Syllabus Focus: Unit 1 Module 1 Content 3

Specific Objective 3: explain the characteristics of data and information

Content: Definition of terms; examples.
Data: include unprocessed, unorganised and discrete (in separate, unrelated chunks),
qualitative (opinion- based, subjective) or quantitative (measurement-based, objective),
detailed or sampled.

Information: including distortion, disguise, reliability, inconsistency, incomprehensibility,

subject to interpretation, value, relevance, confidentiality, timeliness, completeness,
security, shareability, availability, lifespan, information as a commodity, format and medium;
Nature and structure of information: strategic, tactical, operational; structured,
semistructured and unstructured.

Characteristic of data and information

Characteristics of Data

 it is unprocessed
 disorganised
 discrete (in separate, unrelated chunks).
Qualitative (opinion-based, subjective) or quantitative (measurement-based, objective)
The opinions of 1000 people about a government policy would be qualitative. Rainfall
measurements would be quantitative.
Photographs, videos, sound recordings and so on, can be considered qualitative data.

Data can be detailed or sampled. Detailed data would include facts about every occurrence of
something (e.g. the weight of every packet of M&Ms leaving the factory). Sampled data would
use typical measurements to represent the whole (e.g. weighing every 100th packet of M&Ms)

Characteristic of Information

 Completeness
If information is not complete, bad decision can be made. For example, if you were
choosing a car, and had no information about safety on any of the models you were
contemplating, you could make a really skull-crushing decision.

 Accuracy, correctness
It makes sense that accurate information is the best kind of information. Beware when
you are searching for information... especially on the Internet. Any old idiot can say
anything he or she likes. You must judge each piece of information based on
i) What you already know
ii) The reputation of the information source (have they usually been accurate in the past?)
iii) Has the information been checked by others? (books are carefully edited by experts,
webpages might not be)

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 iv) Is the author biased? (Do they work for the company who makes the product they are
praising? Are they prejudiced?)
v) Is the information up-to-date (timely)? Are you buying a computer with a 1998
magazine ad?

 Timeliness - Information needs to be available when it's needed, not some time
afterwards. "Timely" means "appearing at the right moment".
Also, in a related sense, information needs to be up-to-date. Some info can be valuable
one day, and useless the next. A newspaper article examining the chances of candidates in
a Federal Election might be spot-on the day before the vote, and ridiculous the day after.
All information has a "use by" date. Be very wary of consuming information that is out of
date!
With books, check the date of publication. Some topics rarely change with time (e.g. the
themes in Shakespeare). Others change by the minute (e.g. what stock is good value).
With webpages, check the "Last Updated" date, if there is one (be cautious if there isn't
one and the issue is changing constantly.) Old webpages are sometimes only good for
historical research...i.e. is it available when it's needed?
 Consistency - Beware if your source of information changes its mind at various places,
or contradicts itself. It is the sign that it is untrustworthy. If a newspaper review of a film
glows about it, then later pans it, you can be sure the author is either confused or stupid.
In either case, treat all the information with the caution it deserves.
 Validity – To be valuable, information should be unbiased, representative and verifiable.
Bias can be conscious (e.g. advertisements) or unconscious (through prejudice or
ignorance).
If information neglects key topics or issues, it might not represent the full knowledge-
base you need to know. If, for example, you wivit an American website discussing world
history, don't be surprised if it seems that America won both World Wars single-handedly
- even though they started late in each of them.
If information cannot be independently verified, it should be treated with utmost caution.
In court, "hearsay" evidence is treated with near-contempt. Just because someone says
something happened does not mean it really happened. There needs to be a way to
investigate claims beyond what a single person (or organisation) says. If you believed
everything you were told without checking out the facts, you'd be a fool. Sad to say,
many people watching 6:30 current affairs shows are fools.unbiased, representative,
verifiable
 Appropriateness – Information can be presented in different ways. Some ways may be
meaningful and relevant, and formatted to suit the user’s needs : others may not.
If you are searching for basic information on networks and you find a site that discusses
intricate technical specification of file servers that you simply don't understand - the
information is worthless to you. It might be a pot of gold to someone else, but it has no
value to you.
Similarly, if you were researching the causes of the common cold and you found a book
that said, "Colds are caused by bugs, so be careful if your playmates sneeze near you",
the information might be valid, but in an inappropriate form.

