It’s been almost 12 years since I started using computers and internet. I still remember, the first web page I tried to open, Yahoo.com, and it took about an hour to do so. The first thought came to my mind that day was “oh god! This is not my cup of tea”. It took a week for me to create my first email account. However, I didn’t want to give up and gradually I became a frequent visitor of the Internet Café at BTM Layout in Bangalore, getting close to emails and online chats. Since then I started using computers and internets more frequently and moreover my graduation in computer applications and nature of my profession made computers an essential part of life.
Office application, email, instant messaging, social networking and online movies are more or less like a habit to me. However the one specific application or area which I am yet to try is Blogs and blogging. Even though I tried to read some blogs in past, I couldn’t build an interest for it. And now I am here to write my first blog ever, on Knowledge and Knowledge Management.
Data, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom
Prior to knowing what is knowledge and knowledge management, I feel it is better to distinguish between data, information, knowledge and wisdom. Moreover I have faced the same question in a couple of my job interviews in India; I personally feel this is one of the favorite questions of many interviewers. Some of the interesting descriptions I found about data, information, knowledge and wisdom are as follows.
Data: According to Laudon and Laudon (2007), data are unprocessed or raw facts which represent any events or entities in an organization or the environment, before they are organized and arranged into a form that people can effectively understand and use. Bellinger et.al (2004) argues that data is raw and it simply exists with no significance and meaning beyond its existence. A more specific description of data was given by Firestone and McElroy (2003) as, an observable, measurable or calculable attribute value is called a datum and data are more than one datum.
Information: The first definition I ever learned about information is that ‘information is processed data’. This is my spontaneous answer to the question “What is Information?” Moreover when I attended training conducted by BSI on ISO 27001 standards I learned that information is an asset and needs to be suitably protected. Laudon and Laudon (2007) describe information as data that have been shaped into a form that is meaningful and useful to humans. According to Firestone and McElroy (2003), information is data plus conceptual commitments and interpretations. It is data extracted, filtered or formatted in some way.
Knowledge: Knowledge is basically what a person knows to do with the information provided. Knowledge is a subset of information that has been extracted, filtered, or formatted in a very special way. More specifically, knowledge is a set of information that has been subjected to and passed tests and evaluations in order to eliminate errors and to seek the truth (Firestone and McElroy 2003). For e.g. common sense knowledge is information that has been validated by common sense experience. According to Grey (2002) knowledge is the full utilization of information and data, coupled with the potential of people's skills, competencies, ideas, intuitions, commitments and motivations.
Wisdom: "Knowledge is to know that tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not trying to put it in a fruit salad". Once I argued with my friend on Facebook when she posted this quote on her wall. My arguments were
a. Tomato is not a fruit, it’s a vegetable
b. There is no much difference between Knowledge and Wisdom.
The argument continued for about two weeks. However when I researched about the subject I came to know that I need to change my views on knowledge and wisdom. Wisdom involves when, where and how to apply knowledge. Laudon and Laudon (2007) describe wisdom as a thought to be the collective and individual experience of applying knowledge to the solution of a problem. Wisdom has a more active component than data, information, or knowledge. It is the application of knowledge to arrive at practical and wise decisions in certain situations.
But I still believe that Tomato is a vegetable…
References
Bellinger, G., Castro, D., and Mills, A., (2004), “Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom”, Available : http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm, Accessed : 18/01/2010
Firestone, J.M., and McElroy, M.W., (2003), Key Issues in the New Knowledge Management, KMCI Press, USA, ISBN : 0750676558
Grey, D., (2002), “What is Knowledge Management”, Available: http://www.km-forum.org/what_is.htm Accessed: 19/01/2010
Laudon, J.P. and Laudon, K.C., (2007) Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm, 10th Edition, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, USA, ISBN-10: 0132337746
