Recovery: data are NOT the new gold

Knowledge is power. The quote by English philosopher Sir Francis Bacon still stands proud after more than 400 years. To build knowledge, you need information. By collecting information from different sources and combining them, we create new knowledge. And, as mentioned, knowledge is power.

Our information is in data

Anno 2021, the information needed is in data. If we compare knowledge to wealth, information is the gold to build that wealth. Dates are then the sturdy gold pouch, in which the gold is kept. But not all data is equally valuable; it is not the case that every gold pouch contains the same amount of gold.

Information for large audiences

Of course, if the information is ultimately the gold, then its casing must be well cared for. After all, we must not lose the information. And with it the data, because that is where the information is and with it the path to wealth. If we lose the data, we lose the information. The great advantage of data is that it allows us to make information accessible to a large audience. A democratization of information and knowledge.

But beware!

Data are less and less on paper. Because we store our information in a different way, we have many more opportunities to share, copy, preserve and secure information. We can store our information in different places much more easily than before. The danger today is that this digital information is also easier to falsify and/or delete. Instead of putting tig binders of paper through the shredder, deleting is a matter of a mouse click. All of which is to say that a secure repository for data-information-knowledge is not a luxury.