What is information

Information is defined as the format of data that allows humans to use it in some meaningful way. They are organized or classified data, which has some significant value for the receiver. In other words, it is the processed data that enables decision making.

What is it for?

The information is used to make decisions based on collected and processed data. It is a valuable source because it can affect the behavior, decision or result of people.

The purpose of an information system is to convert raw data into useful information that can be used to make decisions in an organization.

Importance

Information is essential for effective operation and decision making at all levels in companies or institutions. This plays an important role in an organization because it guides every decision that it makes. Therefore, it is important in decision-making and problem-solving processes.

Types of information

1. Privileged : available to a group of people, it is not public.
2. Public : available to the public.
3. Confidential : Only a very closed circle of people can know about it.
4. External – Made public based on certain build parameters.
5. Internal – Available to a group of people within a department or organization.
6. Personal : data about a person.

Information sources

They are the various types of documents that contain useful data to satisfy a demand for information or knowledge.

• Primary sources  contain new and original information, the result of intellectual work. They are original material that has not been interpreted, condensed or evaluated by another person. It can be obtained from interviews, newspapers, speeches, etc.
• Secondary sources  contain organized, elaborated information, product of analysis, extraction or reorganization that refers to original primary documents. It can be obtained from magazine articles, books, monographs, dictionaries, etc.
• Tertiary Sources  collects or catalogs primary and secondary sources of information. Like guides, indexes, statistics, directories, etc.

examples

• The average score for a class or for the entire school is information that can be derived from certain data.
• Finding that traffic from Mexico is increasing while that from Colombia is decreasing is significant information, based on data on the number of visitors to a website.
• The total sales in a monthly of a company, is information obtained based on the sales made during the month.