Choices in How We Make Representations - A Primer of GIS: Fundamental Geographic and Cartographic Concepts - page 36

In-Depth When Does Data Become
Information?
This question demands an answer that is straightforward but the issues at hand
(representation, use, knowledge, meaning) are anything but clear. The
resources identified in this chapter point to relevant literature. For simplicity's
sake, you can say that information is data that means something . In other words,
information makes sense, somehow.
Data is what is stored based on observations and measurements. Perhaps
when the data is collected it means something, but when it is stored in a data-
base and eventually used by other people who weren't involved in its collec-
tion, it may mean nothing at all. To make data “mean something,” it has to be
associated with a context—for example, the types of measurements, the rules
used for making observations, and the possible uses of the data. With the
Internet and online data clearinghouses, this has become commonplace.
Turning data into information is a process, beyond the summation of
measurement and data collection issues. Meaning is more than the sum of
attributes collected in the data, but arises in consideration of relationships in
the data and relationships to other data and the context (broadly defined).
Again, information has some meaning, but data only holds the potential of
gaining meaning.
If you take geographic information to another place or context, most peo-
ple will still call it information because of its meaning potential. This often
gets confusing. To be specific, at least to summarize the discussion here, data
can be (and often is) called information, but unless it has some meaning, it has
reverted to the status of data.
measurements and observations. Some relationships can be determined
using measurements and observations. Remember that geographic represen-
tations represent selected aspects of things and events, which means far
more than merely “storing” the data. The cartographic representations that
follow provide ways to show the relationships. After all, most maps don't
only show us just things or events, they show us how things affect each other
or can be related.
Types of Measurement
Measurements have to be stored as values to be information. Water height
is stored as an interval value because it is related to a defined starting ele-
vation of 0, which in this case is taken from the elevation reference. The
storage of measurements is a key issue for creating geographic informa-
tion and relies on the types of measurement developed by Stanley Smith
Stevens.