Data Science - Structured Data: Discussion and Analysis

This discussion post delves into the concept of structured data, outlining its primary sources and its crucial role in the data-information-knowledge continuum. The assignment highlights that structured data originates from sources like machines (sensors, RFID tags) and direct human input. The post emphasizes how structured data facilitates the process of transforming data into meaningful information, which then leads to knowledge. The discussion explains that the structured format is essential for effective processing by information systems, in contrast to unstructured data. This assignment provides an understanding of how structured data supports the data-information-knowledge pattern and the importance of data organization for deriving valuable insights. Furthermore, the post includes references to relevant research on the topic.

Running head: STRUCTURED DATA
STRUCTURED DATA
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Date

1STRUCTURED DATA
What is the primary source of structured data?
Ans: The term Structure Data means any data that are inside a particular field of a file or
record. The structured data are generally contained in the spreadsheets and relational
databases. The primary sources of Structured Data are few, in fact, it can be generated only in
two ways. Firstly, it can be generated from machines like sensors, GPSs, RFID tags, network
data, medical devices, weblogs and the devices which involve no direct human interaction.
By, the report of Interactive Data Corporation (IDC) in the year 2025 there will be
approximately 80 billion devices will be connected to the Internet that will be able to
generate and store a massive amount of structured data (Afolayan, White & Mason-Jones,
2016). Secondly, structured data can also be generated directly by humans interacting with
the computers and electronic devices. The examples are data generated from responses to
online surveys, direct human input in excel, MS word or in some other software based on
observations, Online game data and so on. The machine generated structured data are more
accurate and generated within very short time rather than the data human-generated data that
may contain errors or biasness.
Why does the data-information-knowledge continuum depend on structured data?
Explain
Ans: For minimizing the equivocation, a type of information system is used by organizations
that use a database for storing data and metadata (data about data). The Metadata help for
interpreting the data and transforming those into information. Then the information is
analyzed, and some knowledge about the concerned topic is obtained. The obtained
knowledge is then compared with proper justification and previous beliefs. This is known as
the data-information-knowledge continuum. Hence, the unstructured data (data with no
proper title, name or missing values) will be very much difficult to process by the information

2STRUCTURED DATA
system software in the database. Whereas, a well formatted structured data will be easier to
process by software and more meaningful insights can be obtained from the data.
Unstructured data are generated by faulty devices or unskilled persons and are not suitable for
software processing and need to be converted into structured data first (Song et al., 2018). As
the data become more structured, it becomes easier for the software for processing the data-
information-knowledge pattern and more detail interpretations can be obtained.

3STRUCTURED DATA
Reference list:
Afolayan, A., White, G. R., & Mason-Jones, R. (2016). WHY KNOWLEDGE
ACQUISITION IS IMPORTANT TO EFFECTIVE SUPPLY CHAIN
MANAGEMENT: THE ROLE OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGERS ‘AS
KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITORS.
Song, L., Smola, A., Gretton, A., Bedo, J., Borgwardt, K., Thoma, M., ... & Smola, A. J.
(2018). Predicting Structured Data. Journal of Machine Learning Research, 6, 1043-
1071.