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“4137X˙CH01˙Akerkar” — 2007/9/17 — 10:57 — page6—#6
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6 CHAPTER 1 Introduction to Web Intelligence
1.3 Knowledge
In today’s computer world, we frequently observe data as a string of bits, numbers, and sym-
bols, or objects, which are meaningful when sent to a program in a given format. Data can
be defined as a collection of mere symbols. When data is processed with semantic considera-
tions, we get information. Knowledge can be further defined as organized information. In other
words, knowledge can be considered as data at a higher level of abstraction and generalization.
Knowledge discovery is nothing but extracting valuable knowledge from a