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 Information might be presented in a fashion that is inappropriate to your needs. For
example, if you were a security operative in a large retail chain, and you suspected an
employee was stealing money, you'd want detailed transaction records, and not a
summary graph showing the store's sales over a month.
On the other hand, if you were the CEO of the company and you wanted an indication of
the company's progress, a thousand cash register receipts would be useless. You'd need
the information summarised or aggregated to be of any use to you.meaningful and
relevant, formatted to suit the user’s needs
 Uniqueness - Sometimes, information is valuable if you are the only one who has it. If
everyone in year 12 knew that S.Dish, the all-time cutie of the whole world was looking
for a date for the formal, the information would not be too valuable. However, if you,
alone, knew that the most desirable creature on earth was looking for a partner, you'd
certainly have some powerful information and you'd be around to the Dish residence with
offers and sweet words before you knew it.
Similarly, a business that owns unique intellectual property will guard it with all its might
because it is valuable while they alone possess it. Patents, marketing ideas, ad campaigns,
new products etc all fall into this category. Once their secrets are known, they are
worthless. That explains why organisations tend to be quiet about initiatives and new
products until they are publicly released.
During World War 2, Polish and British codebreakers cracked the German 'Enigma'
encryption device*, letting them know every move the Germans were going to make.
While the information was of immense value to the British, they could not let the
Germans know the information had been compromised. Therefore, Winston Churchill
allowed British cities and shipping convoys to be knowingly attacked because if they had
been unusually heavily protected, the Germans would have guessed that their codes had
been broken and would have increased their level of security.no competitor has it
 Relevance - If information is not relevant to the recipient, it is worthless. If you are not a
gambler and you hear a tip that a horse is a "dead certainty" at Randwick tomorrow, it is
useless information. For a puntser, however, the information might be pure gold.
Information is not universally valuable: it is valuable only to a person who needs it and
can use it.
 Usability - how well has the data been packaged and presented to let the user understand
and explore the data during decision making activities?
 Accessibility - How easily can a person access the data or information? If it's hard to get
to, its value suffers.
 Cost - Creating, collecting, storing, delivering, and protecting information is not cheap.
They require expensive personnel, hardware, software and time.
 Security - the accessibility of data by all authorised users and the prevention of any
unauthorised users from accessing the data. The security of information determines its
availability to users for problem solving and decision-making.
 Confidentiality - the availability of data only to a very restricted set of users. It must not
be viewed by anyone for whom it is not intended. The data must be secure to ensure its
confidentiality.
 Value - the usefulness of information to facilitate problem-solving and decision making
and to enable the organisation to gain advantage over its competitors. Since information

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 has value it is a saleable commodity and it is shareable. It may be presented on different
media (for example, diskette, CD, tape, book, newsletter, email) and in a variety of
formats (for example, table, graph, chart, text, video, audio).
 Distortion the presentation of data to induce a particular interpretation. Data may also be
disguised in order to discourage certain interpretations.

The value of data

Whether you are managing a business or you are a single home user, your data is worth a lot to you. Imagine
your hard disk crashed tomorrow and you had no data backup. What sorts of data would you lose?Imagine the
time, pain and effort it would take to re-create all those things.

Think of the things you'd really scream about if you found they'd disappeared from your computer: what do
they have in common? They are original. They are irreplaceable. You can't download your school work: they
took a great deal of effort and time to create and replacing them would involve incredible work.

Now imagine you're a business manager. Your information system stores most of the things listed above, but
also a lot more:
- client lists
- payroll information
- tax records
- accounting details
- transaction details
- records of who owes you money
- records of whom you owe money to
Imagine losing those: it would be more than a major pain in the rear end - it would be catastrophic. It would
cost you a fortune, it would cripple the company's productivity while the disaster recovery took place,
employees would be taken off normal profitable work to claw back what you had lost. To re-create lost or
damaged data costs thousands upon thousands of dollars and hours. The tax department would be after you
with knives drawn.
 Your company would be bankrupt.
 Your beloved wife or husband would leave you.
 Your dog would hate you. (A bit melodramatic, maybe, but you get the idea).
It cannot be stressed enough: DATA IS THE MOST VALUABLE THING A COMPANY OWNS.
An information systems manager simply cannot afford to have it happen. Ever.

Formal information is official and authoritative. It is meant to be taken seriously and is

presented in a formal manner. It is usually more carefully prepared and verified than informal
information, and its accuracy and reliability should also be higher. e.g. a company's annual report
to shareholders, a Principal's message in a school magazine.

Informal information is more casual, less authoritative, less formally presented, possibly less
reliable than is formal information. A company chairman's off-the-cuff comments over a cup of
coffee with colleagues would be informal. A quick email to a friend giving them some advice
would be informal.

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