Topic 2: Information And Systems Flashcards
5 ways data can arise
- From the output of a management information system
- from a survey
- from automatic measurement of environmental quantities
- from a transaction
Forms of data
- numbers
- words
- images
- sound
What does coding data mean
When a person comes up with their own code (a shorter way of writing something) in order for the information to be entered more easily
Describe two examples of coding data
- one example of coding data is by coding the word female to F
- Another example of coding data is by shortening male to M
Advantages of coding data
- it takes less effort to type in and therefore is more effective as you are less likely to type in data incorrectly therefore it is more accurate
- because coded data means that it is shortened, it therefore means that more data can appear on screen
What does encoding data mean?
- Encoding is the process of putting information/data (e.g text, numbers, symbols, images, sound and video) into a specified format that allows effective transmission or storage by ICT systems
- ICT systems are only able to process binary code so any data has to be converted to this format before processing
Example of encoding data
ASCII encoding-characters on the keyboard (I.e letters,numbers, punctuation marks) are changed into a series of binary digits e.g the letter A is stored as 0100001
6 formats to encode images
- JPEG. -WMF
- WMF. -GIF
- VECTOR
- bitmapped
- TIFF
4 formats of sound files
How sounds are encoded
-WAV: used with windows for storing sounds
-MIDI: used mainly to communicate between electronic key,synthesisers and computers
-MP3:format uses compression to reduce file size
-Shockwave audio: used for high quality sound with small file size
Sound (speech and music) requires a lot of space so to reduce the storage needed for sound files compression is used during encoding
Information
- Data that has been processed and gives us knowledge
- data which is organised in some way
- data which is converted to give it meaning
How data is different from information
Data is raw values put into, stores and processed by a data processing system and then information is produced together with context that adds a meaning
Why does info need to be accurate
If information is not accurate then it is not needed and problems could be made if incorrect information is selected e.g credit card statements must have the correct rate of interest applied to the balance, otherwise customs could complain and the card company would be prosecuted
Why information needs to be up to date
Should be date stamped as using out of date information could result in a problem such as bills being sent to the wrong address, decisions being based on incorrect information
-requirement under the data protection act 1998
Why information needs to be complete
Because if there is missing info about a person it will be difficult to contact them e.g if a school needs to call a students parents and they don’t have their number they are unable to call
Why information needs to be relevant
Because if a person asks a company for specific information and they give them information that does not relate to what they asked for then it is irrelevant
e.g a group has asked their record company for a breakdown of their royalties for all months over the last 3 years and the record company only gave them the total royalties for each year. The group wanted to look at the seasonal variations in their royalties but the information given would not show this
