The information oriented sphere is the sphere of software development and use that resides above the Data Oriented sphere. In conversations I have had here, the clearest distinction I have been able to come up with is to base the distinction between Data Oriented and Information Oriented approaches on context. The context of a piece of data is essentially the class, table, or XML tag within which it resides along with the more complex structure, business rules, and UI that that class table or tag is used in. Leaving the more complex structures etc. aside, data exists with its context as a specific schema - a class, table or xml schema. When this schema is fixed, then code gets written around it and it does not change without programming level code changes and schema changes. Fixed schema is essentially Data Oriented. When the xml schema, class, or table schema is fluid, and the code is written to work with a changeable schema rather than a specific one that it expects this is Information Oriented software. I have found after discussing this here for a while, that this is the clearest distinction I can make between data and information orientation on a technical level.
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