Knowledge - what is it?
In an attempt to explain this concept of knowledge, we need first to go back and look at the very fundamentals that act as building blocks. Two of these fundamentals are data and information. Without context, and in very simple terms, data is an abstract item/thing. It doesn't have meaning, unless associated with a certain context. The contexts can be varied and looked at from different angles. Take for instance the number 2. On its own, its is meaningless - 2 what? elephants? roads? countries?. At a first glance, a mathematician, may look at it as an even number - or the only number which is both odd and even. This is just maybe. At this point in time, it can then be simply looked at as a number. It is in raw form and therefore a piece of data. But suppose we bring in another 2 and add it to the first 2 to give us 4. You see there is a little bit of meaning we have gained i.e. 2+2=4. We have done a bit of manipulation of the two 2's to give 4. The number 4 on its own is meaningless, but 4 derived from adding 2 to another 2 can be seen to have a little bit more meaning. This little bit of meaning thus begins to build what can be termed as information. Thus simply defined, information can be seen as a collection of data items manipulated or organised to produce meaning.