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Difference Between Data and Information

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Difference between data and information Comparison chart EMBED THIS CHART |Improve this chart |Data |Information | |Meaning: |Data is raw, unorganized facts that need to |When data is processed, organized, structured| | |be processed. Data can be something simple |or presented in a given context so as to make| | |and seemingly random and useless until it is |it useful, it is called Information. | | |organized. | | |Example: |Each student's test score …show more content…

In many ways, data can be thought of as a description of the World. We can perceive this data with our senses, and then the brain can process this. Human beings have used data as long as we’ve existed to form knowledge of the world. Until we started using information, all we could use was data directly. If you wanted to know how tall I was, you would have to come and look at me. Our knowledge was limited by our direct experiences. [pic]Information Information allows us to expand our knowledge beyond the range of our senses. We can capture data in information, then move it about so that other people can access it at different times. Here is a simple analogy for you. If I take a picture of you, the photograph is information. But what you look like is data. I can move the photo of you around, send it to other people via e-mail etc. However, I’m not actually moving you around – or what you look like. I’m simply allowing other people who can’t directly see you from where they are to know what you look like. If I lose or destroy the photo, this doesn’t change how you look. So, in the case of the lost tax records, the CDs were information. The information was lost, but the data wasn’t. Mrs Jones still lives at 14 Whitewater road, and she was still born on 15th August 1971. The Infogineering Model (below) explains how these interact… [pic] Why does it matter that people mix them up? When people confuse data with

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