Capturing and processing Data

Capturing and processing DATA:

Data – collection of facts. What we input into computers is all data. Data is often useless with out information to back it up.

Information – is what humans want, it is output from a computer system. It is data in context, it has meaning to us but not to the computer, a computer only understands data.

Knowledge - it is coherent understanding based on information. It includes understanding links between different items of information and how actions can be decided.

Data capture is a process of getting data information from the outside world and putting it onto a computer.

Paper Forms:
Human data collection usually means filling in forms. Forms are useful because they can force a structure on the data being collected. For example, if someone is filling in a form in order to provide a name and address, there will be separate spaces for each item of information. Tick boxes can be used to restrict the information being entered. When forms are given out to people, they will all have to fill in they same type of information so that it is easy to process
The structure can have some restrictions so that the data is more generalised and easy to store on a database.

Computers:
It easier to change mistakes on a computer and validation is available. Validation makes sure that the information you are typing in is relevant to the field you are entering data into. You can set the format of fields, for example whether the data is going to be words or numbers. Validation cannot stop all mistakes. In a table that holds stock items, validation can check that you do not enter a letter for the number of items in stock, or a number less than zero. But, if the number in stock is 25 and you enter 35, validation checks are unlikely to stop the error. You can set a maximum, but it won’t notice the mistakes in numbers in-between. Computers also save a lot of time.