Data Information and Knowledge

Data, Information & Knowledge
By: Shanika Wijenayake

Data
• Data are raw facts and figures

that on their own have no
meaning
• These can be any

alphanumeric characters i.e.
text, numbers, symbols
Note the “are” bit above? What does this mean?

Data Examples
• Yes, Yes, No, Yes, No, Yes, No, Yes

• 42, 63, 96, 74, 56, 86
• 111192, 111234
• None of the above data sets have any

meaning until they are given a CONTEXT
and PROCESSED into a useable form
Data Into Information
• To achieve its aims the organisation will

need to process data into information.
• Data needs to be turned into meaningful
information and presented in its most
useful format
• Data must be processed in a context in
order to give it meaning
Information
• Data that has been processed within a

context to give it meaning
OR
• Data that has been processed into a form

that gives it meaning
Examples
• In the next 3
examples explain
how the data could
be processed to give
it meaning
• What information can

then be derived from
the data?
Suggested answers are given at the end of this presentation
Example 1
Yes, Yes, No, Yes, No,

Raw Data Yes, No, Yes, No, Yes,
Yes
Responses to the market

Context research question – “Would
you buy brand x at price y?”
Processing
Information ???
Example 2
Raw Data 42, 63, 96, 74, 56, 86
Jayne’s scores in the six

Context modules
Processing
Information ???
Example 3
111192, 111234
Raw Data
The previous and current

Context readings of a customer’s
gas meter
Processing
Information ???
Exam Tip
• You’ll nearly always be asked to give

examples of data processed into
information
• Don’t use:
• Traffic lights
• Dates of birth
Knowledge
• Knowledge is the understanding of rules

needed to interpret information
“…the capability of understanding the

relationship between pieces of
information and what to actually do
with the information”
Debbie Jones – www.teach-ict.com
Summary
Information = Data + Context + Meaning
Processing
Data – raw facts and figures
Information – data that has been processed (in a context) to give it meaning
Knowledge Examples
• Using the 3 previous examples:

• A Marketing Manager could use this information to decide
whether or not to raise or lower price y
• Jayne’s teacher could analyse the results to determine

whether it would be worth her re-sitting a module
• Looking at the pattern of the customer’s previous gas bills

may identify that the figure is abnormally low and they are
fiddling the gas meter!!!
Knowledge Workers
• Knowledge workers have specialist

knowledge that makes them “experts”
• Based on formal and informal rules they have
learned through training and experience
• Examples include doctors, managers,

librarians, scientists…
A Sequential Process of Knowing
Understanding supports the transition from one stage to the

next, it is not a separate level in its own right
Prof Elaine Ferneley

Rate of Motion towards
Knowledge
• What is this (note the point when you realise
what it is but do not say)
• I have a box.
• The box is 3' wide, 3' deep, and 6' high.
• The box is very heavy.
• When you move this box you usually find lots of dirt
underneath it.
• Junk has a real habit of collecting on top of this box.
• The box has a door on the front of it.
• When you open the door the light comes on.
• You usually find the box in the kitchen.
• It is colder inside the box than it is outside.
• There is a smaller compartment inside the box with
ice in it.
• When I open the box it has food in it.
Rate of Motion towards
Knowledge
• It was a refrigerator
• At some point in the sequence you
connected with the pattern and
understood
• When the pattern connected the
information became knowledge to you
• If presented in a different order you
would still have achieved knowledge but
perhaps at a different rate

Expert Systems
• Because many rules are based on
probabilities computers can be
programmed with “subject knowledge”
to mimic the role of experts
• One of the most common uses of

expert systems is in medicine
• The ONCOLOG system shown here
analyses patient data to provide a
reference for doctors, and help for the
choice, prescription and follow-up of
chemotherapy
Nonalgorithmic Nonprogrammable
(Heuristic)
W ISDOM
KNOWLEDGE
INFORMATION
Algorithmic DATA Programmable
From Data Processing to Knowledge-based Systems
Department of Marketing Management – University of Kelaniya – Sri Lanka

What is Knowledge
Management?
• “to have the right knowledge at the
right place, at the right time in the
right format”
• “the systematic management of
processes by which knowledge is
identified, created, gathered, shared
and applied”
• “business intelligence + collaboration
+ search engines + intelligent
agents.”
Why do we have to manage
knowledge?
• Marketplaces are increasingly competitive and
the rate of innovation is rising.
• Reductions in staffing create a need to replace
informal knowledge with formal methods.
• Competitive pressures reduce the size of the
work force that holds valuable business
knowledge.
• The amount of time available to experience and
acquire knowledge has diminished.
• Early retirements and increasing mobility of the
work force lead toloss of knowledge
Why manage data?
Managing Data in a Traditional File Environment
• File organization concepts

– Database: Group of related files
– File: Group of records of same type
– Record: Group of related fields
– Field: Group of characters as word(s) or number
• Describes an entity (person, place, thing on which we
store information)
• Attribute: Each characteristic, or quality, describing entity
– Example: Attributes DATE or GRADE belong to entity COURSE
THE DATA HIERARCHY
A computer system organizes

data in a hierarchy that starts
with the bit, which represents
either a 0 or a 1. Bits can be
grouped to form a byte to
represent one character,
number, or symbol. Bytes can
be grouped to form a field,
and related fields can be
grouped to form a record.
Related records can be
collected to form a file, and
related files can be organized
into a database.
FIGURE 6-1
Managing Data in a Traditional File Environment
• Problems with the traditional file

