Knowledge, Information and Data (K.I.D.)

The most featured terms in KM are Knowledge, Information and Data. These terms all have to do with the cycle or science of information and are often misinterpreted.

A comparative analysis carried out by Stenmark, D. (2002) indicates that though it has been established that data, information and knowledge are not the same, there still isn’t a very clear line between information and knowledge.

The following definitions of K.I.D. make sense to me:

Data is the representation of facts, concepts, or instructions in a formalized manner which is suitable for interpretation, or processing. It is any representation such as quantities or characters to which meaning is or MIGHT be assigned. Telecommunications’ (1996)

Information is defined by Wikipedia (2009) as data that has been processed into a format that is understandable by its intended audience

Knowledge is information in action or information transformed into the capability for effective action. Taking action and building experience turns information into knowledge. R.G. Smith (2008)

My understanding
In applying these definitions to an organisation, I would use my bank as illustration.

At the end of each day, there is a batch print-out which is a long sheet of paper containing transaction codes, posting tellers, account numbers, amounts posted etc,. This document is data to a relationship manager because, it is a representation of facts and meaning has not been assigned to it; however, there is the ability to assign meaning to it.

When this data categorised by account managers, a manager is then able to make meaning of the data because he can now see all accounts under him and see amounts withdrawn and deposited in a day. This meaningful data has now become Information because it is now understandable by the recipient (the client manager)

An analysis of this information may indicate that deposits reduced drastically from the previous day. Based on this information, the manager would put measures in place to find out the reason and take decisive action if need be. This is Knowledge.

Knowledge vs Information vs Data
The most common view of the relationship between these terms by Knowledge management scholars is that a linear relationship exists which starts with Data leading to Information and information to Knowledge (Nissen, 2000; Davenport and Prusak, 1998).

However, contrary views exist which argue that Knowledge is a requirement for data and information and thus the relationship between data, information and knowledge is actually interwoven in a complicated manner and therefore is more complicated than the linear representation (Tuomi, I., 1999)

The question is; Is the relationship between data, information and Knowledge that simple?

I do agree that Data CAN produce information, and Information CAN produce Knowledge. I also agree with Tuomi (1999) and others in his school that Knowledge is required to distinguish data from information in the first place. After all, several definitions of knowledge indicate that it resides within the mind of someone. This means that knowledge should be present first even before data and information.

Based on this, neither a linear or cyclic relationship may be accurate to express the relationship between KID. An interesting viewpoint on the hierarchy of knowledge is by Hicks R.C, Dattero R and Galup S.D (2006) who came up with the five tiers of knowledge to include both personal knowledge(knowledge contained in the mind of one person) and codified knowledge (knowledge that has been captured and may be shared) knowledge.

My viewpoint
Using the bank again as an Organisation for illustration, a relationship manager knows the difference between data and information because he has acquired knowledge to do so. This knowledge could be from what he’s been taught or from his experiences. This same manager, from his knowledge can produce facts which can be termed as data or meaningful data which can prove to be information for some. However, if knowledge were absent, none of it would be possible.

Therefore, knowledge is the most important of these three terms.

References:
Davenport, T. and Prusak, L. (1998), Working Knowledge, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA

Hicks, R. C., Dattero R. and Galup S.D., 2006 The five-tier knowledge management hierarchy, Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 19-31

Nissen, M.E. (2000), An extended model of knowledge-flow dynamics, Communications of the
Association for Information Systems, Vol. 8, pp. 251-66

Stenmark, D. 2002 Information vs. Knowledge: The Role of intranets in Knowledge Management, Proceedings of the 35th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. IEEE.

Tuomi, I. 1999, Data is More Than Knowledge: Implications of the Reversed Knowledge Hierarchy for Knowledge Management and Organizational Memory, Journal of Management Information Systems, Vol. 16, No.3, 1999, pp. 107-121

Online references;
Telecommunications (1996): Glossary of Telecommunication Terms, Federal Standard 1037c, Available online: http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/fs-1037/ [accessed January 25, 2009]

Wikipedia (2009) Available online: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/data, [accessed February 2, 2009]

R.G. Smith and Associates (2008) Resources, Available Online: http://www.rgsmithassociates.com/Glossary.htm, [accessed January 26, 2009]