Page 1 of 10 Data, Information and Knowledge: a candid and pragmatic discussion Mark Gregory, mark.gregory@esc-rennes.fr Irena Descubes, irena.descubes@esc-rennes.fr ESC Rennes School of Business, 2 rue Robert d’Arbrissel, 35065 Rennes Cedex - France Petr Makovsky, petr.makovsky@vse.cz VSE: Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze - University of Economics, Prague, KM FPH, Nám. W. Churchilla 4, 13067 Praha Presented at: 4th International Conference on Advanced and Systematic Research, Zagreb, Croatia, Nov. 11th.-13th, 2010. Abstract: As knowledge workers, we engage daily in meta-cognitive processes through which we build our own personal knowledge concerning our own cognitive processes and learning-relevant properties of knowledge, information or data. The commonly accepted understanding that data is transformed into information and information then feeds or becomes knowledge does not encompass the reality of personal knowledge management across all areas concerned by knowledge creation. There is an insufficient level of understanding of how to make the best use of information systems to extend the power of knowledge workers to think and to create. Systematic self-observation in parallel with action research might prove to be efficient and scientific qualitative methods allowing for gathering accurate descriptions of one’s own experience while managing personal knowledge. It may also assist with the subsequent design of information systems that would truly help knowledge workers create, make explicit and enhance their knowledge. Key words: personal knowledge management, systematic self-observation, meta-cognitive process 1. Context: Personal Information and Knowledge Management As former practitioners and current academic researchers engaged in doctoral studies in two completely different types of institutions (British network university and Czech traditional brick-and-mortar universities), we consider ourselves knowledge workers who analyse existing knowledge and seek to create new. By doing so, we also engage in metacognitive processes, i.e. we build our own personal knowledge concerning our own cognitive processes and learning-relevant properties of knowledge, information or data. It is a long established common understanding that data is transformed into information, and information then feeds or becomes knowledge or even translates into further levels, these being understood and praised as wisdom (Ackoff 1999). In this paper, we shall argue that the above sequence is limited and does not encompass the reality of systematic and pragmatic approaches to personal information management (PIM) and personal knowledge management (PKM) systems. We shall also point at an insufficient level of understanding of how to get the best use of information systems to extend the power of knowledge workers to think and to create.