Re: It don't mean a thing ...

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"mAsterdam" <mAsterdam_at_vrijdag.org> wrote in message news:40bc8896$0$36861$e4fe514c_at_news.xs4all.nl...
> x wrote:
> >> Well, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data ,
> >> under meaning of data and information,
> >> say "data on its own has no meaning".
>
> <quote>
> Data on its own has no meaning, only
> when interpreted by some kind of data
> processing system does it take on
> meaning and become information.
> </quote>
>
> Googling for this statement showed me
> that some serious copy & pasting of it
> has been going on. Does it have a source?
> Do you (posters - and lurkers - of c.d.theory)
> subscribe to this point of view?
> Is it bad?
>
> Please share your opinion.
>
> To not let you in the dark about mine I'll repeat:
>
> Can we really discuss database while agreeing upon a
> definition of data which says data ('on its own')
> have no meaning? I don't think so.

Let's see.
If we call data the typeless binary representation of a fact in some computer memory, it has no meaning.
If we call data the typed binary representation of a fact in some computer memory ("data" + "code"), it has some "meaning". If we call data the fact (that can be represented in some computer memory), then it has some "meaning".
Information has meaning.
How can we tell apart data and information ? We can choose a definition of data that exclude meaning. We can choose to say data and information are the same thing. We can choose to differentiate data and information by some other criterion. We can choose to differentiate meaning.

Murphy law say that all of the above will happen (or already happened). :-)

Let's take an example.
John and Mary are good friends.
Paul, the father of Mary, doesn't like John and forbidded John to visit Mary.
Ann, the mother of Mary, has nothing against John visiting Mary in her presence.
So Mary and her mother decided that John can visit Mary when Paul is not home.
They agreed to put a blue flower in the window when Paul is not home and any other flower or none when Paul is home.

The fact that "there is a blue flower in Mary's home window" is data for Paul or anybody else except Ann, Mary and John. The same fact is (valuable) information for John.

What is the meaning of "there is a blue flower in Mary's home window" ? This fact has a meaning for Paul ?

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