INFORMATION PROCESSING

Information Processing .

Data and Information

Objective: distinguish between data and information.

 Data is all the raw facts and figures that a computer processes by following a set of instructions called a program. Data by itself has no meaning; it can be in the form of letters, numbers, pictures, sounds, or symbols. It is only when we attach meaning to data that we get information.

Therefore, information can be defined as meaningful knowledge produced from raw data files.

Example: If you collect the temperature of your classroom each day for a month, you have collected data. When you instruct a computer to arrange (sort) this data, you could get information such as the following:

Ø  The highest temperature over the period

Ø  The lowest temperature over the period

Ø  The mean (average) temperature over the period

This information may then be useful, for example, to determine whether a classroom is too hot or too cold for comfortable working. If the information were just raw data, it would not be easy to interpret. Hence the computer has helped you look at real-life situation or problem and make some sense of it.

Data processing is the manipulation of data to obtain information. So taking one of the examples above finding the mean temperature gives an indication of the average temperature for the period.  Using computers to process information is called information processing.

The term Information system is given to any record-keeping system. Common examples of manual information systems are address books, dictionaries, telephone directories and school timetables. What these examples have in common is that data has been collected (input), processed and displayed (output) in order to provide useful information.

Information is collected for the purposes of culture, leisure, work, research and everyday life. In organizations, however, it is mainly used for planning and decision making. There are many sources of information, including, for example:

Ø  Measurement: sales, productivity output, cash receipts.

Ø  Informal communication: word of mouth, meetings

Ø  Publication: hurricane preparedness tips and trends in chronic diseases.

Ø  Questionnaires: opinion polls, market research.

Once information is collected, it is often communicated directly to the person who wishes to use it. In order for it to be useful, information must be:

Ø  Relevant: it must be what the user needs to know, and be up-to-date (abreast).

Ø  Accurate: it must be as correct as possible.

Ø  Timely: information should be provided for problem-solving before critical stage is reached and opportunities are lost.

Ø  Complete: it must represent a complete picture of a problem or solution

Ø  In an appropriate medium: it should be delivered using an appropriate communication medium, whether by oriented material or storage device.

Ø  Cost-effective: the value of information should be more than the cost involved in its collection.

Information as a commodity

An information commodity is an item of information that can be bought or sold. For example, with online information you may have to pay a charge every time that you access that information.

The major types of information for sale are:

Ø  Databases, especially banking and other financial information which give demographic, tracking and buying trends.

Ø  Information retrieval systems, such as abstracting and indexing services.

Ø  Full text databases and reference materials such as encyclopedias

Ø  Other, less formal, publications such as subject-specialized bulletin boards, which in some cases may replace the more traditional journals.

Information for decision making

An organization about to start any major project must first gather information. Planning enables the organization to:

Ø  Define the scope of the project to be conducted

Ø  Identify available resources

Ø  Recognize any problem areas

Ø  Arrange a sequence of tasks necessary to complete the project

Ø  Specify levels of performance and methods of measurement.