Data, information and knowledge are the basic resources in social production activities, which can be expressed by multimedia such as numbers, documents, symbols, graphics, sounds, movies and television. Moreover, they all have the characteristics of objectivity, authenticity, correctness, value, sharing and structure.

Data, information and knowledge are three successive stages for knowledge workers to perceive and understand objective things.

(1) Organization stage of data. Data is the original record obtained by perceiving objective things according to a certain scale. It can come directly from the real-time records of measuring instruments or from people's understanding, but a large amount of data is automatically collected and sorted from data sources with the help of data processing system. Data source refers to real-time data when objective things change.

(2) Information creation stage. Information is produced by customized processing according to a certain development stage and its purpose. Information system is a man-machine system for processing and creating information products. According to different objects, purposes and processing depth, information products can be divided into primary information, secondary information and even more advanced information.

(3) Knowledge discovery stage. Knowledge is the result of systematic refining, research and analysis of information obtained or accumulated by knowledge workers with their brains, and knowledge can accurately reflect the essence of things.