Glossaire
- Conceptual:
- A concept is an abstract, universal idea, notion, or entity
that serves to designate a category or class of entities, events, or relations. Concepts
are abstract in that they omit the differences of the things in their extension,
treating them as if they were identical. They are universal in that they apply equally
to every thing in their extension. Concepts are also the basic elements of propositions,
much the same way a word is the basic semantic element of a sentence.
- Data (especially computer data):
- The presentation of facts, information or
concepts which are created in a computer readable form or are translated into such a
form.
- Data and Database:
- An amount of data which are viewed by the operator as
somehow going together plus additional data which is used by the DBMS to work correctly
are called a database.
- Database Management System:
- A database management system (DBMS) is a
software product for the persistent, consistent and application indepent storage and
management of data. But also for the flexible and easy use of big and concurrently used
databases.
- Database System:
- A database system (DBS) consists of a DBMS and one or
more databases.
- Dimensions of Information:
- In the information theory three
dimensions of information are distinguished: the syntactic, the semantic and the
pragmatic. Let us take the example of a traffic light. In the syntactic dimension we
differentate the three colours red, yellow and green. But the traffic light makes more
sense in the semantic dimension. In this dimension the colours are linked to meanings.
Red means stop, green means go on. However, only in the pragmatic dimension the traffic
light gets useable for the traffic. Pragmatically, red means that the driver of a car
must stop. (Anonyme)
- Geodata:
- Geodata or data with a spatial relation are data about object
that through a position in space directly or indirectly can be referenced. The space is
defined through a coordinate system which is in relation to the earth surface.
- Geoinformation System:
- "A geoinformation system allows to capture, store, analyse and
present all data that describe a part of the earths surface and all on this part
located technical and administrative equipment but also geoscientific, economic and
ecologic features. (Translation)" (BARTELME 1989)
- Information:
- Information is a useable answer to a concrete
question. (ZEHNDER 1998)
- Information System:
- A information system extends the database with a
couple of software tools for querying, presenting, transforming and analysing the data.
- Metadata:
- Metadata literally "data about data", is information that
describes another set of data. A common example is a library catalog card, which
contains data about the contents and location of a book: It is data about the data in
the book referred to by the card. Other common contents of metadata include the source
or author of the described dataset, how it should be accessed, and its limitations.
Another important type of data about data is the links or relationship among data.
- Redundancy:
- Redundancy, in general terms, refers to the quality or state
of being redundant, that is: exceeding what is necessary or normal, containing an
excess. This can have a negative connotation, superfluous, but also positive, serving as
a duplicate for preventing failure of an entire system.
- Structured Data:
- Data is called structured if it can be subdivided
systematically and linked.
- Syntax:
- Syntax can in linguistics be described as the study of the rules,
or "patterned relations" that govern the way the words in a sentence come together.