Defining Knowledge, Information, Data
Midterms Week 1: Data, Information, Knowledge, Expertise
Before one can begin to talk about knowledge management (KM), one must start by
clearly defining the meaning of the word "knowledge". It is important to understand what
constitutes knowledge and what falls under the category of information or data.
Unfortunately, this is a more difficult task than may be apparent at first. Within everyday
language, within specific fields, and even within the same disciplines, the word
"knowledge" often takes on a variety of meanings.
Perspectives on Knowledge, Information, Data
In everyday language we use knowledge all the time. Sometimes we mean know-how,
while other times we are talking about wisdom. On many occasions we even use it to refer
to information. Part of the difficulty of defining knowledge arises from its relationship to
two other concepts, namely data and information. These two terms are often regarded as
lower denominations of knowledge, but the exact relationship varies greatly from one
example to another.
Within more technologically oriented disciplines- particularly involving information
systems- knowledge is often treated very similarly to information. It is seen as something
one can codify and transmit, and where IT plays a pivotal role in knowledge sharing. For
instance, the encyclopedia at [Link] defines it as: "information that has a
purpose or use."
This kind of simplistic view of knowledge was particularly widespread during the 90s
when information technology became increasingly more common. However even today,
some KM systems are little more than information management systems using knowledge
as a virtual synonym for information.
To illustrate, Theirauf (1999) defines the three components as follows: data is the lowest
point, an unstructured collection of facts and figures; information is the next level, and it
is regarded as structured data; finally knowledge is defined as "information about
information".
However, increasingly one sees definitions that treat knowledge as a more complex and
personal concept that incorporate more than just information. The Longman online
dictionary has one definition that begins to approach the way that knowledge is usually
regarded within KM. It states "the information, skills, and understanding that you have
gained through learning or experience." Although still closely associated with information,
concepts like skills, understanding, and experience begin to surface.
Data: Facts and figures which relay something specific, but which are not organized in
any way and which provide no further information regarding patterns, context, etc. I will
use the definition for data presented by Thierauf (1999): "unstructured facts and figures
that have the least impact on the typical manager."
∙ Data in its own way known as a collection of discrete objects, facts or events out of
context. Data has no reference to space or time. In some advance way we can say
collection of some objects or results of some process are known as data. It is also
known as unprocessed information. Inside the spread sheet of excel in each cell we
store data, on its own it does not give any information. When we store the sells
figure of the company in a spread sheet we call it as data. We may do some
categorization on the data to get meaning full output from it.
Information: For data to become information, it must be contextualized, categorized,
calculated and condensed (Davenport & Prusak 2000). Information thus paints a bigger
picture; it is data with relevance and purpose (Bali et al 2009). It may convey a trend in
the environment, or perhaps indicate a pattern of sales for a given period of time.
Essentially information is found "in answers to questions that begin with such words as
who, what, where, when, and how many" (Ackoff 1999).
IT is usually invaluable in the capacity of turning data into information, particularly in
larger firms that generate large amounts of data across multiple departments and functions.
The human brain is mainly needed to assist in contextualization.
∙ The processed data is known as information. From a collection of data we can derive
meaningful information (conclusion). We can't call it information if we are not
getting any result (conclusion) out of our data. The sells figure stored in a spread
sheet on its own can't give any conclusion but on observation or by statistical tools
we can see that north region, the sells are better than southern region. This is the
information we get out of the sells data.
After Data and information Knowledge is in the next stage of evolution. When we apply
our experience, jurisdiction or judgment to the information we get knowledge. Knowledge
is the result of learning. Knowledge is the internalization of information, data, and
experience. In our sells data we can conclude that more marketing efforts or promotions
are required in south than in north to improve the sells in southern region. Knowledge is
divided into two types, tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge. Organization learning
depends on knowledge creation process which is explained in SECI (Socialization,
Externalization, combination, Internalization) cycle.
