I've been considering revising how I define "information."

Answering the question "what is information?" is an important part of Infogineering, so the definition is very important. After all, if we can't define something, how do we know if we are making it better?

The latest definition I'm going with is....

"Information is a way to both store and transfer data and knowledge."

"Data" is/are the facts of the World. "Knowledge" is what is inside our heads. Information allows us to be informed of facts (e.g. data) that we did not directly experience.

You don't have to go to New York to know what the Statue of Liberty looks like, because someone can send you a photograph of it. In this case, the photograph is the information that stores and transfers what it looks like.

Up until now, I've only implied that information was a way to transfer facts into our heads (data -> knowledge) beyond what we experience. The difference now is that this definition recognises that information is also a way to transfer knowledge between people (knowledge -> knowledge).

It also recognises that it can store things through time. Keeping a journal takes the knowledge from your head, stores in the form of information, only to load it back into your head later.