Information and Data are two terms that are often confused. There are different schools of thought competing to try to define these concepts and it creates confusion.
Here is Prime Arch's definition of the terms:
Prime Arch's starting point is the definitions that the National Encyclopedia (NE) has established
NE
Information
information (Latin informaʹtio, from infoʹrmo 'educate', 'teach', actually 'give form to something'), general designation for the meaningful content that is transmitted during communication in various forms. A strict line between information and knowledge is difficult to draw. Information means that someone becomes aware of something ("becomes informed"). It can be seen as a necessary, but not sufficient condition for knowledge in the sense of deeper insight.
Nationalencyklopedin, information. http://www.ne.se/uppslagsverk/encyklopedi/lång/information
Data
data (Latin, plural of daʹtum 'given', 'gift'; in plural also: 'expenses'), representation of facts, concepts or instructions in a form suitable for transmission, interpretation or processing by humans or machines.
Nationalencyklopedin, data. http://www.ne.se/uppslagsverk/encyklopedi/lång/data
NE.se states also describes a relationship between Information and Data:
Information, on the other hand, refers to the meaning of the data, which presupposes a recipient with the ability to interpret the data.
NE.se also describes that Information has a relationship with Knowledge, i.e. a deeper insight.
The DIKW model
Precisely the difference between Information and Knowledge has been taken up by several sources and this can be illustrated by the DIKW pyramid:
In this context, Data is defined as single points completely without context, while Information interprets data and types it. Knowledge is linked Information and Wisdom is the highest level where you draw conclusions about the future and new situations. This reasoning is illustrated by the following image:
Prime Arch has made a selection of important sources and interpreted these into a model in two dimensions.
That something lacks context does not mean that it is data, possibly you can call it a data point. It just means that it lacks context and thus has less explanatory value if you don't know the context. What determines whether it is Data or Information is instead whether it is in realized form for use in information systems, or whether it is facts that are of importance to someone, often in connection with communication.
Example
Lisa is a person who is interested in history. She often goes to the library and borrows books.
This is Information. It is a descriptive text that describes the facts and is written to inform about Lisa.
The following brief facts are also information:
"My name is Lisa".
Lisa has a library card:
- Card number: 123456
- Expiry date: 2024-10-31
- Borrower: Lisa Andersson
This is Data. It is information in realized form in an information system.
In the loan system, her loans are listed with the date of loan and return as well as the book ID.
This too is Data
When you run the data in the LOAN and BOOK data tables together, you can see that Lisa's interest seems to shift from Antiquity to the Roman Empire, as more and more books she has borrowed recently are about the Roman Empire, while previous book loans are about Antiquity.
This is Knowledge. By connecting several data points and different contexts, you can see patterns.
In a deeper analysis, it can be seen that Lisa has visited the library regularly once a week, on Wednesdays, with the exception of December 24th and two weeks in July. In a predictive analysis, it is possible to predict that Lisa will visit the library on future Wednesdays and go to the historical literature section, except when she is away or busy with other things.
This is Wisdom. We have combined data from various sources of knowledge and made predictions about the future.
The conclusion is that it is the context and how interconnected information/data is that makes it possible to reach knowledge and wisdom.
Prime Arch
In Prime Arch, this is illustrated with the Structured/Unstructured dimension.
Important to remember that this dimension is completely separate from Information/Data.