Week 9 (Chapter 4)

1. What are some of the difficulties in managing data?

In past data was mainly collected in hard paper copy and was filed in cabinets. In modern times data exists in various mediums and texts, such as emails, text, images and audio etc. Keeping a hard copy of these communication data can lead to an overload in terms of space. Even managing data on a system can still create problems and must be managed carefully.

2. What are the various sources for data?

Data can either come from internal or or external sources. Internal data sources is stored internally within an organization. This contain data on the products, people, customers, services, processes, income and expenses. External data sources are made by an independent body which collects general information on a topic.

3. What is a primary key and a secondary key?

The primary key is a unique identifier or code that has no duplicates and can easily recognize an entity. A secondary key are all other fields other than the primary key. Secondary keys can have duplicates and provide information to identify the entity but not with full accuracy.

4. What is an entity and a relationship?

An entity is an individual body (includes person, place, event thing) and is conceived as something separate. A relationship is something that two or more entities have in common.
These relationships are normally displayed on a table showing information on each entity.

5. What are the advantages and disadvantages of relational databases?

Advantages:
-provides information on relationship between individuals
-places information on a single view table
-updates as data on entities change
-easy access to information
Disadvantages:
-only provides certain information
-usually data is not elaborate and simplistic

http://it.civil.aau.dk/it/education/images_slides/asp_www_db_intro.gif

6. What is knowledge management?

Knowledge refers to what is contextual, relevant and usable. Knowledge normally refers to humans intellects. Knowledge management is about sorting, storing and contextualizing relevant information.

7. What is the difference between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge?

Tacit knowledge is the knowledge that is difficult to be communicated to another by means of writing it down or verbalized. Explicit knowledge is the exact opposite to tacit knowledge as it is easy to articulate, verbalise and transfer the knowledge using different mediums.