How Does Data Become Knowledge and Finally Wisdom Analysis

Data to Knowledge and Wisdom
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Data to Knowledge and Wisdom
How does data become knowledge and finally wisdom?
Russell Ackoff introduced the world to the popular DIKUW phenomenon i.e. Data, Information, Knowledge, Understanding, and Wisdom. Ackoff explained that one is required to successively move from one category to the next without fail for the transition from data ultimately to wisdom to be complete.
Data has in the past and the present been described as raw or as symbols that need processing for them to bear meaning. The implication here is that data cannot be used to effect change or to effect behavior. For data to become knowledge, it needs to be reviewed or repeatedly studied until one can memorize it. However, Bellinger, Castro, and Mills (2004), warn that memorizing does not guarantee automatic data transformation to knowledge because one needs to understand and articulate all that they have read. According to Ackoff (1989),knowledge helps one to answer the “how” questions and Bellinger, Castro, and Mills (2004) believe that these forms of questions call for one’s understanding of a concept or idea (depending on the data provided).
Wisdom has often been misconstrued to be understanding but Bellinger et al. warn against this mistake. They explain that wisdom transcends understanding and helps people to probe further into things. For knowledge to become wisdom, it is first understood and then taken through a process of discernment where it is b...