The Pyramid of Information - criticism and opportunity

Abstract

The Information Pyramid has been used in technical and academic texts for a long time. Its origin is still uncertain, and it is likely to remain so, but the structure established by Russell Ackoff in 1989 has been the basis for most of the representations found in articles and books. This pyramid has been the subject of criticism from several authors in different research fields. In this theoretical essay, some of the pyramid's development trails are retrieved. Different expressions of the pyramid are discussed, comparing and contrasting its elements, assumptions and implications, in search of a more comprehensive understanding of these elements and their intertwining. To make the exposure more fluid, the reviews were grouped into categories; these, however, should not be taken in isolation, since the focus of attention is the representation, its premises and its implications. It is concluded that the hierarchical representations of the relationships between data, information, knowledge and others are unable to adequately represent, even in a simplified way, the complex processes it intends to subsume. However, it is considered that this representation can still be an instrument of learning, since used critically, supporting discussions about the complexity and circularity of the phenomena that this representation expresses.