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Information
Informally, we use information to mean knowledge. But to understand information
tion quantitatively, as something we can measure, we need a more precise way
to think about information. Theway computer scientists measure information is based onhow what is
known
changes as a result of obtaining the information. The primary unit of information
is a bit. One bit of information halves the amount of uncertainty. It is equiv-bit
alent to answering a “yes” or“no” question, where either answer is equally likely
beforehand. there were two possibilities
For example, suppose we perform a fair coin toss but do not reveal the result.
Half of the time, the coin will land “heads”, and the other half of the time the
coin will land “tails”. Without knowing any more information, our chances of
guessing the correct answer are ½
Example : Dice
How many bits of information are there in the outcome of tossing a six-sided
die?
There are six equally likely possible outcomes, so without any more information
we have a one in six chance of guessing the correct value. One bit is not enough
to identify the actual number, since one bit can only distinguish between two
values. We could use five binary questions like this:
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Data comes from the Latin word, “datum,” meaning a “thing given.” Although the term
data” has been used since as early as the 1500s, modern usage started in the 1940s and
1950s as practical electronic computers began to input, process, and output data. This
chapter discusses the nature of data and introduces key concepts for newcomers without
computer science experience.
Example :
Attempts have been made from a study of the changes produced by mutation to obtain the
relative order of the bases within various triplets, but my own view is that these are premature
until there is more extensive and more reliable data on the composition of the triplets." – Francis
Crick – Scientist
Knowledge is a subset of information. But it is a subset that has been extracted, filtered, or
formatted in a very special way. More specifically, the information we call knowledge is
information that has been subjected to, and passed tests of validation. Common sense
knowledge is information that has been validated by common sense experience. Scientific
knowledge is information (hypotheses and theories) validated by the rules and tests applied to it
by some scientific community. Organizational knowledge in terms of this framework is
information validated by the rules and tests of the organization seeking knowledge. The quality
of its knowledge then, will be largely dependent on the tendency of its validation rules and tests
to produce knowledge that improves organizational performance (the organization’s version of
objective knowledge).
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