Davenport, Thomas H.

Abstract: KNOWLEDGE is neither data nor information, though it is related to both, and the differences between these terms are often a matter of degree. We start with those more familiar terms both because they are more familiar and because we can understand knowledge best with reference to them. Confusion about what data, information, and knowledge are -- how they differ, what those words mean -- has resulted in enormous expenditures on technology initiatives that rarely deliver what the firms spending the money needed or thought they were getting. Often firms don't understand what they need until they invest heavily in a system that fails to provide it. However basic it may sound, then, it is still important to emphasize that data, information, and knowledge are not interchangeable concepts. Organizational success and failure can often depend on knowing which of them you need, which you have, and what you can and can't do with each. Understanding what those three things are and how you get from one to another is essential to doing knowledge work successfully. So we believe it's best to begin with a brief comparison of the three terms and the factors involved in transforming data into information and information into knowledge.

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Abstract: [Lehmanns Fachbuchhandlung:] Information technology spending in the US over the last decade is estimated at 3 trillion dollars, yet, by many accounts, has not worked. In this text, the author proposes a way of looking at information management which takes into account the total information environment within an organization. Lehmanns Fachbuchhandlung: According many business writers, we are in the midst of a new information age, one which will revolutionize how workers work, how companies compete, perhaps even how thinkers think. It is certainly true that Information Technology has become a giant industry. In America, more that 50\% of all capital spending goes into IT, accounting for more than a third of the growth of the entire American economy in the last four years. Over the last decade, IT spending in the US is estimated at 3 trillion dollars. And yet, by almost all accounts, IT hasnt worked all that well. Why is it that so many of the companies that have invested in these costly new technologies never saw the returns they had hoped for? And why do workers, even CEOs, find it so hard to adjust to new IT systems? In this text, Thomas Davenport proposes a revolutionary way to look at information management, one that takes into account the total information environment within an organization.

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