Wjec A Level I.C.T - Data Information & Knowledge

Data consists of raw facts and figures. Data is meaningless because they lack relevance. This means that data has no use at the moment. Data can be put into categories of :

• Numbers
• words
• images
• sound

Information is data that has been processed or data with a context for example sorting the data by giving it a meaning/ Organised in some way.

Knowledge is derived from information by applying a rule to it. Once a rule has been applied to the information. Decisions can then be made.

Examples:

Here is a list of numbers: 4.31, 4.18, 4.29, 4.32, 4.19 and 4.21 these numbers have no meaning therefore you don't know the context of the data and therefore it doesn't have any meaning.

if how ever we then know that the data is race times 4.31, 4.18, 4.29, 4.32, 4.19 and 4.21 minuts. We are then applying a context to it.  therefore the data then becomes information.  Another way to turn the data into information would be to find the fastest time within the data.

Knowledge is then applying a rule to the information. To do this the rule then would be that the fastest runner wins the race.

there are many ways in which data can arise, these consist of:

• from automatic measurment of enviromental quantities
• from the results of an experiment
• from a transaction
• from a survey
• from the output of a management information system.