Week 2 - Digital Representation

Session 2, learning the basics of what makes a computer tick.

Data can be stored, represented and managed in different ways. Computers use 2 electronic states, positive and non positive. So they use a binary system, just 2 digits, bits, usually represented by 0 and 1. This is stored inside the computer in various sizes ranging from 1 to 8 bits, or larger. A collection of 8 bits is called a byte. Computers are generally built to deal with multiples of bits 8,16,64,128

This binary information can also represent other kinds of information. Software applications and operating systems need data to be structured in a specific way in order to interpret and process, this is referred to as the file format. ASCII - the American Standard Code for Information Interchange provides a common coding system. It uses 7 digit binary sequences to interpret characters that can then be displayed as text or, more accurately, ASCII 'text' format.

In order for the computer to interpret and apply meaning to information it needs data about the data! Metadata. Markup is a way of including the metadata. This can be semantic - what the data means (sometimes includes presentation). Presentational – purely how it's displayed.

Collections of digital information of a certain topic or theme and in distinct packages, files and folders, just like a traditional library.

Documents can be made up of one file or more. Files may be in more that one document. One file can also contain information from another file. If information is embedded in the document it’s 'file-centred' view, if simply linked it’s 'document-centred'.

This organised hierarchical structure is the beginning of information architecture. Groupings of files are often referred to as folders or directories. The top level is known as the 'root', a unique location in the hierarchical structure, this can be folders, within folders, within sub-directories. Tracing back to the location is known as file path name.