1 DATA, INFORMATION, KNOWLEDGE, WISDOM, SKILLS DATA, INFORMATION, KNOWLEDGE, WISDOM, SKILLS

DATA : The term data refers to qualitative or quantitative attributes of a variable set of variables. Data is raw material for data processing. Data relates to fact, event and transactions

INFORMATION: Information in its most restricted technical sense is an ordered sequence of symbols that record or transmit a message. Information is data that has been processed in such a way as to be meaningful to the person who receives it. It is any thing that is communicated. For example: researchers who conduct market research survey might ask member of the public to complete questionnaires about a product or a service. These completed questionnaires are data; they are processed and analyze in order to prepare a report on the survey. This resulting report is information

KNOWLEDGE : Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something, that can include descriptions, facts, information, and/or skills acquired through experience or education. Knowledge is a noun that refers to the information, understanding and skills that you gain through education or experience. It refers to the hard facts and the data that can be available to anyone if he has the right resources. For example, you can have practical, medical or scientific knowledge. You can also say that someone has a wide knowledge of. For example: The taxation system.

2 DATA, INFORMATION, KNOWLEDGE, WISDOM, SKILLS

WISDOM: Wisdom is a deep understanding and realizing of people, things, events or situations, resulting in the ability to choose or act or inspire to consistently produce the optimum results with a minimum of time, energy or thought. On the other hand, is a noun that refers to the ability to make sensible decisions and give good advice because of the experience and knowledge that you have. Someone may have all the knowledge about a subject but may not have the wisdom to utilize this knowledge properly to be able to act in a sensible manner! That is why they say you can gain knowledge by educating yourself but you can gain wisdom only by experience.

SKILLS: A skill is the learned capacity to carry out pre-determined results often with the minimum outlay of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills.

A skill is the learned capacity to carry out pre-determined results often with the minimum outlay of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills. For example, in the domain of work, some general skills would include time management, teamwork and leadership, self motivation and others, whereas domain-specific skills would be useful only for a certain job. Skill usually requires certain environmental stimuli and situations to assess the level of skill being shown and used.

3 DATA, INFORMATION, KNOWLEDGE, WISDOM, SKILLS Examples

This example uses a bank savings account to show how data, information, knowledge, and wisdom relate to principal, interest rate, and interest.

Data: The numbers 100 or 5%, completely out of context, are just pieces of data. Interest, principal, and interest rate, out of context, are not much more than data as each has multiple meanings which are context dependent.

Information: If I establish a bank savings account as the basis for context, then interest, principal, and interest rate become meaningful in that context with specific interpretations. Principal is the amount of money, $100, in the savings account.

Interest rate, 5%, is the factor used by the bank to compute interest on the principal.

Knowledge: If I put $100 in my savings account, and the bank pays 5% interest yearly, then at the end of one year the bank will compute the interest of $5 and add it to my principal and I will have $105 in the bank. This pattern represents knowledge, which, when I understand it, allows me to understand how the pattern will evolve over time and the results it will produce. In understanding the pattern, I know, and what I know is knowledge. If I deposit more money in my account, I will earn more interest, while if I withdraw money from my account, I will earn less interest.

Wisdom: Getting wisdom out of this is a bit tricky, and is, in fact, founded in systems principles. The principle is that any action which produces a result which encourages more of the same action produces an emergent characteristic called growth. And, nothing grows forever for sooner or later growth runs into limits.

If one studied all the individual components of this pattern, which represents knowledge, they would never discover the emergent characteristic of growth. Only when the pattern connects, interacts, and evolves over time, does the principle exhibit the characteristic of growth.