Conceptual approaches for defining data, information, and knowledge

Abstract

The field of Information Science is constantly changing. Therefore, information scientists are required to regularly review-and if necessary-redefine its fundamental building blocks. This article is one of a group of four articles, which resulted from a Critical Delphi study conducted in 2003-2005. The study, "Knowledge Map of Information Science," was aimed at exploring the foundations of information science. The international panel was composed of 57 leading scholars from 16 countries, who represent (almost) all the major subfields and important aspects of the field. This particular article documents 130 definitions of data, information, and knowledge formulated by 45 scholars, and maps the major conceptual approaches for defining these three key concepts.

Developing collaborative best practices for digital humanities data collection: A case study

“…One method of understanding the variety of data available to humanists is to recognize the different kinds of data humanities research can produce. For example, Research Data Canada refers to the "Knowledge Map of Information Studies" study, which, among other things, collected 130 definitions of data formulated by forty-five scholars (Zins 2007). Within it, all data, regardless of format or medium, are recognized.…”

Mind the Gap: Big Data vs. Interoperability and Reproducibility of Science

“…3 The DIKW pattern generated by understanding data and working out relations among them and with physical and/or social phenomena; while, understanding information and working out valuable patterns generates knowledge. GEOSS is required to gradually implement the DIKW (Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom) model (Zins 2007), as depicted in Fig. 3.…”

Basic Concepts on Systems of Systems

“…According to [16], p. 62 a good GPSDO has deviated from GPS time by less than 100 μsec during the loss of GPS input of one week. As long as the GPS is operating and its input is available, a GPSDO can provide an accuracy of the global time of better than 100 nsec.…”

“…How is information related to data? After a thorough investigation of the literature about the fundamental concepts data and information it is concluded, that these terms are not well-defined in the domain of information science-see also the paper by C. Zins who asked a number of computer scientists about their meaning associated with the terms data-informationknowledge and published the divergent views reported to him in [16]. In this Section we will elaborate on the concepts of data and information along the lines of reasoning expressed in [17].…”