Data- are raw facts or observations that are considered to have little or no value until they have been processed and transformed into information”
External Data
Not all external data can be of use
Research
Facts
Data available within the organisation
Written documentation
Oral
Video
Types of Data
Quantitative data (hard data)
- data that contains numeric or other quantifiable elements, can be analysed using statistics.
Qualitative data (soft data)
- data that contains written and verbal accounts, can be analysed using generalisations for a theory
“Information is data that have been:
Processed so that it is meaningful
Processed for a purpose
Interpreted and understood by the recipient
Data are the raw facts collected for processing
while information is the processed facts. The facts are collected processed and interpreted into a language that can be understood.
These terminologies are used differently in computers but in the English language they are interchangeable
Major types of computer system
Supercomputers'
MAINFRAME computers
MINIcomputers
MICROcomputers
SUPERcomputers
focused on performing tasks with intense numerical calculations
weather forecasting
nuclear simulations, theoretical astrophysics
complex scientific computations
processing speeds are measured in floating point operations per second, or FLOPS
most powerful
very expensive
$800,000 to $2,000,000
MAINFRAME computers
capable of handling and processing very large amounts of data quickly
used in large institutions such as government, banks and large corporations
hey are measured in MIPS (million instructions per second)
respond to up to 100s of millions of users at a time most powerful
MINIcomputers
class of multi-user computers
lies in between the smallest multi-user systems (mainframe computers) and the largest single-user systems
Known as servers (file servers, webservers)
used in all organizations
MICROcomputers
(personal...