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Information Systems and Databases Introduction
Information Systems and Databases Introduction
Information systems are computer systems that support end users, giving them access to the information. For a large number of information systems, the data is held in databases and access is via database management systems. Information systems perform a variety of tasks and these are considered in the following topics in the HSC course. While all of the information processes are represented in information systems, the emphasis in this topic is on the processes of organising, storing and retrieving with database systems and hypermedia.
text taken from IPT Syllabus, section 9.1: Project Management introduction.
Content areas
Content areas
Studies of Info systems and database is comprised of these areas of interest:
Each of these pages contains a nice summary of the topic and should be treated as exactly that, a summary.
A formal, sociotechnical, organisational system designed to collect, process, store, and distribute information is known as an information system (IS). Information systems are made up of four components from a sociotechnical standpoint: task, people, structure (or roles), and technology.
information system. Databases are structured collections of data that are typically organized using schemas, tables, queries, reports, and views. Databases are primarily designed to process data and allow quick access to information.
Organising in Database systems is a key component in any database. To effectively organise data in a database, the data structure needs to be well defined and declared. We organise our data into relevent tables, based on the entity that is being described. An entity, in terms of databases is an object that we describe. Entities can be objects like books, which we would describe with fields in a table like title, author, ISBN and so on, or Customer who may be described with such fields in a tables as First_Name, Surname, Address and so on.
We can also describe concepts as entities too. If our database is a book store, as suggested by the book and cutormer tables, then we could define as an entity a sale with fields like Date_of_Sale, ISBN, CustonerID and so on.
Storage and retrieval of data in local, network or distributed databases are very different concepts. Optimising a database is also a very important easrly task in database design, ensuring every field is a big as it needs to be and no bigger.
Remember the seven information processes: COASTPD - they all play an important part in database management
It should come as a surprise to no-one that databases contain a lot of data that should remain private. In 2022 and 2023 Australia has seen a number of high-profile database breaches where users private information has been leaked to the dark web. But what about data that is commonly available - such as your browsing history, view preferences or location? Should these be kept as private as possible too? This topic explores issues arising from the use of database systems. I should point out, from both positive and negative perspectives, it's not all doom and gloom...
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