I am information

I am information:

• I am a collection of data arranged in a meaningful order to the end-user

I am in formation:

• I am learning, developing ( more data, more meaning, ever changing order)
• I am a structure of various aspects appearing in a certain form, like individual birds are aspects of their V-formation. The V is ‘ roughly’ the constant form, but the individual birds regularly change positions.

Even noticed how a sign for ‘ Information’ looks like a person, with a body and a head?

Information in relation to data

A colleague in the library-world opened my eyes to viewing the word ‘information’ differently from how it is commonly used, by relating it to ‘data’.

Most people label any string of words, sometimes accompanied by pictures,  ‘ information’.

A range of brochures in a corner is ‘ information’.
Google gives ‘ information’.
The time table in the bus stop gives ‘information’.
The phone book gives ‘information’.

Seen from the perspective of this information specialist in the library, they don’t.

Her take on it was to reserve the word ‘ information’ for the result of combining relevant data in such a way that the end-user perceives it as meaningful, because it answers a specific question; it solves a specific problem for that person in their situation.

I follow her line of thought, since it gives so much clarity on what is going on ‘under the bonnet’.

In our perception, we would say that the creators and distributors of things like: brochures, Google, the time table and the phone book have combined raw data in such a way that it becomes easier for anybody to access. People can consult these products  when their (the end-users!) questions and problems are related to the topic(s) of the selection of data the creators have pre-structured ( and sometimes (not always!!!) produced).

The confusion starts when somebody makes the ‘raw data’ of ‘chosen solutions and their outcomes as experienced by them as an end-user’ available to others..... 

People have called a certain arrangement of combined data relevant in their situation (so to them it is information) and would like to share it with others, in similar situations, as an option to choose from. They write a website about it, write a review about it, talk about it, etcetera.....

So, in the eyes of the maker, the creator, it is (or surely has been) information.

Not only that, they feel a drive to share it, since they consider this chosen combination of data to be worth repeating or avoiding by others.... for reasons meaningful to them.
More meaning (time, energy, strong feelings) is added to the combination of data, by the creator.

Which is fine, wonderful creations have sprung from that drive. Creations we all use and love, since it makes life so much easier....

We don’t  have to crawl and assess personally through all the raw data at any given time.
Which in itself would be a mission impossible!

Picture planning a day out to the zoo, without all these wonderful creations from others!

For a start, unless, you have seen the zoo yourself before, stumbled upon it by accident, you wouldn’t know it existed. Try planning to go to a place you don’t know it exists!
Say you do know it exists.

Then, finding out when it is open, would mean going there, to see.
How to get there without a plan and an address, to create directions with?
Maybe by bus or train? Where does this bus go, where does that train stop would be trial and error without timetables and other signs giving you access to the raw, underlying data.

But that there is a bus leaving from platform A at 10.30 in Dogcity on Sunday 31th of May 2015, arriving at to the National Treasury Zoo in Catbury at 11.15, is only a high contender candidate to become information to somebody who is considering to chose that as an option, because he wants to go to the Zoo in Catbury and happens to be in Dogcity just before 10.30.

To a person who has different circumstances and plans, it is of no significance what so ever.

Then, having arrived in the zoo that happens to be open, you just have to find your way through the park, all by yourself. You have no clue what the animals are you are looking at, nor has anybody else.

This thought experiment shows how much our experiences have a strong relation with what others  before us have structured, given meaning and are willing to share with us.
So strong is that relation, that we (as a species) tend to forget that what is presented to us, is actually a representation of sets of data..... an option, a way of looking at it.

Although we are bombarded nowadays with options to look at (somebody else’s ‘ information’) we have forgotten how to actively look at relevant data and create and arrange it into the meaningful order called information and make relevant choices from that, ourselves!
Those choices, in words and deeds, that best answer relevant questions and problems for us in the world in which you (and we all)  live now.

If this intrigues you and you feel your information and decision making skills could do with an update.... ?

I recommend:
Combine some of the data presented and structured on this blog (very loosely structured,  in fuzzy logic... deliberately!, with the aim to encourage you to not-see it as information......!), with data you retrieve from your situation, right now and play with it.

Enjoy!

different words, different worlds

This blog is dedicated to introducing the Knowing,  as a source of information (open to everyone) to improve the quality of life (‘s decisions) with.

You’ll see, if you read several blog posts here, that  a couple of words appear regularly.
I zoom in on some of those,  in more detail.
I describe how I view them, how I define them, how I play with them, how I relate them to ‘shaping life’.

These words are often very straightforward words, used by us all in every single day.
I see how our words (more to the point, our interpretation of them) shapes our worlds.
Looking at our worlds, I feel that our current common understandings can do with an update and I like to give some suggestions for looking at some of the words we use and the way we use them.

