Week 9: Chapter 4 Data and Knowledge Management:

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

Data should be of high quality, meaning it should be accurate, complete, timely, consistent, accessible, relevant and concise. Though the progression of acquiring, keeping and managing data is increasingly difficult to do so. Nevertheless the difficulties of managing data include:

• · The amount of data increases exponentially with time



• · Data are scattered throughout organizations and are collected by many individuals using various methods and devices.



• · Data is coming from various aspects such as internal and external sources.



• · New sources of data are always being developed and updated. (for example: blogs, video casts, podcasts and RFID tags)



• · Data decays and changes over time.



• · Data security, quality, and integrity are critical yet they are jeopardised.



• · Additionally legal requirement differ among countries.



• Due to data being difficult to manage organisations are using databases and datawarehouses to manage their data more efficiently and effectively.

Managing Data - http://simonwillison.net/2002/Sep/30/managingData/

2. What are the various sources for data?

The sources of data can be internal, personal, click stream and external (Internet). Internal data are usually located in corporate databases and are usually accessible via an organisations intranet. IS users create personal data by documenting their own expertise. These data can reside on the user’s PC, or they can be placed on corporate databases or on corporate databases or on corporate knowledge bases. Sources of external data range from commercial databases to sensors and satellites. Government’s reports constitute a major source of external data. Many thousands of databases all over the world are accessible through the internet.

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

Primary key is the identifier field or attribute that uniquely identifies a record. Where as a secondary key is the identifier field or attribute that has some identifying information, but typically does not identify the file with complete accuracy.

Definition - http://www.allinterview.com/showanswers/28849.html

4. What is an entity and a relationship?

An entity is a person, place thing, or event about which information is maintained in a record. Whilst a relationship is the connection among the different entities.

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

The relational database model is based on the concept of two-dimensional tables, which contains all of the records and attributes. The advantages of this database include: The ability to join related tables when they contain common columns which also allows great flexibility in the variety of queries they can make. In contrast the disadvantages include: due to the large-scale databases they can be composed of many interrelated tables, thus having an overall complex and slow search and access time.

6. What is knowledge management?

Is a process that helps organisations identify, select, organise, disseminate, transfer, and apply information and expertise that are part of the organisation’s memory and that typically reside within the organisation in an unstructured manner.

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

Tactic knowledge is the cumulative store of subjective or experiential learning; highly personal and hard to formalize knowledge. Though explicit knowledge is the more objective, rational, and technical types of knowledge.

“Tacit Knowledge” versus “Explicit Knowledge” - http://openarchive.cbs.dk/bitstream/handle/10398/7224/wp04-01.pdf?sequence=1