We throw around terms like "information worker" and "knowledge worker" all of the time.  So a common question I get is "What's the difference between information and knowledge?  They're the same thing, right?"

That's a big, fat no.  I had the pleasure of having dinner with Larry Prusak, Jonathan Spira, and Dan Rasmus last night -- three heavyweights in the world of knowledge management.  Along with several customers and Microsoft folks, we discussed that very question at great lengths.

My conclusion:  Knowledge = information + experience.

As an example:  If you described a certain person to me, you could tell me their name, how tall they were, what they look like, etc.  I have information.  When I meet the person, I can experience them, and talk to them, and smell them, and understand what makes them tick.  I have knowledge.

Another example (from last night's dinner):  Getting and passing along information is much easier now than it was 400 years ago.  But is learning a language any easier?  Not really.  There's more information available, but the learning process isn't any easier.  Holding a book on Spanish is having information.  Speaking fluently is having knowledge.

One more example:  A recipe for making a cheesecake is information.  Being able to apply that information and turn it into a nice dessert?  That's knowledge.

I have one more example around sex, but I'll leave that one off the blog...