Knowledge: Knowledge is closely linked to doing and implies know-how and
understanding. The knowledge possessed by each individual is a product of his
experience, and encompasses the norms by which he evaluates new inputs from his
surroundings (Davenport & Prusak 2000). I will use the definition presented by Gamble
and Blackwell (2001), based closely on a previous definition by Davenport & Prusak:
"Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, expert
insight, and grounded intuition that provides an environment and framework for
evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information. It originates and is
applied in the mind of the knowers. In organizations it often becomes embedded not only
in documents or repositories, but also in organizational routines, practices and norms."
Expertise is special skill or knowledge that is acquired by training, study, or practice.
The 13 Types of Knowledge
A Posteriori Knowledge
This knowledge that we get directly from our own personal experiences. A
Posteriori is Latin for ‘that which comes after’. So, when we talk about posteriori
knowledge, we are talking about knowledge that comes after we have had some
experiences. It is knowledge that is a result of our own experiences.
Some types of knowledge are not experiential. Theoretical, abstract and
mathematical knowledge, for example, are derived from abstract or logical
reasoning rather than direct observation.
Examples
In Philosophy: Philosophers such as the existentialists and humanists tend to believe that
posteriori knowledge is superior to theoretical knowledge. They reject the idea of a God or
higher power because it cannot be observed in the real world. Others may disagree and
argue that they have posteriori experiences of God every day of their lives when they see
the beautiful world God created for them.
In Education: Many social constructivist theorists believe that posteriori knowledge is
excellent for learning because it helps students develop neural pathways. Learning by
doing, experiencing and discovering is also popular in 21st Century educational
approaches such as phenomenon based learning, problem posing education and play
based learning.
A Priori Knowledge
This is the opposite of posteriori knowledge. It is knowledge and facts that exist
without the need to experience it. You can come to your conclusions through reason
alone.
An example is: 1 + 1 = 2. You can figure this out without actually getting two separate
things and placing them in front of your eyes to count them. You use your A Priori
knowledge of mathematical principles to figure it out.
Examples:
In Philosophy: A Priori means ‘that which comes before’ in Latin. It was a term
commonly used by philosophers including Emanuel Kant in Critique of Pure Reason to
come to philosophical conclusions. Many philosophers believe A Priori knowledge is a
superior form of knowledge because it is objective and can be derived independently,
without context or bias.
In Science, Architecture and Engineering: Many great scientific, architectural and
engineering feats have been achieved through A Priori knowledge. For example, the
engineer is able to order a multi-million dollar bridge to be constructed and be confident
that it will withhold the weight of trucks and cars because she has used her A Priori
knowledge of physics to guarantee the bridge will hold its weight.
Dispersed or Distributed Knowledge
Dispersed knowledge is knowledge that no single person has the capacity to see in
its entirety. The knowledge is dispersed or spread out among many different people.
If we want to bring a whole lot of knowledge together to achieve something great,
we need to get a team of experts on different topics together to input their
knowledge to achieve our goals.
Examples:
In Surgery. Your surgeon may be the expert in fixing hearts, but he could not conduct the
surgery without other specialists and anesthesiologists who have knowledge and
perspectives that the surgeon is not trained in.
Running a Business. When a small business reaches a certain size, the business owner
realizes they can’t possibly do all the tasks by themselves. They aren’t an expert in
accounting, but the accounts need to be kept. They aren’t an expert in marketing, but there
are marketing experts out there. So, they employ an accountant and a marketer. The
business flourishes, despite no one person in the business having all the diverse skills and
knowledge sets required to run the business on their own.
Google Search. It is said that the google search algorithm which decides who will rank
number 1 in a google search is not known and understood by one single person alone. So
many people have contributed to it over time that different people know different features
of how it works, but no one has all the knowledge about it in their brain alone.
Domain or Expert Knowledge
Domain knowledge is deep knowledge about a particular domain or discipline. We
might also call it expert knowledge. A person with domain knowledge is incredibly
knowledgeable within their discipline but may just have general knowledge about
everything else.
Examples:
University Education. After compulsory education ends, many people continue studying
at university. When we go to university, we get the opportunity to specialize in a specific
domain: maybe it’s Computer Sciences, Communication Studies, or Teaching. This is even
more the case at postgraduate level. Many such university degrees are all about
developing specific domain knowledge rather than broad generalized knowledge (with the
possible exception of liberal arts degrees).
