Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Nature of the Data
Data and information permeate the work of information systems profes-
sionals. Early ways of distinguishing between the two were simplistic:
was everything
that resided in a database. We have not come too far away from such a
viewpoint. For many, information is considered logical, and data is seen
as physical (persistent).
information
referred to the contents of a report, while
data
Derived Data
Some users do not distinguish between data and information, treating data
and information as two terms for the same thing. Many pieces of data
appear to convey some information anyway. When given a piece of data,
there is information right there. If one knows a person's date of birth,
one believes one is getting the person's age as well. Some will disagree
with that saying that the date of birth is only the data, while the age of
the person is information, which is derived from the date of birth. The
database designer would like to store the data, the person's date of birth,
and not the age because the latter can (and should) be “derived” by the
application. There is a derivation (processing) step that converts data to
information. In this example, the derivation is so obvious and simple that
this “processing step” can be taken for granted.
But why should one stop with a simple transformation? Some may say
that the age (in the above example) is also data, and not information. It
becomes information only if there is some value to that derivation — for
example, if it is used to decide whether alcohol can be sold to a customer
at a store, or to determine whether a person is eligible for social security
benefits. Under this approach, everything remains data until it is put to
use, and only at that point can it be called information. Only actionable
data is information. Of course there is a subjective element as to what
becomes actionable when information, like beauty, is in the eye of the
beholder.
Internal versus External
By a corollary argument, in data processing terms, every transformation
step is not a conversion of data to information. Although the data is
moving toward its information delivery objective, it is unlikely of value
or interest to someone outside that processing boundary. If the interme-
diate data or result is valuable to those monitoring the process, then it
must be treated as internal information. System designers need to clearly
