Data, Information, and Knowledge
Data, Information, and knowledge are terms that we use interchangeably, but by clearly understanding what they mean and how they interact with one another we can understand the relationship between them. Data refers to facts pertaining to things that we perceive from our senses and then this is processed by the brain. The purpose of data is to record activities or situations, to attempt to capture the true picture or real event. Therefore, all data are historical, unless used for illustration purposes, such as forecasting. The information helps us to expand our knowledge beyond our senses, data that is captured in the form of information and it helps us in decision-making processes. Knowledge is what we know, how we act on what we know and understand the why.
Both data and information require knowledge in order to be interpretable, but at the same time, data and information are useful tools for finding new knowledge. Old knowledge is used to reflect upon data and information and when the data or information has been made sense of, a new state of knowledge is formed in the mind of the interpreter. There are 2 stages that help us to differentiate between the three — awareness and interpretation stage. During the awareness stage, the observer comes to know of the data. If he understands it then it becomes information otherwise it is just data. In the interpretation stage, the observer should be able to comprehend the information if it can become knowledge otherwise it is just information.
Organizations have a deficiency problem because it’s difficult to identify which information will be helpful in the future, information is an integral strategic resource as it helps in decision making. The capability of an organization largely depends on the integration of information and knowledge but most of the time we come across problems in sharing information. We can overcome this by streaming the process in a network of distributed systems, by constantly reviewing and updating the databases, contemplate on the information needed, and seek that. We can also identify information sources and integrate a system.
Data, information, and knowledge are interdependent, interchangeable, and share a complex relationship. Data is at the granular level and is the basis of the information, when a person comes across information it can’t be an independent element to acquire knowledge. Knowledge is obtained by processing information, so we have a sequence that helps us to reach a stage of wisdom. But data can only become information and then knowledge if the person can comprehend it otherwise the data is redundant and can lead to information deficiency. Information comes from having a coherent collection of data that can be analyzed, whereas knowledge comes when we can understand the information we comprehend, these three forms a chain reaction in simple terms. Data without context makes no sense due to deficiency of information; so we should focus on having a strategic approach for data harvesting as it will help to transform data into meaningful information and obtain knowledge which will help to gain insights and making better decisions.
Conclusion
Knowledge, data, and information which we have covered and understood them individually as well as the relationship between them, to add more value in understanding the relationship, if we add one more term here Wisdom we will create the DIKW (data, information, knowledge, wisdom) pyramid. Wisdom is the involvement-based capability to derive a deep and reflective level of understanding of patterns or key relationships critical to activity. Wisdom provides us the ability to understand complex things and to apply our learning and knowledge in such a way that is creative and unique. It also provides us with high cognitive skills, the ability to rationalize our decisions and thought processes as well as to explore things that have not been. Coming to the deficiency problems if organizations have effective resource planning or making people work in teams in advance will help to mitigate this issue, as well as communication flow, will happen from the top level to bottom due to people working and engaging in discussions together.
