The "KID" Kit

The terms knowledge information and data have all been interpreted in as many ways as the number of people who have researched upon it. The ‘KID’ as they say is too complex to understand simply because of the many similarities between them. A school of thought says that it is not at all important to consider the differences between them. Infact, some scholars say that the whole concept of knowledge management is “nonsense” (T.D.Wilson, 2002). In my opinion, a general know-how of what is what should be known but the kind of impetus the subject is getting is way too much (of course for my liking). Data, information and knowledge are subsets of each other in my opinion. Each gives rise to the other. Scholars classify these as the subsets of human mind with two additional terms understanding and wisdom (Russel Ackoff, 1989). The more one goes on to think the more terms he comes to know. For instance, a little research would get you data, some more could give you information; brainstorming sessions can give you knowledge and experience gives you wisdom. Therefore, i feel the more one goes deep in the topic, the more one gets to know.

Data in simplest terms is a statement with “no relevance”. It is a fact or a statement which is true to a particular context. Information is when this data is applied to a particular context and becomes useful for a set of people. When information is applied to a particular context and benefited from, then it becomes knowledge.

Real world:

Let us try and apply this context in the real world. Consider a retail organization like Tesco. Customers in Tesco are constantly monitored in their purchase of products. This is done through their club cards. Now, the whole set of customers purchasing products would be the data for the company. Acting upon that data to find out similarities in product purchase for finding the preference to a particular product for a particular customer would become information.

Now, this information when acted upon or processed in some manner would become knowledge. For example, if a customer regularly buys eggs, then a short discount on the product would be issued for that customer, or some substitute product would be advertised to him. Now without a general know-how of what all to distribute, the company would not know what to advertise. This is the closest example I could sight in the real world which would distinguish between the three terms. This in itself looks confusing and in a way tells us the story. The fact is that there is very little distinction between the terms and when rightfully used to benefit the organization, it does not matter whether it is data, information or knowledge that helped the company.

References:

1: T.D.Wilson, 2002- The nonsense of 'knowledge management'

Information Research, Vol. 8 No. 1, October 2002

2: Russel Ackoff, 1989- "From Data to Wisdom", Journal of Applies Systems Analysis, Volume 16, 1989 p 3-9.