Industrial Revolution. Henry Ford revolutionized manufacturing by creating the factory
line based on domain knowledge theory. Instead of getting five people to build five
different cars, he got a bunch of different experts to work on each. One person was an
expert on wheels, another on engines, and another on the body. By developing expertise,
these people became very efficient at building their part of the car, and the cars were
manufactured at a much faster rate.
Empirical Knowledge
Empirical knowledge is knowledge obtained through the senses. It is distinct from
A Posteriori knowledge because empirical knowledge must be experienced through
the senses alone. It cannot be a metaphysical, reflective, dream or other a posteriori
experience.
Here is a quick summary of that distinction:
Posteriori knowledge: knowledge derived from any experience.
Empirical knowledge: knowledge derived from experience observable by the senses.
Examples:
Research. Most research (both qualitative and quantitative) is empirical. If you read a
piece of research in a journal article, it will report on something that was observed, such
as answers to interviews or research participants’ responses to an exam.
Encoded Knowledge
Encoded knowledge is knowledge that has been recorded in symbolic codes. This
makes the knowledge easily retrievable by people who know how to (or have tools
that help them) decode that knowledge at a later date. We might also call it ‘stored’
knowledge.
Examples:
Written Language. Written English is the code of our language. We encode knowledge
when we write it down and anyone who can read our ‘code’ (i.e. anyone who can read in
English) can then decode it at a later date.
Road Signs. We have also created generalizable codes in our road signs. Red octagon
means ‘stop’, green light means ‘go’, etc.
The Rosetta Stone. In 1799, archaeologists discovered the Rosetta Stone. It is a stone that
dates back to 196BC and contains inscriptions written in Egyptian hieroglyphics, ancient
Greek and Egyptian demotic scripts. Because all three inscriptions were of the same
information in different languages, the stone helped scientists to decipher Egyptian
hieroglyphics. This unlocked access to all other Egyptian texts written in hieroglyphics
and allowed us to decode the encoded knowledge of the Egyptians.
Digital Data. Knowledge can be encoded into binary data that is stored on digital devices
such as cloud computers and USB drives. In order to decode the knowledge, computer
software is required to turn those binary 1s and 0s back into a code we can understand,
such as written words, spoken words, or images.
Tacit Knowledge
Tacit knowledge is knowledge that you have but cannot express. A person with tacit
knowledge has usually had that knowledge for so long that they cannot remember
how they learned it or why it is true. They are simply aware that it is useful,
accurate knowledge that exists in their mind.
Examples:
Practitioner Knowledge. Many expert practitioners know how to do things out of
intuition. An expert vet knows how to connect with a horse and settle its nerves but may
be unable to explain how they can develop that relationship so quickly. An expert teacher
may be able to diffuse a troublesome situation in a classroom but not really be able to
explain to their apprentice teacher just how they did it.
Digital Natives. Digital natives are children who have grown up around computers their
whole lives. They will get a new piece of software and almost intuitively know how to
manipulate it and find hidden features (much faster than their parents could!). When
asked, the digital native may not be able to tell you why they knew a feature was under a
certain drop-down menu: for them, it just seemed obvious to look there.
Emotional Intelligence. People who have high emotional intelligence know how to
communicate with people to make them feel welcomed and comforted. They know how to
network and make friends quickly. However, they may struggle to explain quite how they
do it to their friends.
Explicit Knowledge
Explicit knowledge is the opposite of tacit knowledge. It is knowledge that can be
easily explained to outsiders. It is knowledge that we could quickly codify into
words and express to others.
User Guides and Manuals. A user guide will walk someone through how to use a
product in a step-by-step explicit way.
Recipes. Similarly, a recipe may spell out how to do things one after the other.
Guided Teaching Practice. This is a teaching strategy that involves guiding students
through a process in a methodological way. Once the student has been explicitly modelled
the knowledge, the teacher steps back and lets the student practice applying their new
knowledge without support.
