DIKW Concept

DATA, INFORMATION, KNOWLEDGE, WISDOM



Figure 1 : Sharma, N. (2004)


Concept Map


Figure 2 : Clark D. (2004)


DATA
According to Davenport and Prusak (1998), Data is a set of discrete, objective facts about events. In an organizational context, data is more usefully described as structured records of transactions. Bellinger et.al (2004) also supports that data is raw and which can simply exist in any form, usable or not. It exists with no significance and meaning beyond its existence.
Example: 9 is a data which represents a fact or statement of event without relation to other things.

INFORMATION
According to Clark D. (2004), Information comes from the form that data takes as it is arranged and presented in different ways. Information has context. Data is turned into information by organizing it so that we can easily draw conclusions. Data is also turned into information by "presenting" it, such as making it visual or auditory. Information is therefore data with some given meaning by a relational connection. Hence information is processed data.
Example: The temperature drops to 9 degrees which represents the understanding of a relationship of some sort, hence causing an effect.

KNOWLEDGE
Davenport and Prusak (1998) define knowledge as, "a fluid mix of framed experience, contextual information, values and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information." Therefore, Knowledge acquired by the learner through experience and understanding. Knowledge is Information is static but knowledge is dynamic as it lives within us.
Example: If the humidity is very high and the temperature drops substantially the atmospheres is often unlikely to be able to hold the moisture so it rains.
WISDOM
According to Clark D. (2004), Wisdom is the ultimate level of understanding. As with knowledge, wisdom operates within us. We can share our experiences that create the building blocks for wisdom, however, it need to be communicated with even more understanding of the personal contexts of our audience than with knowledge sharing. Hence wisdom is achieved by seeing enough patterns and meta-patterns that we are able to synthesize and use in our everyday lives.
Example: It rains because it rains. And this encompasses an understanding of all the interactions that happen between raining, evaporation, air currents, temperature gradients, changes, and raining.




My position on KID:

In my opinion, the relationship between knowledge, information and data should be seen as cyclic. This is so because we cannot determine any starting point as each of them is connected to each other. There is no hierarchy between them as there is no level of importance between them.

The diagram below demonstrates my position:






Reference :
Bellinger, G., Castro, D., and Mills, A., (2004), “Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom”, Available : http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm, Accessed : 24/01/2010
Clark D. (2004) http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/performance/understanding.html accessed
24/01/2010
Davenport T., Prusak L. (1998). http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/performance/understanding.html accessed on 24/01/2010.
Sharma, N. (2004) http://www-personal.si.umich.edu/~nsharma/dikw_origin.htm accessed
24/01/2010

Knowledge

WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE?
From Business Dictionary, knowledge is defined as “Human faculty resulting from interpreted information; understanding that germinates from combination of data, information, experience, and individual interpretation.” Knowledge is the combination of human intelligence and competence, that when being used, it enhances the productivity of an entity.
Companies that effectively use knowledge break it down into its basic components – why, what, where, how, when, who.
WHY - represents having a basic understanding of the reasons for facts WHAT – means knowing the cause of a problem or condition. WHERE - provided a spatial reference to understanding. HOW – is the main element for problem solving, the required knowledge to get things done. WHEN - provides a temporal reference and closely related to time. WHO – means the different persons involved in acquiring the knowledge.

KNOWLEDGE LIFE CYCLE
The different phases of knowledge are: Create, Store, Find, Acquire, Use, and Learn.



• The first phase is Create, the knowledge must be created within or outside the organisation. The knowledge is considered to be tacit knowledge until it is made available for people outside the group.
• The second phase is Store, the knowledge has to be stored explicitly so that it can be easily found and used by others.
• The third phase is Find, the specific knowledge must be found when it is required at the right time at the right place by the right people.
• The fourth phase is Acquire, once the knowledge is found; the user has to undergo the phase of acquiring knowledge by personal understanding from the documented sources found.
• The fifth phase is Use, the acquired knowledge can be made into practice in order to achieve some useful result.
• The last phase is Learn, after using the knowledge; the user will learn what is required for the organisation and what is not required by applying the knowledge acquired.

WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT?
There is no one single standard definition for knowledge management. Everyone has their own perceptive about the subject; each one can express their own opinion about knowledge management. There is no right or wrong definition about knowledge management.
According to BNET Business Dictionary, Knowledge Management is defined as “the coordination and exploitation of an organization's knowledge resources, in order to create benefit and competitive advantage”.
According to Business Dictionary, Knowledge Management is defined as “the discipline of enabling individuals, teams and entire organisations to collectively and systematically create, share and apply knowledge, to better achieve their objectives".
From the above definition, Knowledge Management (KM) is a strategy for delivering the correct knowledge to the appropriate people at the correct time in order to help the shared knowledge collected from different employees, customers, partners to be managed to improve the productivity and performance of the organization.
The knowledge acquired can be explicit knowledge or tacit knowledge. This knowledge allows the organisation to differentiate itself among its competitors. Hence this acquired knowledge gives a competitive advantage to the organization.
Explicit Knowledge consists of anything that can be documented or archived with the help of Information Technology.
Tacit Knowledge means the know-how contained in people’s heads. This kind of knowledge is not easily transferrable from one person to another.


Reference :

BNET Dictionary. http://dictionary.bnet.com/definition/Knowledge+Management.html accessed on 14.01.2010

Business Dictionary. http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/knowledge.html accessed on 15th January 2010.

Image. www.processrenewal.com/files/def-km.doc accessed on 15th January 2010.

Hello Everyone

Hello everyone,

I wish you all a very happy new 2010 and a successful year ahead.

An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.
Bill Vaughn

I am taking a new module this semester called "Knowledge Management Strategies". My first lecture was very interesting as the module is being taught in a different way which i appreciate a lot. This module promises lots of hard work and i am going to learn a lot from it. The first concept which was being told for this module is based on the Chinese proverb " Give a man a fish and you feed him once, teach him how to fish and you feed him for life".

Hence i am looking forward for this modules as it seems to be an exciting on.