What is information?

Date: 26 October 2021

Category: Product News

Today I would like to return to the subject of the first post in #owlreports series - What is information?

The inspiration for this is a response from Rev Adrian Holdstock to one of my posts here. As an aside I have 

enjoyed working with Adrian applying our combined business experience in non-commercial settings.    

Adrian's response included ".... going from from data to information, from information to knowledge, and from 

knowledge to wisdom."

This describes the profitable use of data rather more succinctly than my What is Information article. 

In practical terms, what is Wisdom, and how is Wisdom achieved from Data?

A dictionary definition of Wisdom is "knowledge of what is true or right with just judgement as to action".

Our organisations have plenty of data. As written before, creating Information is a matter of: selecting 

the right data; collating, combining and processing; formatting clearly and meaningfully.  

For that information to become knowledge it has to get to the right people, at the right time and be sufficiently 

good information for them to want to investigate it. "Sufficiently good" means presentation as well as content.  

Wise Eyes is a great tool for creating information from data and distributing it.  But the final step, to Wisdom,

 is beyond Wise Eyes or any other reporting tool.  

As Adrian gave up his business career to become a priest, let us look to the bible for clues.  The first letter of 

James, chapter 3 verse 13: "Who is wise and understanding among you?  Let him show it by his good life, by 

deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom."

Interpreting the information into knowledge that is true or right (dictionary definition) is a matter of skill and just 

judgement. Hence the need to deliver information to the right people at the right time.

For True Knowledge to become Wisdom it must be used.  Decisions made, ideas communicated. 

"let him show it ..... by deeds done" (1 James).