Information has always been essential to humans throughout the history and at the beginning of this module we can start with a citation from renowned historian Yuval Noah Harari:

Yes, first we need to have a reliable information to be able to make relevant and responsible decisions. But we need to keep in mind that data collection and information gathering is not means by itself. And we should also keep in mind that decisions in this complex world is not possible to take purely based on evidence even we are talking about evidence based decisions (more in MODULE 4). So collecting and gathering information is important but only as the first step.

The mindset that the information we are collecting should be dealt with as evidence will help us concentrate on the quality and relevance of the information not just during the process or information collecting. But also when assessing and making sense of information, formulating conclusions and in the phase of reflection and evaluation.

Information we are looking for should be convincing, supported by evidence. Our aim is go beyond fact-checking and find accurate, reliable and relevant information suited for our issue/purpose.

There are many definitions of the term information. But many of them we do not find appropriate, like analytical, subjective or objective information or that information is knowledge.

• Knowledge requires learning and such is broader then information. Knowledge is theoretical and/or practical understanding of a subject matter with capacity to be used for specific purpose (gives answer to “How”). As such is based on interpreted and processed information and/or experience acquired through learning (for more see below the making sense of information chapter below).

• As information in the sense that is most used (see below) is just a representation of reality (some testimony about reality) and not reality itself we would be very careful to talk about “objective” information.

For our purposes we propose to pint out two ways how the term Information could be and is in general used:

a.   Information as processed data – information as processed, organized and structured data. So something that is (or can be) comprehended by rational inquiry, intellect and thinking. What is important is that such information can be articulated in language (or math/algorithms as specific type of language). In this sense information is representation of reality based on or findings and interpretation and not reality itself.

b.   Information as inherent to reality – information as basic (organizational) component of reality (or living organisms at least). For example we can point out information inherited in DNA or muscle memory (when repetitively doing some movement/sport). It is good to be aware that we as living organism contain much more information than is just “have” in our brains and that it is inherited (genetically) and also acquired during our life and therefore influenced by what we do, eat and so on.

As we are now concerned about collecting information and making sense of them we will use the term information as processed data. But we will also cover the theme concerning importance of our experience and emotions as we humans are not just rational data processing machines.