To me, choosing a different word, illustrates a different world.
Even the same word, used in a different way, holds the power to make a significant difference in the world.
To me, it is not ‘ just semantics’.

I am aware that introducing a new concept to a human mind is already quite some task.
Inviting people to re-view a known and daily used concept, to see that in a different light than they have done for X-amount of time,  is......?

Still, I’ve been known to say frequently:” I like my challenges to be tough”.......I feel the strong drive to share this, so I do.
I simply have T(O) ASK you:  “Do you want to play and have fun with this too?”

The first word, that I am consciously and actively going to shine my light on, is INFORMATION.

My gutfeeling tells me:” That is going to keep me busy for a couple of blog posts!”

Keep an eye on the labels:
These blog postst will be filed under ' the concept of information highlighted'  label.

Turning water into.....

The Knowing is a source of information.

I call it a very reliable source of information.

I’d like to dive a little deeper into the concept of reliable source , by exploring the word ‘source’ separately from ‘ information’.

Water, so is the perceived wisdom, is crucial to life. If scientists want to investigate if a planet is likely to have life-as-we-know-it, they first determine if there is water.  In human evolution, people created new settlements always preferably close to water.
We need water, as part of the physical packet for life sustenance.

We all know, the purer the water, the better the quality. Contaminated water is unhealthy.
If you are concerned about your safety, it is likely that you’ll give some consideration to:

- the source of your water : where does it come from?

- the flow of the water: how did it get to you...what happened along the way?

- how far away are you from the real source (distance and time)?

- how do I use it ( hygiene, how do I treat it once it gets to me)?

Looking at water, the purest water on earth is found in two places: in the sky and (deep) in the earth.
The process that got the water there in the first place, purified it. It was condensation, to get it up there and filtration, to get it down there.
Dirty bits are usually heavier and don’t make it all the way to the place where it gets stored for a while, whether that is up or down.
High up there and deep down there, the water is not usable.. we simply don’t have practical access to it. It is not where we are.
Luckily, there is ‘ rain’ giving a regular flow of this necessity from above.
Luckily, there are  ‘springs’ giving an endless flow of this necessity, welling up from deep within.
Great!
And we all know that the water just cycles, in time, from being rain, to being spring water, to moving through rivers, lakes and seas and evaporate somewhere along the way, to become rain again.
So calling something ‘ spring water’ or ‘ rain water’ is merely referring to its latest known source in a pure state.

It doesn’t take much imagination, to see that if you use water straight from the well, or straight from the sky, it is cleaner, it is purer than if you use water others have used before you (water from behind the outlet of a factory, or water people and/or  animals have been using for bathing and.. well.....let’s call it ‘other activities’.)
If it has been processed by many, the impurities in the water are accumulating.

That happens in the best of circumstances, let alone in modern day densely populated and polluted areas. There, even the water quality close to the source becomes questionable: rain falling through polluted air, gets contaminated with particles and doesn’t arrive clean on the surface anymore. Spring water, welling up through polluted soil, is contaminated with particles and doesn’t arrive clean at the surface anymore.

Knowing that, there is still a way of distilling (literally) clean water from it. The pure water is always there, it is just a matter of taking the harmful particles out. Distillation of filtration are methods open to you too. It takes some time, some effort and some energy... but the result is much purer.

Obviously, cleaning the environment, NOT polluting the environment, has enormous benefits to the quality of this whole process too.

In all cases, wherever it comes from, no matter what the quality is.... if you don’t drink the water, if you don’t process it yourself, your system doesn’t benefit from it, dehydrates and ......

With water, this is easy to imagine.
Now... this whole process is equally true with another necessity in life: information.

Can a human being not live without information?
I say ‘ no’.
Following the simplest reasoning:  if you don’t know (= have access to meaningful information and are able to process it) where and how water and food can be obtained, it is game over, fairly soon.

I can rewrite the whole paragraph about water to make a point about information, simply by replacing ‘water’ by ‘information’.
I can because I know how to do that.
However, I also know that there is a much greater learning benefit if I leave a gap here and allow you to do that yourself, if you so wish.

In that way, I leave it to your imagination to do so, enabling you to observe what filters through (‘true’) in the process.

Just tempted to sprinkle here a few add-ons to ease the switch from the physical/ concrete concept of  ‘water’, to the metaphysical/ abstract concept of ‘ information’.

To my understanding:

·         The purest, clearest information is called Truth, it doesn’t contain harmful particles that pollute the Truth.

·         Pure rich completely ringing True information poured down is usually called: inspiration.

·         Pure rich completely ringing True information welling up from within is usually called: intuition.

Enjoy the process of turning water into something else!