Data, Information and Knowledge

Abstract

Quite often we hear the words data, information, and knowledge being used as if they were synonymous. But aren’t data, information, and knowledge actually the same thing? And if not, what is the difference? I strongly believe that there are subtle but very important differences among these concepts, and that the nature of these differences is a relatively complex one. Moreover, from a business process improvement perspective, data, information, and knowledge serve fundamentally different purposes.