environment (files maintained separately by
different departments)
– Data redundancy:
• Presence of duplicate data in multiple files
– Data inconsistency:
• Same attribute has different values
– Program-data dependence:
• When changes in program requires changes to data
accessed by program
– Lack of flexibility
– Poor security
– Lack of data sharing and availability
Capabilities of Database Management Systems (DBMSs)
• Database
• Serves many applications by centralizing data and
controlling redundant data
• Database management system (DBMS)
• Interfaces between applications and physical data files
• Separates logical and physical views of data
• Solves problems of traditional file environment
• Controls redundancy
• Eliminates inconsistency
• Uncouples programs and data
• Enables organization to central manage data and data security
HUMAN RESOURCES DATABASE WITH MULTIPLE VIEWS
FIGURE 6-3 A single human resources database provides many different views of data, depending on the information
requirements of the user. Illustrated here are two possible views, one of interest to a benefits specialist and
one of interest to a member of the company’s payroll department.
Capabilities of Database Management Systems (DBMSs)
• Capabilities of database management systems

• Data definition capability: Specifies structure of database
content, used to create tables and define characteristics of
fields
• Data dictionary: Automated or manual file storing definitions of
data elements and their characteristics
• Data manipulation language: Used to add, change, delete,
retrieve data from database
• Structured Query Language (SQL)
• Microsoft Access user tools for generating SQL
• Many DBMS have report generation capabilities for creating
polished reports (Crystal Reports)
Tools for Improving Business Performance and Decision
Making
• Big data
• Massive sets of unstructured/semi-structured data
from Web traffic, social media, sensors, and so on
• Petabytes, exabytes of data
• Volumes too great for typical DBMS
• Can reveal more patterns and anomalies
Tools for Improving Business Performance and Decision
Making
• Business intelligence infrastructure
• Today includes an array of tools for separate systems,
and big data
• Contemporary tools:
• Data warehouses
• Data marts
• Hadoop
• In-memory computing
• Analytical platforms
CONTEMPORARY BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE INFRASTRUCTURE
A contemporary business
intelligence infrastructure
features capabilities and
tools to manage and
analyze large quantities and
different types of data from
multiple sources. Easy-to-
use query and
reporting tools for casual
business users and more
sophisticated analytical
toolsets for power users
are included.
FIGURE 6-12
Example:
Caesars Entertainment, formerly known as Harrah’s Entertainment,
is the largest gaming company in the world. It continually analyzes
data about its customers gathered when people play its slot
machines or use its casinos and hotels. The corporate marketing
department uses this information to build a detailed gambling
profile, based on a particular customer’s ongoing value to the
company. For instance, data mining tells Caesars the favorite
gaming experience of a regular customer at one of its riverboat
casinos, along with that person’s preferences for room
accommodations, restaurants, and entertainment. This information
guides management decisions about how to cultivate the most
profitable customers, encourage those customers to spend more,
and attract more customers with high revenue-generating
potential. Business intelligence improved Caesar’s profits so much
that it became the centerpiece of the firm’s business strategy, and
customer data are Caesar’s most valuable asset (O’Keefe, 2015).
• The discount broker Charles Schwab uses Attensity
Analyze software to analyze hundreds of thousands of
its customer interactions each month. The software
analyzes Schwab’s customer service notes, emails,
survey responses, and online discussions to discover
signs of dissatisfaction that might cause a customer to
stop using the company’s services. Attensity can
automatically identify the various voices customers use
to express their feedback (such as a positive, negative,
or conditional voice) to pinpoint a person’s intent to
buy, intent to leave, or reaction to a specific product or
marketing message. Schwab uses this information to
take corrective actions such as stepping up direct broker
communication with the customer and trying to resolve
the problems quickly that are making the customer
unhappy.
Tools for Improving Business Performance and
Decision Making
Managing Data Resources
• Ensuring data quality
• More than 25 percent of critical data in Fortune
1000 company databases are inaccurate or
incomplete
– Redundant data
– Inconsistent data
– Faulty input
• Before new database in place, need to:
• Identify and correct faulty data
• Establish better routines for editing data once database
in operation
Managing Data Resources
• Data quality audit:
• Structured survey of the accuracy and level of
completeness of the data in an information system
• Survey samples from data files, or
• Survey end users for perceptions of quality
• Data cleansing
• Software to detect and correct data that are incorrect,
incomplete, improperly formatted, or redundant
• Enforces consistency among different sets of data
from separate information systems

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Data, Information & Knowledge

By: Shanika Wijenayake

• Data are raw facts and figures

• These can be any

Note the “are” bit above? What does this mean?

• Yes, Yes, No, Yes, No, Yes, No, Yes

• None of the above data sets have any

• To achieve its aims the organisation will

• Data that has been processed within a

• Data that has been processed into a form

• What information can

Yes, Yes, No, Yes, No,

Responses to the market

Raw Data 42, 63, 96, 74, 56, 86

Jayne’s scores in the six

The previous and current

• You’ll nearly always be asked to give

• Knowledge is the understanding of rules

“…the capability of understanding the

Information = Data + Context + Meaning

• Using the 3 previous examples:

• Jayne’s teacher could analyse the results to determine

• Looking at the pattern of the customer’s previous gas bills

• Knowledge workers have specialist

• Examples include doctors, managers,

Understanding supports the transition from one stage to the

Prof Elaine Ferneley

Prof Elaine Ferneley

• One of the most common uses of

Algorithmic DATA Programmable

From Data Processing to Knowledge-based Systems

Department of Marketing Management – University of Kelaniya – Sri Lanka

• File organization concepts

A computer system organizes

• Problems with the traditional file

• Capabilities of database management systems

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