Metaknowledge
Metaknowledge is knowledge about knowledge. Anything we know about
knowledge (such as how it works, how to classify it, how we lose it, how to gain it)
is considered metaknowledge. Everything on this article is metaknowledge: its
information about knowledge.
Examples:
Taxonomies. A taxonomy is a model for classifying things. A famous taxonomy of
knowledge is Bloom’s Taxonomy, which outlines different depths and levels of knowledge
that people have. Another type of knowledge taxonomy is Biggs’s SOLO taxonomy.
Imperative (Or Procedural) Knowledge
Imperative knowledge is ‘knowing how’. It is knowledge about how to carry out
tasks effectively. This may involve specific steps or a general understanding of the
process by which something gets achieved. Some people hold the secrets to their
imperative knowledge close to their chest, such as when a grandmother passes
down a family recipe to her granddaughter.
Examples:
Standard Operating Procedures in Business. Most large companies of project managers
who set out standard operating procedures. These are the procedures that people must
follow in order to achieve the goals of the business.
Secret Recipes. The famous KFC 11 herbs and spices are said to generate their specific
‘KFC flavor’ from the procedures in which they are cooked. This procedural knowledge is
highly classified and the intellectual property of KFC.
Descriptive Knowledge
Also known as propositional knowledge, descriptive knowledge is ‘knowing that’
something is true (as opposed to ‘knowing how’ something should be done).
Descriptive knowledge can be learned through memorization and does not require
significant practical experience in the field. By contrast, imperative (‘knowing
how’) knowledge usually requires practical skill in a task.
Examples:
In Education. 20th Century teaching pedagogies like behaviorism focused exclusively on
descriptive knowledge. Students learned facts through passive learning, without being
given the opportunity to apply them to the real world.
Situated Knowledge
Situated knowledge is knowledge that emerges out of a specific context, community
or culture. It is knowledge that is specific to that situation and is hard to understand
from outside of that perspective. All of us have situated cultural knowledge. This is
the knowledge that we’ve inherited from our cultures. Others might have different
knowledge that has grown from different cultures and you may find it hard to
understand their knowledge from your ‘outsider’ perspective.
Cultural anthropology. Anthropologists and sociologists often need to situate themselves
within a culture in order to understand the cultural perspectives and understandings that
they are observing. As outsiders, they may find the situated knowledge, ritual and
activities a little strange.
Education. Situated learning theory by Lave and Wegner advocates that students should
learn within the context in which the knowledge is applied. For example, someone should
take up an apprentice as a baker’s aide in order to learn to bake bread, rather than learn it
from paper.
Known Unknowns
When we have ‘known unknowns’, we are aware that there’s something that we
don’t know or understand. Known unknowns are usually within our grasp of
understanding because we are aware of what we need to learn and can seek out
answers. This is in contrast to unknown unknowns, which are not even within our
own horizon of awareness and therefore we cannot seek out answers.
Examples:
Confusion. When new information is presented to us but it causes confusion, we are
aware that we don’t know enough about it. This may lead us to conduct research in order
to find the answers.
Curiosity. When we come across something new, it may cause us to become curious. We
will then go about researching it because we are aware we don’t know much about it.
Unknown Unknowns
Unknown unknowns are pieces of knowledge that we do not have and equally are
unaware that we don’t have it. This is information that may be beyond our
comprehension and indeed beyond our wildest dreams. It has never even entered
our minds that unknown unknowns are a possibility.
Theoretical Physics. Many theoretical physicists are very open about the concept of
unknown unknowns. 200 years ago, the idea of a concept called ‘grey matter’ or ‘string
theory’ was simply unknown and unknowable. Scientific knowledge was not advanced
enough for it to even be on their radar.
Religion. Many religious people may defer to unknown unknowns as things that are in the
realm of God, not men. Things we do not know that we do not know are things that are in
God’s hands.
ASSESSMENT
Activity 1. Knowledge Expertise
What knowledge dominates in yourself? Compose a paragraph with 10 sentences showing
your chosen knowledge.