Week 5, Information Management, 28-08-2007

Week 5 lecture was all about Information Management and the many different ways that information can be stored within the computer and also the Internet. The lecture went into great detail about atom and bit based file format. There are many different pros and cons on these two forms of storing information. The lecture also went into detail about how to organise and retrieving the information that was stored, for example word and not looking through hundred different files looking for that one file.

Atom-based information is things that can be generally held by hand. So the user is able to touch that information, so the information is made up of atoms making it a solid object. Examples of this are books, papers, and reports. This method is slowly being wiped out by Bit-based information.

Bit-based information is information that cannot be held. These are the sort of things that can be seen and not touch, mostly on a computer screen. The make up of the information are of bits, which is terminology from computes because everything that is stored on the computer are made up of megabits etc. examples of these are digital reproductions and also electronic content. As bit-based format is growing, the use of cds, e-mails and banking all change to suit change of information systems.

In the tute we just played around with favourites. We had to go onto the Internet and sort our favourites out into different categories. The point of this is to show us how professional students, should sort out their information they gathered. In this I sort out my favourite into different categories as follow:

By l_mason at 2007-09-09

We also had to list the pros and cons of using bit and atom information in detail. In conclusion I have come up with this.

Bit-based: they are information that can be sent, stored etc mainly on computers. They then can be viewed whenever needed as long as the viewer has access to such things as a computer. Bit-based are electronic content thus meaning people are unable to touch and handle it. Pros to using Bit-based are very easily move from one format to another making it very cheap. This also means it is easily mass-produced and easily edited. The cons are that the information could be unreliable, as it could have been tampered with. Also this means that people can clam this work as their own. Also the information that is found, many people find it very tempting to just click the print button, thus making it a very expensive act to do.

Atom-based: it is information that is solid and can be held. Examples of this are such things as books, magazines etc. The pro of using this, is we can easily find the information because we know where we have put it. This information can be easily protected and difficult to change making the information more reliable to use. The cons are that it is bulky and cost large amount of money if mass-produced. More harder for it to be sent around for other people to use it, also making the information, say out of date, hard to be edited. This sort of information is slowly being wiped out. As bit-based information grows, atom-based will slowly be wiped out. Not totally as there is always a place for bit-based information for everyone.

Another point of the lecture was all about the management of your files. All of the information that is stored in the computer all should be stored so that it can be easily found. For example keep all your social stuff away from university work. One way is to create named folders that are directly related to the information stored in the file. Extend the files so that you are able to find the information more easily. Just make sure when naming the files as Justin states, that you should be smart as you may need to find it in many years to come. When the information needs to be located use the search button. Type in the file name and the information should be easily found. Another method is metadata, which works similar way.

I believe that I use a very good method of storing my information. I try and keep the information for example my social life away from my university studies. I have set up a web style for my files to be sorted. I have separate files for each unit and they branch off to weeks, for some of them. I find it much easier to find documents unlike high school where I had used no form organization, just putting the information under my name that’s all.

For week five there is two readings. The first one is all about favourites. It shows the reader how to set up a favourites system. It shows how to keep it all organised and all in their separate folders etc. The point of this is to have all the websites set up so that for example, personal life is separated from university life. The second reading is by Dr Jim Mullaney. It is about correctly storing the information for example notes on the computer away properly so that it can easily be traced back again. He also talks about atoms and bits and makes it clear that not everything needs to be printed off, as there is a cost involved.