Re: In an RDBMS, what does "Data" mean?

Anthony W. Youngman wrote:

> x writes:

...
>> Why you have not answered the question ? ...
> But *I* don't know what "data" is "as it really is", and from the
> answers I've got so far I don't think anybody else does. The best
> definition so far is for data as it is defined in the relational model
> (and that's pretty much the only proper definition anybody's tried to
> give).
>
> And if we haven't got a philosophical definition, we can't compare the
> philosophical and theoretical definitions, and therefore we haven't got
> a clue as to whether either "the relational model mostly works", or (and
> this is important) where its limitations are and where it breaks down.

I won't answer the original question either (I'll just rephrase it), but I will share some thoughts about just what "data" means. Just a few associated concepts I have used to have some grasp of this - a semantical network, if you will. I have no sources or proofs, no famous
philosofer to refer you to.

The network roughly consists of: sign, media, shape and meaning.

We have signs. They serve to communicate. Signs: A handshake, a hieroglyph, an ideogram (e.g. a chinese character), a sonogram (roman, arab character), a facial expression, a traffic light on red, an alarm - these are elementary, but I would also include: the collected works of <your favorite moviestar>

In order to (just) exist all of these signs have media and shape, their pure existence does *not* require human (or just active) interpretation. Their function (purpose, ie communication), however *does* require some interpretation activity to assign meaning to them.

This combination of sign and meaning we call data.

To illustrate that this is not trivial:
Data (but not signs by themselves) can represent other signs: I can write "The traffic light was red", but they can also represent other data: "We stopped because of the traffic light".

Aside: From here (sign and meaning) on "up" (towards information, knowledge, insight, wisdom, action, ...) there is actually a lot of philosofical work and practical research. Disciplines:
Semiotics, semiology and linguistics.
(Note: no computer needed)

Now, when we assign same or similar meanings to bitpatterns, most of the time conviniently represented by the same shape but evidently on another medium, we have computerdata, data for short.

Finally, the rephrase of your question:
How does the type of DBMS affect what we consider data? Received on Sun May 16 2004 - 03:02:16 CEST