First blog assignment

1. Define the meaning of the terms data, information and knowledge according to Thomas Davenport's Information Hierarchy (1997).

“Data – the signals about human events and activities that we are exposed to each day – has little value in itself, although to its credit it is easy to store and manipulate on computers”

Davenport and Marchand 1999

“Information is what data becomes when we as humans interpret and contextualise it. It is also the vehicle we use to express and communicate knowledge in business and in our lives. Information has more value than data and, at the same time, greater ambiguity – as any manager will attest who has ever argued over how many interpretations the term "customer", "order" and "shipment" can have inside the same company.”

Davenport and Marchand

"Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information. It originates and is applied in the minds of knowers. In organizations, it often becomes embedded not only in documents or repositories but also in organizational routines, processes, practices, and norms."

Davenport and Prusak

(Introduction, 2004)



Data – Data is a set of separate and objective data elements.

Information – Information consists of separate pieces of data which are connected to each other.

Knowledge – Knowledge was turn from information after significance is imparted to the information.

(Virpi Pirttimäki, 2004)




2. What are the characteristics of the above terms?

Data –
Data is the raw material in the first level of a information hierarchy. Character strings, signals, numbers, texts, and photos are unanalyzed data. The meaning of a data can only be understood by the receiver when the data has a certain context. (Virpi Pirttimäki, 2004)

According to Ackoff, data simply exists and has no significance beyond its existence. Data can exist in any form whether it is usable or not usable. It does not have meaning of itself. (Gene Bellinger, 2004)


Information –
According to Ståhle and Grönroos (1999), a receiver can understand the Information only if Information has value for him. Information usually contains some kind of message which has some meaning or interpretation depend on a receiver. (Virpi Pirttimäki, 2004) Information does not have to have meaning but with meaning can be useful.


Knowledge –
Knowledge is when a receiver has processed the information and connected it to his own mental structure. Intelligence is created by dissections when receiver has a way of applying information and knowledge to solve problems or to carry out an assignment. (Virpi Pirttimäki, 2004)

According to (Gene Bellinger, 2004), knowledge is appropriate collection of information that it is intent to be useful. Knowledge is a deterministic process.

3. Give and example for each term mentioned above.

Data – There is a rainbow.

Information – Rainbow have seven colours which are Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet.

Knowledge – Rainbow arises when water drops in the air refract sun light or passing through a prism. This is because the diffraction index depends on wavelengths of light, and called the dispersion of light.



4. Is there any possibility of a fourth level of Information Hierarchy? Elaborate.

Yes. There is a possibility of a fourth level of Information Hierarchy which is Wisdom. Wisdom is an extrapolative and non-deterministic, non-probabilistic process. Wisdom is the ability and the process by which we also discern, or judge, between right and wrong. Wisdom can only process by human.
(Gene Bellinger, 2004)

Reference

1. Introduction(2004) retrieve on Jan 15, 2008 from http://nlkr.gov.kg/km/introduction.html

2. Virpi Pirttimäki (2004), The Roles of Internal and External Information in
Business Intelligence, retrieve on Jan15, 2008 from http://72.14.235.132/search?q=cache:gZjqlai_O5kJ:www.ebrc.fi/kuvat/385-396_04.pdf+Thomas+Davenport%27s+Information+Hierarchy+data+information+knowledge&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=9&gl=my

3. Gene Bellinger (2004), Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom by Gene Bellinger, Durval Castro, Anthony Mills, retrieve on Jan 15, 2008 from http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm