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Re: What is Data?

• From: "Seth Johnson" <seth.johnson@realmeasures.dyndns.org>
• To: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>, "'xml-dev@l...'"<xml-dev@l...>
• Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:10:58 -0400

-----Original Message-----
From: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>
To: "'xml-dev@lists.xml.org'" <xml-dev@lists.xml.org>
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:23:38 -0400
Subject:  What is Data?

> 
> Hi Folks,
> 
> Below is a definition of data, based on our recent discussions.
> I ask for your comments on these aspects:
>
> The following description of a book is not data, although it
> contains data: 
> 
>     In this groundbreaking book, evolutionary
>     biologist Jared Diamond stunningly dismantles
>     racially biased theories of human history by
>     revealing the environmental factors actually
>     responsible for history's broadcast patterns.


If you linked all the elements together with ID keys, you could
model the parsing of this like o:


Subject           Predicate       Object
Jared Diamond     action/verb     dismantles
Jared Diamond     dismantle act   theories
Jared Diamond     specialty       evolutionary biologist
Jared Diamond     preposition     in this groundbreaking
  dismantles                      book
Jared Diamond     preposition     in this groundbreaking
  dismantles                      book
  theories
Jared Diamond     preposition     in this groundbreaking
  dismantles                      book
  racially biased
  theories
book              adjective       groundbreaking
book              (not sure what) this
theories          adjective       biased
theories          preposition     of human history
dismantle act     adverb          stunningly
biased mode       adverb          racially
Jared Diamond     adverbial       by revealing
  dismantles      phrase?         the environmental factors
                                  actually responsible for
                                  history's broadcast
                                  patterns
Jared Diamond     adverbial       by revealing
  dismantles      phrase?         the environmental factors
  theories                        actually responsible for
                                  history's broadcast
                                  patterns
revealing         object          factors

and so on.

Just think of a data model for parsing language.


Seth



> Here is some of the data:
> 


> Here is some of the data:
> 
> There is an entity:
>     -	book
> 
> It has an attribute:
>     -	innovativeness: groundbreaking
> 
> There is an entity:
>     -	evolutionary biologist
> 
> It has attribute:
>     -	name: Jared Diamond
> 
> It has a relationship:
>     -	this entity is the author of the book entity
> 
> And so forth.
> 
> This example shows that text can be mined for data. 
> 
> 
> ANOTHER EXAMPLE
> 
> This is not data and it contains no data:
> 
>     Run really fast.
> 
> The sentence contains a verb followed by an adverb followed by
> an adjective. Verbs, adverbs, and adjectives are not data.
> 
> Data are nouns.
> 
> 
> xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>         Simplification
> xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 
> Recent research suggests that there may be just two categories
> of data:
>     1. Entities
>     2. Relationships
> 
> An attribute is merely a special case of a relationship.
> 
> 
> EXAMPLE
> 
> Above we stated that these represent an entity, attribute, and
> relationship, respectively: 
> 
> John Smith
> Six feet tall
> Father of
> 
> Rather than considering "Six feet tall" as an attribute of
> entity "John Smith", we can consider "Six" to be an entity and
> there is a relationship (has a height of) between "John Smith"
> and "Six":
> 
> John Smith has a height of Six
> 
> Thus, in this example there are two entities ("John Smith" and
> "Six") and two relationships ("has a height of" and "Father
> of")
> 
> 
> xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>         Data and Datum
> xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 
> Data is the plural of datum, a singular item. In practice,
> however, people use data as both the singular and plural form
> of the word.
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• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: What is Data?
    • From: "Seth Johnson" <seth.johnson@realmeasures.dyndns.org>

• References:
  • What is Data?
    • From: "Costello, Roger L." <costello@mitre.org>