Knowledge, Information, and Data:

A piece of data is a simple raw fact that reflects a particular event, e.g.,

- The current in a circuit is 0.5 A when the voltage is 10 V

- A student’s exam mark is 65 %

- A cheque for £53 is debited to a bank account.

A single data item on its own is meaningless. Consider the number 256. 256 what? Cars on the A19? Pink elephants? Let’s put it with some other numbers:

256, 294, 330, 349, 392, 440, 494, 512.

Even if you knew that these data items were related, they would still be meaningless. They would be more meaningful if you put them into the context of frequencies in Hertz. But not many people would understand the significance. If you were to represent them as:

Musicians would immediately recognise this as the scale of C major, and would put a name to each note, i.e. C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C.

Information is the collection of a series of related pieces of data processed into a coherent and understandable form:

- The complete set of values of voltage and current in a circuit to draw a graph.

- The complete set of results for a class of students sitting an exam

- The monthly bank statement for a particular customer.

Knowledge is really the way that we respond to information. The facts and figures help us to function, but it’s not the whole answer. We have knowledge that stems from rules, the likely effects of certain courses of action:

- Students do well if they attend regularly and do all the work set.

- You will get a speeding fine if you drive at 100 km/h in a 50 km/h limit. Most people know this and don’t drive above the speed limit (?).

In ICT we refer to knowledge as how information given out by computers is used to make decisions.

Knowledge from the information gained from processed data can help us to:

- Draw conclusions, e.g., that the voltage and current in a resistor are proportional.
- Make day-to-day running decisions, e.g., how much bread do we need for our café today
- Analyse problems, e.g. what is the best way to make this product?
- Market and launch a new product.

Professional people are those whose specialist knowledge gives them the expertise to provide services and make decisions on a wealth of formal and informal facts and rules gained through years of training and experience.

Wisdom can be thought of as the constructive use of one’s knowledge and experience to the benefit of others, possibly to the disadvantage to oneself. Remember also:

“A little bit of knowledge is a very dangerous thing.”

Computers can help us immensely by processing data very rapidly to give us information. We then have to use our knowledge to help us to process the information. Computers have no knowledge at all. They are adding machines that can tell the difference between ON and OFF. True, they can do amazing things. For about £50 you can buy a flight simulator that you can use to fly from any airport in the world to any other, and you can see the scenery in between. Indeed some flying organisations use it for their basic pilot training. If you crash a plane, it doesn’t matter! However, computers do not think, nor do they know anything. They are electronic filing cabinets and adding machines. Even the CRAY Supercomputer is an adding machine that can add up like greased lightning.

NEXT: Collection of Data