First Blog Assignment

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

A. Data: It is a collection of facts from which conclusions may be drawn. It is also called "statistical data" [1].
B. Information: It is a message received and understood.
C. Knowledge: It is the psychological result of perception and learning and reasoning.

2. What are the characteristics of the above terms?
A. The key characteristics of the data that is stored by a directory service correspond to size and latency. Active Directory should store objects that are not so large that they hamper replication and not so unstable that they change before an update replicates to all replicas in the forest. Therefore, large, unstructured data sets and data values that change frequently are not appropriate for storage in Active Directory [2].
B. Information has several characteristics that make information very different than other commodities:
It is reproducible. Its theft does not deny it to the original owner.
The cost of reproduction is low.
It can be transported easily.
Its lifetime can be brief.
Its value is not additive [3].
C. Knowledge is a deterministic process. When someone "memorizes" information (as less-aspiring test-bound students often do), then they have amassed knowledge. This knowledge has useful meaning to them, but it does not provide for, in and of itself, an integration such as would infer further knowledge [4].

3. Give and example for each term mentioned above.
A. The number of Chinese Population belongs to data.
B. The material which we search from the Internet is information.
C. The fishes swim to the water level, we can know it will rain soon from it.

4. Is there any possibility of a fourth level of Information Hierarchy? Elaborate.
Yes. Because the fourth level of Information Hierarchy is Wisdom. The detailed information of it is an extrapolative and non-deterministic, non-probabilistic process. It calls upon all the previous levels of consciousness, and specifically upon special types of human programming (moral, ethical codes, etc.). It beckons to give us understanding about which there has previously been no understanding, and in doing so, goes far beyond understanding itself. It is the essence of philosophical probing [4].


References
[1] WordNet Search - 3.0. Available from the URL: http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=data 15 January 2009
[2] Microsoft TechNet. (2009) Data Characteristics. Available from the URL: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/distrib/dsbg_dat_ygpe.mspx?mfr=true 15 January 2009.
[3] (1996) Characteristics of Information. Available from the URL: http://www.cs.jcu.edu.au/Subjects/cp1500/1998/Lecture_Notes/information/characteristics.html 15 January 2009.
[4] Gene Bellinger, Durval Castro and Anthony Mills. (2004) Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom. Available from the URL: http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm 15 January 2009.