Data and Information

Question 1

What is Data?

Answer 1

Data is facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis. Data has no real meaning

Question 2

What is Information?

Answer 2

Information is facts provided or learned about something or someone. Processed data which has been given a meaning

Question 3

What is Knowledge?

Answer 3

Knowledge is the understanding of rules needed to interpret information. Knowledge workers are specialists in their subjects so they are experts in that subject

Question 4

Explain direct and indirect data sources with examples

Answer 4

Direct data source - comes from the original source eg. EPOS (Electronic Point Of Sale)

Indirect data source - comes from another source, collected and used for another purpose eg. likes on Facebook create related ads

Question 5

What are the benefits and drawbacks of coding data?

Answer 5

Benefits:

• Codes like M and F take up less space
• It is faster to input the information
• Validation is made much easier
• Search times are reduced when looking for data

Drawbacks:

• Precision can be lost
• User needs to know the codes in order to input them

Question 6

What is encoding?

Answer 6

Encoding is the process of putting a sequence of characters (letters, numbers, punctuation, and certain symbols) into a specialized format for efficient transmission or storage. For example an email can be encoded into binary and then sent.