Information and Data Differ on Value to Businesses

Most people speak of data and information as if they are synonymous, but according to a blog post on Science of Social, “The Big Data Fallacy: Data ≠ Information,” this is not the case. The difference is subtle, but in order to efficiently use the tools available to you, you must understand what you are working with. Data is the record of events, while information is what you can infer from those facts.

The post explains further:

Data does give you information. However, the fallacy of big data is that more data doesn’t mean you will get ‘proportionately’ more information. In fact, the more data you have, the less information you gain as a proportion of the data. That means the information you can extract from any big data is asymptotically a diminishing return as your data volume increases. This does seem counterintuitive, but it is true.

Tackling and analyzing data appropriately is the only way for your business to extract the information necessary needed to effectively understand your market. That’s why a big data solution with insight enabling infrastructure is key to information access and data enrichment. We recommend PolySpot for their trusted infrastructure solution.

Andrea Hayden, September 11, 2012

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.