Information to knowledge

Information overflow is one of the biggest problems in the world. Today you can find a lot of information about any topic anywhere (well “almost” anywhere) instantly. There is abundance of information which has created a problem in itself i.e. how to use it without losing key data points? Companies have made fortunes by organizing, presenting and searching information.

Information abundance and availability has done great for the world. It has leveled the playing field in many ways. People can make informed decisions. You get the breaking news the same time as anyone else in the world. You can analyze the archives from years back just like anyone else. But even after having access to the same information some people can make better decisions than others. That’s because  just having information is not enough. The important thing is how can you leverage the available information?

Information can be leveraged by converting it into knowledge. Knowledge is a result derived out of the information through perception, learning and reasoning. Knowledge is precious.  It is actionable. The differentiating factor lies in how well you are able to extract the knowledge out of the information to make critical decision, how well can you apply the learning from historical scenarios to predict the future and how well you can apply analytical reasoning to reach to the optimal results.

Technology that plays a major role in organizing the information plays an equally important role in converting it into knowledge. Complex algorithms that would adapt with usage plays a critical role in knowledge generation. Another important element in this process is human input to absorb the knowledge and make decisions. The idea is to process the information and synthesize the data to derive intelligent conclusions. This is more of a cyclical than a linear process. A process where information flows in and gets processed, knowledge is extracted, decisions are made and the processing algorithm and decision-making process gets adapted based on efficacy of the results. The adapted infrastructure is used to further take information and produce knowledge.