Information & Systems Principles

Data, Information, Knowledge,

and Attributes
 Unit Goals

Goals for this unit:

• Be aware of the nature of information, knowledge &
intelligence in MI.
• Discuss several relevant information & decision
attributes.

2
A Modern Management Axiom

INFORMATION

is an
Asset

it has
Value

3
 Information Attributes

• Data
• Raw facts
• Atomic vs. Molecular
• Information
• Data w/ relevance & purpose
• Knowledge
• Contextual information, values, rules synthesized to provide
understanding & value
• Tacit (experiences, beliefs, skills) vs. Explicit (structured)
• Intelligence
• Data / information / knowledge organized to infer action
4
 Knowledge Management Processes

• Knowledge requirement planning, definition & architecture

• Knowledge acquisition & management
• Borrow, buy, develop, classify, date, store, etc.
• Knowledge transfer
• Knowledge application
• Decisions, processes (TSS, MCS), products, etc.

5
 ???

Did you ever find yourself

studying in the middle of
the night…

6
 Information Overload

Information Overload

Processing
Rate

Input Rate

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 Concreteness

Last Year’s Sales: 1,210,800,000

This Year’s Sales:
Green Widgets 7,283,666
White Widgets 622,628,509
Purple Widgets 46,983,012
Orange Widgets 90,131,980
Blue Widgets 5,513,677
Red Widgets 437,347,912
Yellow Widgets 885,916

Q: Are this year’s sales up or down from last year’s?

© Alan F. Dowling 1985, 2017

8
 Concreteness

This Year’s Sales:

Green Widgets 7,283,666
White Widgets 622,628,509
Purple Widgets 46,983,012
Orange Widgets 90,131,980
Blue Widgets 5,513,677
Red Widgets 437,347,912
Yellow Widgets 885,916
TOTAL: 1,210,774,672

Last Year’s Sales: 1,210,800,000

© Alan F. Dowling 1985, 2017

9
 Data Reduction

Classification and Compression

Dept. 003
Dept. Sales = $ZZ.YY
003
Sales Dept. 139
Dept. Sales = $XX.XX
139

Data Data
Atoms Molecules

© Alan F. Dowling 1985, 2017

10
 Inference

Inference Processing

Fact
Opinion Assimilation Inference
Assumption
Etc.

© Alan F. Dowling 1985, 2017

11
Humans as Math Processors

73
60
08
27
39
91 Σ = ?
80
μ = ?
02
34 median = ?
24
32
03
68
14
31
© Alan F. Dowling 1985, 2017
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Humans as Statistical Processors

13
 Magical #7 ± 2

9 E
18 OB
492 MIS
6341 ECON
26821 ACCTG
858432 •
2164281 •
91258475 •

© Alan F. Dowling 1985, 2017

14
 Decision Syndrome: Deferral to Obfuscation

Nx ? ?
= Nx-x = N0
Nx

Source: Scientific American

15
 Information Filters

External
Strategic Managers
Filter #3

Tactical Managers
Other
Information Filter #2

Operations Managers

Filter #1

Internal Operations Data

© Alan F. Dowling 1985, 2017

16
 Data Redundancy

T** F * * ST PR * * * DE * T

O* THE UN * * * D S * * TE * W**

*E**** * * SH * NG * * *

What is the message represented by this

partially destroyed code?
Source: G. Davis

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 True / False Data

RESULT POSITIVE NEGATIVE

Test Result is + Test Result is --
TRUE when the condition when the condition
does exist does NOT exist
Test Result is + Test Result is --
FALSE when the condition when the condition
does NOT exist does exist
# of True Negatives
SPECIFICITY =
# of True Negatives + # of False Positives
Probability of a negative test result given
=
that the patient is well.

# of True Positives
SENSITIVITY =
# of True Positives + # of False Negatives

Probability of a positive test result given

=
that the patient is ill.
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Thoughts?

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