Data vs. Information
Sunday, November 28, 2010 at 10:00PM 2010: Data doubling every 11 hours. ZDNet headline, Feb 13, 2007
A part of my Thanksgiving weekend was spent creating the 2011 Johnson Family Calendar. It's a labor of love, to be sure, that requires digging through musty smelling stacks of photos. (It's a project I've written about several times before (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
While I enjoy revisiting a past when my whiskers were dark and my waist was slim, I also get a taste of my own fleeting importance to the world and the people in it. Because every year I come across photos like these:
Each of these men are handsome devils hence undoubtedly related to me in some way, but the backs of their portraits lack names and dates.
By scanning and posting these pictures, I've added to the world's data supply. But not to the world's information supply (or not much anyway), let alone knowledge or wisdom collection. Data - digital or analog - remains pretty much worthless without the context that makes it information.
This is why the woo, woo factoid about the world's data doubling every X hours has always had a "so what" quality to it.
It also speaks to the value of librarians in the digital world. While cataloging has changed from Dewey to folksonomies, from institutional to personal, placing information in context and more importantly helping others to do so, remains a vital task we should be performing.*
Tag your photos, dear readers - online and off. Your grandchildren and historians may not recognize you if you don't. Who would have thought you were ever that young and beautiful?
* For some other tasks, read Joyce Valenza's elegant post, What librarians make.
Reader Comments (3)
Love the old photos, Doug. My favorite old photo we have is a picture of an old woman and the only writing on the back says, "Old Horsehead". We believe it was one of the many step-mothers my great-grandma had, but we'd sure love to know the story behind it! :)
Organizing family photos is the one definite job I have in mind for retirement. Meanwhile, our school did a Veteran's Day presentation that motivated me to get a start. "Never Forget!"
I will add this: Write down or record yourself, your parents and your grandparents while there is still time. It seems as if there is always time....until there isn't.
Hi Carl,
I wish I had more time to do the genealogy pursuits, too. I am sure there are some old horseheads in our family as well.
Happy holidays to you,
Doug
Hi Jacquie,
Interesting show. The passing of our WWII vets seems to have triggered a greater interest in family histories and memories.
Tragic about your mother.
Doug