Andrew Orlowski at The Register discusses the Wikileaks situation. A key point made is that data alone is useless without contextualization. A key quote from the piece:
The nature of news and journalism hasn’t really changed. We want the world explained, the dots joined, and factoids are a poor substitute, no matter how sensational the trappings. We know that information isn’t knowledge, and sometimes barely causes a ripple.
Information, knowledge and wisdom
Information is knowing you are alone on foot in the center of a wide valley, and it takes ten minutes to run to the hills on either side.
Knowledge is knowing that a massive herd of wild horses stampedes every hundred years, and that they completely fill the valley from side to side.
Wisdom is seeing the dust from the next herd of stampeding horses, and realizing they will be there in five minutes.
R. Lee Hadden (These are my own opinions!)