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I had not heard of the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom hierarchy but of course, it makes sense that data without organization is useless and that data needs to be processed to become information. The transition of data to information, information to knowledge and knowledge to wisdom is the cornerstone of information management and systems but there are questions about the validity of this hierarchy in ranking information as meaningful, valuable or appropriate.

I read an interesting article by David Weinberger in the Harvard Business Review where he suggests that the DIKW hierarchy has led to a redefinition of the term information to suit our need to apply value to everything and implies that knowledge derives from information which has been filtered using algorithms to help us deal with the glut of information produced by digital means. There are any number of authors who question the relevancy of the Wisdom Pyramid  in today’s information environment with its new economics of deletion, sharing and storage. Weinberger argues that acquiring knowledge is a far messier process in which “knowledge is not determined by information, it is the knowing process that first decides which information is relevant, and how it is to be used.“

Reading list:

Garfield, S. (2018). Yet another myth: The DIKW pyramid scheme. Medium. https://medium.com/@stangarfield/yet-another-myth-the-dikw-pyramid-scheme-a059ba595b30

Rowley, J. (2007). The wisdom hierarchy: representations of the DIKW hierarchy. Journal of Information Science, 33(2), 163–180. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165551506070706

Weinberger. D. (2010). The Problem with the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom Hierarchy. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2010/02/data-is-to-info-as-info-is-not

Weinberger. D. (2012). To know, but not understand: David Weinberger on science and Big Data. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/01/to-know-but-not-understand-david-weinberger-on-science-and-big-data/250820/?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share.