Information
Information is data put within context. It's a concept bound to that of metadata, data that refers to the meaning of other data. For example if in a table of data one of the columns is labeled as "batch number" 07012007, one string in that same column, gets a particular meaning. Information is the distillation of data or data with a meaning, but this still is not knowledge
[Dürsteler, 2007]
Data are observational measurements that have been recorded in some way, whereas information is data that is generalized, ordered and contextualized in ways that give them
meaning. Information thus is selective toward data, separating the important from the relatively unimportant.
[Mennis et al., 2000]
see also: Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom
References
- [Dürsteler, 2007] Juan C. Dürsteler, Diagrams for Visualisation, Inf@Vis! (The digital magazine of InfoVis.net), Created at: Jan. 7, 2007, Retrieved at: Jan. 11, 2007, http://www.infovis.net/printMag.php?num=186&lang=2
- [Mennis et al., 2000] Jeremy L. Mennis, Donna J. Peuquet, and Liujian Qian, A conceptual framework for incorporating cognitive principles into geographical database representation, International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 14(6):510-520, 2000.