This whole debate on knowledge and information is interesting.
I have a simple definition of knowledge: Knowledge is what we know. As I
think Ken pointed out, knowledge resides within a person.
Information is the communication of knowledge. We should think of
information as a verb, not a noun. It is a process, a form of action, the
objective of which is to communicate knowledge.
Information has two key forms: informal and formal. Informal essentially
relates to verbal or body communication of knowledge. I may talk to you
with the objective of informing you about something I know. In this
situation, I have succeeded only when I have communicated to you the
knowledge I wished to communicate. If I fail, I may still have communicated
knowledge. You may now know or believe that I don't know what I'm talking
about because I have failed to communicate in a clear manner.
What you are now reading is formal information, or at least an attempt at
formal information. It is written down, formalized. We often describe
formal information as "content."
A key difference between the information society and the industrial society
is the increase in the creation and use of formal information (content). If
commerce is selling with people, then ecommerce is selling with content.
The explosion in the use of the Internet represents the explosion in formal
content - emails and webpages.
A key challenge that we face is information overload. People say that we
need more bandwidth. However, the real problem is that the human brain has
limited 'bandwidth' to take in all this content. Another problem is that a
lot of content is badly designed. A lot of content is simply not
communicating the knowledge it has set out to communicate.
Gerry McGovern
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BOOKS BY GERRY MCGOVERN
Content Critical:
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/content_critical.htm
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