Data : Numbers, characters or images that designate an attribute of a
phenomenon.
Information : Data becomes Information when they are combined
together in ways that have the potential to reveal patterns in the
phenomenon.
Knowledge : Information yields knowledge when it supports non-trivial,
true claims about a phenomenon.
(See: The Royal Society,
Science as an Open Enterprise , June 2012.
Available at: http://royalsociety.org/policy/projects/science-public-
enterprise/report/ Note that you are not being recommended to read this
report. But it is always good practice to cite the sources you use when
writing.)
This is a report written by scientists and it reflects the way that they saw
the concepts we have discussed here. Do you see their definitions as fully
compatible with the discussion here? To what extent do their definitions
reflect their being scientists? How does this contrast with our status as
‘managers’ or ‘social scientists’?
To be a knowledge worker, does your knowledge mostly come in the form
of knowledge of some theory, or does it come in the form of practice and
experience? Use examples to explain your answer.
3.3 Systems Reading activity Read Section 1.1, Chapter 1 of Laudon and Laudon (2013) and Section 1.4, Chapter 1 of
Curtis and Cobham (2008).
You are also recommended to look at Chapter 6 of Avgerou and Cornford (1998).
Many introductory texts choose not to spend much time considering what
a system is and why we speak about information
systems . However, you
should have a basic notion of the concept and you should be able to apply
it to various situations. A common definition is that a system is a collection
of components that interact together and can be seen as collectively
undertaking a common purpose. Systems can be
