The words data and information are often used interchangeably. They are not, however, truly synonymous.
Data has no intrinsic reality. Data-symbols are artificial, agreed upon convention. Sorting something ... alphabetizing it ... only makes sense if we all agree that the alphabet follows the arbitrary sequence ABC to XYZ. Database access schemes are based on symbol manipulation. Most of what we call information technology is really agreed upon but essentially 'meaningless' (non-informational) symbol manipulation. Information is wholly about intrinsic reality. Information-meaning transcends symbology, requiring different knowledge, mind-sets, and skills than symbol manipulation. When creating traditional systems, information skills and perspectives are omitted. The typical IT practitioner knows very little about organizing meaning. Worse, they don't know what they don't know. What they presume to know derives from casual, haphazard intuition, not studied knowledge. Despite replacing the term 'data processing' with 'information management,' in practice IT still is and always has been data processing ... symbol management. The change of term only provides an illusion that we are doing something we in fact are not doing and never have. |