Had to snicker. My comment is a minor one, but seems oh-so-critical to me (in reducing the 'muddiness' of our conversations). In your diagram there's one component labeled "Data, Information, & Content" and it's represented by the infamous disk drive, associated to storage. There is no such thing as 'information' in storage. To 'inform' it must be in recipient-relevant context. Or -- the beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
It's actually somewhat akin to the misguided term, "Knowledge Management" -- you can't manage knowledge, any more than you can store information. They only achieve the label when they're successful at the point of 'use'.
Just to allay arguments that might be set aside by my oft repeated example -- you're in the Mojave desert and you're lost. You come upon an abandoned gas station and on the counter is a map of the desert. Many would consider a map (using the definition of 'data in context') information. But you have no idea where you are -- you have no relevant context that grounds the gas station to the map. It fails to INFORM. It's just useless data.
The best of ZDNet, delivered
ZDNet Newsletters
Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox



