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

x wrote:

[snipped parts, summary left:]
> mAsterdam wrote:

>><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>
>>Does it have a source?
>>Is it bad?

Hmmm. Is a different 'type' creeping in here? 'Type' as set of possible values would not yet imply meaning, IMHO. 'fact' is more crucial it seems - do you need the binary rep?

> If we call data the fact (that can be represented in some computer memory),
> then it has some "meaning".

> Information has meaning.

That is what the same site says about information. I have seen several definitions of information more to my liking, but let's keep focus, here.

> How can we tell apart data and information ?
> We can choose a definition of data that exclude meaning.

Not necessary at all.

> We can choose to say data and information are the same thing.

Heh. Marketing guys do that all the time - if you can't beat them join them.

> We can choose to differentiate data and information by some other criterion.

Several:
(1) new data to the receptor.
(2) relevant to some decision or action.

> We can choose to differentiate meaning.
>
> Murphy law say that all of the above will happen (or already happened). :-)

In one system!

> 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 ?

Nice example.
Yes it has meaning to Paul. What you are demonstrating here is that a signs can carry different sets of data, and that some data is relevant to decisions/actions. Received on Tue Jun 01 2004 - 17:24:42 CDT