I receive this Air Force Policy letter as a regular part of my continued office and because it deals to a limited degree often with the ideas you are working, here is one with a bit of interest and I'm sending it along. See NPR and the Air Force.

No I don't see any distinction between information and knowledge, in the sense of factual data. To have knowledge you gained facts from information. To have information you had to gain knowledge from facts. Like dew and rain; both water, eh?

There is a derivative of the word information spelled "informatics" which to me means a refinement of information as a science so that you provide "user useful" data only, rather than a plethora of data garbage. Information that induces a deductive management principle, so to speak. Ferret it out and take it out in the tall grass and see if it eats. It may be what you are looking for.

Too many of these guys that grab for all they can get from the grass root operations on up don't have confidence that they fully understand the scope of their responsibilities. Thus they want to know everything about everything. I call this "herniated" management because it will ultimately rupture and leave the manager flopping around in a maze of data, not being certain as to that which is necessary, or "what fits" (your term) from what is superflous. Such was Jimmy Carter. As for Bill Clinton; he is still running around pissing on all the bushes here and overseas, hoping that somthing will become his own.

I don't think you can use religion in the sense of it being the basis for all knowledge. It has too many interpretations; no real universal definition; no all encompassing dogma and it does not lend itself to deductive thinking such as required in your exercise.

The manager needs only the "power". Knowledge in management is power, but power only when it makes something move. Informatics is the science of information that is necessary to move something and therefore limited, direct and useful to a defined scope of interest, operations or responsibility. Impressions too often lead to false conclusions "ideka-eka" the assumption of a need for all the information available.

I've danced around the "daisy chain" enough. End of effort!

Sincerely,

Uncle Jim