The Characteristics of Data, Information and Knowledge

Data: Raw facts and figures with no meaning. E.g. data coming from a weather station as a series of 1's and 0's before being processed.

Information: Data that has been processed to give it meaning and put into context. E.g. Data from a weather station is processed so that the temperature and pressure can be read.

Knowledge: Applying rules to information which enables decisions to be made. E.g. If the temperature is high you don't need to wear a jumper to the shops.

Knowledge worker

Knowledge workers in today's workforce are individuals who are valued for their ability to act and communicate with knowledge within a specific subject area. They will often advance the overall understanding of that subject through focused analysis, design and/or development. They use research skills to define problems and to identify alternatives. Fueled by their expertise and insight, they work to solve those problems, in an effort to influence company decisions, priorities and strategies.

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Knowledge base

Knowledge base is a special kind of database for knowledge management, providing the means for the computerized collection, organization, and retrieval of knowledge. Also a collection of data representing related experiences, their results are related to their problems and solutions.

Direct Data Sources: Data  collected for a specific purpose to enable a decision to be made. E.g. A school collects information about which type of drinks students want at their school disco so that only those types of drinks are bought.

Advantages	Disadvantages
The information will be collected when needed (Up-to-date)	Costly to collect the information.(Hardware, Software &  Staffing)
All the Information needed will be collected (Complete)	Time consuming to collect.
Information will be exactly what was needed (Relevant)
The information will be collected directly from the source (Accurate)

 

Indirect Data Sources: Data used for a purpose other than it was intended. E.g. Information about the types of drinks wanted at a school disco was collected, it was used weeks later to decide if a healthy drinks campaign should be mounted as many students chose fizzy drinks which are bad for your teeth.

Advantages	Disadvantages
Cheaper than collecting your own data.	Might not have all the data you need (Incomplete)
Quicker as don't have to arrange the colection of data	Data might not be recent (out of date)
	Not sure how accurate the data is.
	Lots of information might not be needed (Irrelevant)