovative capacity of human beings.

The following quotation is from the Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre, a non-profit organization established in 1999.

Individual bits or "bytes" of "raw" biological data (e.g. the number of individual plants of a given species at a given location) do not by themselves inform the human mind. However, drawing various data together within an appropriate context yields information that may be useful (e.g. the distribution and abundance of the plant species at various points in space and time). In turn, this information helps foster the quality of knowing (e.g. whether the plant species is increasing or decreasing in distribution and abundance over space and time). Knowledge and experience blend to become wisdom--the power of applying these attributes critically or practically to make decisions.

Thus, we are led to think about Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom as we explore the capabilities and limitations of IT systems

Here are four definitions taken from Encarta® World English Dictionary © 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

Data

1. information, often in the form of facts or figures obtained from experiments or surveys, used as a basis for making calculations or drawing conclusions
2. information, for example, numbers, text, images, and sounds, in a form that is suitable for storage in or processing by a computer

Information

1. definite knowledge acquired or supplied about something or somebody
2. the collected facts and data about a particular subject
3. a telephone service that supplies telephone numbers to the public on request.
4. the communication of facts and knowledge
5. computer data that has been organized and presented in a systematic fashion to clarify the underlying meaning
6. a formal accusation of a crime brought by a prosecutor, as opposed to an indictment brought by a grand jury

Knowledge

1. general awareness or possession of information, facts, ideas, truths, or principles
2. clear awareness or explicit information, for example, of a situation or fact
3. all the information, facts, truths, and principles learned throughout time
4. familiarity or understanding gained through experience or study

Wisdom

1. the knowledge and experience needed to make sensible decisions and judgments, or the good sense shown by the decisions and judgments made
2. accumulated knowledge of life or in a particular sphere of activity that has been gained through experience
3. an opinion that almost everyone seems to share or express
4. ancient teachings or sayings

Various people have thought carefully about varying definitions of these four terms and produced their own analysis of the four terms. The following is quoted from Jacques Steyn's Website:

Information consists of data, but data is not necessarily information. Also, wisdom is knowledge, which in turn is information, which in turn is data, but, for example, knowledge is not necessarily wisdom. So wisdom is a subset of knowledge, which is a subset of information, which is a subset of data.

Arranging the Terms Along a scale

The terms Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom are sometimes presented in a form that suggests a scale.

However, in no sense do these four terms define some sort of linear equal-interval scale. They do, however, help us to discuss the design of an educational system as well as current and potential uses of computers. For example, we all accept that computers can be used for the input, storage, processing, and output of data. But, there is considerable disagreement about whether a computer can have knowledge or be knowledgeable--or have wisdom and be wise.

In the good old days, in the early history of using computers to do business data processing, computers were data processing machines. There were lots of workshops and courses on data processing. "Raw data" was processed to produce reports that were then analyzed by management to make management decisions. Hourly time sheets of workers were processed to produce payroll checks and summary reports on employee costs.

Later came the idea of computers processing data to produce information. Payroll data can be put together with other cost data, sales data, and so on to produce information about which products are most profitable. The huge collection of raw data can be processed into reports that facilitate high level management decisions.

Computer Science Departments became Computer and Information Science Departments. Terms such as Information Technology (IT) and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) arose because they better described the computer field.

In more recent years, businesses and others have worked to use computers to process information so that it becomes or is closely similar to knowledge. Knowledge in a person's head is used for posing and solving problems, posing and answering questions, defining decision making situations and making decisions, posing tasks to be accomplished and accomplishing the tasks, and so on. Nowadays, computers make lots of decisions without human intervention. That is, they receive data as input and they process it in a manner that produces decisions and actions as output. When a human does this, we talk about the level of knowledge, skill , and intelligence that the person has.

The following summary and chart are quoted from Designing Knowledge Ecosystems for Communities of Practice.

The graph below reflects the learning journey whereby we progressively transform the raw, unfiltered facts and symbols into information, knowledge, and eventually into intelligence and wisdom.

The discussion in this section leads to questions such as:

1. Can a computer system have knowledge and be knowledgeable?
2. Can a computer system have wisdom and be wise?
3. How should these ideas and answers affect business and education? 

Link

- http://www.outsights.com/systems/dikw/dikw.htm.
- http://otec.uoregon.edu/data-wisdom.htm