Week 11

In the lecture the most important thing that I learnt was the difference between data, knowledge and information.
Data is-
-Factual
-Non judgemental
-Non inferential
-Transient
-Has no intrinsic "meaning"
-Has no intrinsic "value"

Knowledge is-
-Inferential
-Experimental
-Judgemental
-Subjective
-Very valuable

Information is-
-Summative
-Relational
-Dimensional
-Permanent
-Has meaning
-Uncertain value

In today's tutorial I did both of the readings:
Reading One-
Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom
This reading was quite interesting, according to Russell Ackoff, a systems theorist and professor, the human mind can be classified into five different parts.

~ Data: Symbols
~ Information: data that is processed to be useful; provides answers to "who", "what", "where", and "when" questions
~Knowledge: application of data and information; answers "how" questions
~Understanding: appreciation of "why"
~Wisdom: evaluated understanding

Reading Two-
For knowledge to be produced someone must think of an idea and decide to pursue it further. In addition to the time needed to do research and produce new knowledge, a person must find the appropriate funding to pursue the research. That is why research is usually done by people assosiated with large companies or corporations because of the time and resources needed to produce new knowledge. The interactive quiz was quite fun, and educational.


Definitions
Data: a body of facts; information
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/data

Information is knowledge gained through study, communication, research, instruction, etc.; factual data.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=Information

Knowledge is the body of truths or facts accumulated in the course of time. http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm