Chapter II
Information fundamentals
1- Quotes about information
a. Information is power. But it is what you do with it that either makes you
great or diminishes you.
b. President Thomas Jefferson 3rd president of the US and author of the
declaration of independence 1776 said: Information is the currency of
democracy. We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead nor
tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.
c. Inventor Thomas Edison: We do not know one millionth of one percent
about anything.
d. 20th century famous columnist Franklin Pierce Adams FPA: I find that
the great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up
something and finding something else on the way.
e. If you don’t know what you’re looking at, how do you find out what it is?
If you can’t find out what it is, how do you know what you’re looking at?
Thiddlededum & Twiddlededee, Alice in Wonderland
2- Definition of information: Information can be defined in 2 ways:
a. Knowledge in its different forms that may be acquired in different ways:
i. Knowledge acquired as a result of research, conventions and
seminars, study, experience, or instruction.
ii. Knowledge of specific events or situations that has been
gathered or received by investigation, communication,
intelligence.
iii. News collected from media:
1. Newspapers, magazines, brochures and books
2. Radio stations and TV channels
3. Internet sites
4. Other types of media.
iv. Computer Science Processed, stored, or transmitted data.
v. A numerical measure of the uncertainty of an experimental
outcome
vi. Statistical information: A collection of facts or data
b. The act of informing: As business strives to have knowledgeable
employees in order to get the highest quality performance; employees
should get the knowledge they need for that purpose.
c. Condition of being informed so business executives get the knowledge
they need for their job and be able to communicate needed knowledge
wherever that may be useful.
3- Quality of information: In order to be useful, information should have
several qualities and characteristics:
a. Timely: It is very important that a business manager have the
information available on time before making decision at any level of the
decision making process. Late information is never useful information.
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b. Accurate: Information must be updated. Accuracy is most needed in
business decision making. No one will be able to trust the integrity of
information whose accuracy is debatable.
c. Complete: A fragment of information will not be enough to make
sound decisions and may result in making the business environment
cloudy and misleading.
d. Well based: Business information must be referenced and supported
by facts, experiments, research or intelligence and expertise where it is
possible to get the expertise from renowned business experts.
e. Related to the business activity: What would we use information for
if it is not related to the activity of our business?
f. Kept secret: Business possession of some information will certainly
misfire if everybody in the market knows that a business has it.
g. Easy to verify, process and communicate:
i. Prior to being used, any information must be verified, because
there is lot of misinformation in the business environment,
exactly like in the army’s battle field. Business shall not allow
the use of raw information because that may expose it to
unknown risks.
ii. Business information system needs to have the possibility to
process this information and fit it into the decision support
system where that is useful and/or necessary.
iii. Information exchange and communication are tightly related to
coding and representation. In this context we can classify
information under three categories:
1. The digital information form
2. The coded information form
3. The conventional information form.
4- Digital information:
a. Digits mean numerals that were invented by ancient civilizations and
numeration systems that use them to represent digital information
b. Digits were developed to be used for computation and arithmetic
purposes but they
5- Important numeration systems:
a. The Mayan numerals: (Figure 2-1) Uses 2 codes the dot ( ) for 1
and the bar (
) for 5.
i. 5 dots make a bar.
ii. The base of the Mayan numeration system is 20
iii. Vertically leveled system with the 1 = 20^0 at the bottom.
iv. The levels are: 1 (20^0), 20 (20^1), 400 (20^2), 8000 (20^3),
160000 (20^4), etc…
v. 2013 will be written as follows: 5(20^2) + 13; which corresponds
in Mayan to: - Bar in the 3rd layer = 5 x 400 = 2000 plus a stack
of 2 bars topped by 3 dots in the 1st layer: 5 + 5 + 3 = 13. The
sum is 2013
2
Figure 2-1: Simplified table of Maya numeration system (base 20)
Layer
power
Number
5
4
3
2
20^4
20^3
20^2
20^1
160000
8000
400
20
1
20^0
1
2013 in Mayan
Conversion to
Decimal
2013
5 x 400
2000
(5+5+3) x 1
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a. The Roman numerals: Figure (2-2)
i. The Roman system is decimal (Base 10)
ii. It is the only numeration system that doesn’t use numeral digits.
iii. Instead of numeral digits, the Roman numeration system borrowed
capital letters from the Latin alphabet I, V, X, L, C, D and M
iv. The letters correspond respectively to: 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, 500 and
1000 as shown in the table of Figure (2-2) below.
Figure 2-2: Roman numeration characters
Letter
I
V
X
L
C
D
M
Decimal
value
1
5
10
50
100
500
1000
Decimal
power
1x
10^0
5x
10^0
10^1
5x
10^1
10^2
5x
10^2
10^3
v. Roman numeration system has a set of rules that govern the way
numbers are written, read, interpreted and manipulated:
1. As you start from the left larger number and you add while
going right.
2. If a lower number is on the left of a higher one it is simply
subtracted from the higher one and the result is considered
and added in the process.
3. Example one: 2013 is written (MMXIII)
a. MM for 2000 (1000 + 1000)
b. X for 10
c. III for 3 (1 + 1 + 1)
d. Adding the resulting numbers from left to right we will
have: 2000 + 10 + 3 = 2013
4. Example two: 1994 is written (MCMXCIV)
a. M for 1000
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b. CM for 900 (C to the left of M) (1000 – 100 = 900)
c. XC for 90 (X on the left of C is subtracted from C)
100 – 10 = 90
d. IV for 4 (I to the left of V is subtracted from V):
5–1=4
e. Adding the resulting numbers from left to right we will
have: 1000 + 900 + 90 + 4 = 1994
vi. As you will notice easily that Roman system is:
1. Very limited and cannot handle big numbers
2. Not flexible for math.
vii. This system is still used to denote small numbers or for luxury
decoration of watches, clocks, jewelry and decoration items
b. The Arabic numerals: (Figure 2-3)
i. Also called Hindu numerals
ii. Represent the modern decimal system used everywhere in the
world today
iii. Base 10 system
iv. Comprises 10 numerals (digits): 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.
v. The base 10 is the lowest composed number that includes 2 digits
1 and 0.
vi. Like the Mayan Arabic is a leveled system the levels are: 1 (10^0),
10 (10^1), 100 (10^2), 1000 (10^3), etc…
Figure 2-3: The Arabic numeration system
Power
10^9
10^8
10^7
10^6
10^5
10^4
10^3
10^2
10^1
10^0
Number
One billion
100 million
10 million
1 million
100 000
10 000
1000
100
10
1
2013
Multiply
1994
Multiply
2
0
1
3
2000
0
10
3
2013
1
9
9
4
1000
900
90
4
1994
vii. 2013 is computed as: 2 x 10^3 + 0 x 10^2 + 1 x 10^1 + 3 x 10^0
viii. 1994 is computed as: 1 x 10^3 + 9 x 10^2 + 9 x 10^1 + 4 x 10^0
ix. Important characteristics of Arabic decimal system:
1. Very flexible with Math operations
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2. Adaptable to all numbers regardless of their size
3. Very friendly and easy to teach
4. Easily converted to all other numeration system and easily
obtained in converting all other systems.
c. The Binary system: figure (2-3)
i. This base 2 numeration system was invented in 1701 by the
German mathematician Gottfried W. Leibniz who also invented a
computing machine.
ii. This is a leveled base 2 system that has only 2 digits 0 and 1
iii. Each digit is called a bit (abbreviation of binary digit).
iv. Like the decimal and Mayan systems the levels are: 1 (2^0), 2
(2^1), 4 (2^2), 8 (2^3), 16 (2^4), etc…
v. 2013 is written as: 1 x 2^10 + 1 x 2^9 + 1 x 2^8 + 1 x 2^7 + 1 x 2^6
+ 0 x 2^5 + 1 x 2^4 + 1 x 2^3 + 1 x 2^2 + 0 x 2^1 + 1 x 2^0 =
11111011101
vi. 1994 is written as: 1 x 2^10 + 1 x 2^9 + 1 x 2^8 + 1 x 2^7 + 1 x 2^6
+ 0 x 2^5 + 0 x 2^4 + 1 x 2^3 + 0 x 2^2 + 1 x 2^1 + 0 x 2^0 =
11111001010
Figure 2-3: Binary system table
Power
Decimal
2^15
2^14
2^13
32768
16384
8192
2^12
2^11
2^10
2^9
2^8
2^7
2^6
2^5
2^4
2^3
2^2
2^1
2^0
Number
4096
2048
1024
512
256
128
64
32
16
8
4
2
1
Number 1
Multiply
Number
2
Multiply
1
1
1
1
1
0
1
1
1
0
1
1024
512
256
128
64
0
16
8
4
0
1
2013
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
1
0
1
0
1024
512
256
128
64
0
0
8
0
2
0
1994
d. The hexadecimal or simply HEX numeration system: (FIGURE 2-4)
i. This system has a base 16.
ii. It is used in computer to represent information prior to processing.
iii. The 16 digits used are: 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E and F.
iv. The letter A represents 10, B represents 11, C represents 12, D
represents 13, E represents 14 and F represents 15.
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v. Because 16 is the base, the decimal number 16 = HEX 10
vi. 10 represents the base in any numeration system.
vii. HEX is used in the computer industry because of its easy
conversion to or from binary.
viii. Like the other systems: 1 (16^0), 16 (16^1), 256 (16^2), 4096
(16^3) etc…
Figure 2-4 HEX numeration system conversion table
Power
Decimal
Number 1
Multiply
Number 2
Multiply
16^5 = 2^20
16^4 = 2^16
16^3 = 2^12
16^2 = 2^8
16^1 = 2^4
16^0 = 2^0
1048576
65536
4096
256
16
1
7
D (13)
D (13)
1792
208
13
7
C (12)
A (10)
1792
192
10
Number
2013
1994
ix. Because 16 = 2^4, base 16 is easily converted into binary by
replacing 16 by 2^4 and vice versa (Binary is easily converted into
HEX)
x. 2013 is written as: 7 x 16^2 + D x 16^1 + D x 16^0 = 7DD
xi. 1994 is written as: 7 x 16^2 + C x 16^1 + A x 16^0 = 7CA
xii. It is curious to notice that conversion from HEX to binary can be
achieved by simply fitting the 4 bits binary value of each HEX
character in place of the character and we will easily get the
equivalent binary number:
1. 2013 = 7DD = 0111 1101 1101
2. 1994 = 7CA = 0111 1100 1010
xiii. And conversion from binary to HEX can be achieved similarly by
fitting the characters in place of their 4 bits binary values.
Data and information: (figure 2-5)
1- Digital data can be defined as the necessary ingredients used to process
information.
2- It is similar to the raw material needed to process a finished product.
3- Data can be: text, sound, picture, audio, video, graphs, waves or anything that
can be codified and quantified.
4- Information may also be processed into level 2 or level 3 or any higher level
information combined with other data and information.
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data
processing
information
• text
• media
• etc...
• rules
• formulas
• procedures
• document
• clip
• etc...
Figure 2-5: Data and information.
5- Levels of information: Example of a company’s payroll (figure 2-6):
a. It starts with the daily salary and working days of each employee as data
and ends with the payroll of the whole company.
b. Processing of number of days of each employee multiplied by his/her daily
salary will give us the employee’s paycheck as information.
c. The sum of all paychecks of employees within a department forms the
department payroll.
d. The sum of all department payrolls in the company forms the complete
company’s payroll.
e. This process illustrates the use of level 1 information to process level 2
information and the use of level 2 information to process level 3 and so
forth. The whole process is illustrated in the chart below
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rate
days
employee
store
department
employee
store
department
employee
store
department
payroll
Business
payroll
Figure 2-6: levels of information.
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i-
ii-
Data is processed to get level 1 information which, in turn, is processed in order
to get level 2 information which is processed to get level 3 information and so
forth
Consequently, the input may be data or information or both and the output is
always a newer level of polished or advanced information.
6- Other types of information
a. Conventional information: Raw information saved on basic media:
papers, tapes and disks of all kinds.
b. Coded information: uses an established coding scheme that is able to
represent data and adaptable to be transmitted via one or many
communication media.
i. Morse code was the backbone of the telegraph messaging
technology that was inaugurated in 1860 with a message sent from
the Supreme Court to President Abraham Lincoln.
ii. The encryption technology that is always used to insure, enhance
and maintain information security. It is based on a key that converts
the plain text into cipher-text or encrypted text. To retrieve the
original plain text, recipient must possess the key that may be:
1. A conversion table that assign to each character one or
many different characters.
2. Scrambling criteria that convert characters of the same file
into scrambled file.
3. A sophisticated math formula or model that converts each
character into one or many other characters and/or symbols.
Data representation
1- All types of data are used as ingredients to make information.
2- Computer processor can only process data that is represented in bits (binary digits) that
may have only two possible values 0 and 1.
3- We digitize data when we represent it with digits and the process is known as data
digitization.
4- All types of data can be quantified and digitized
5- The most important issue was to choose a reliable universal representation system
based on a bank of bits that may offer a number of combinations enough to:
a. Cover all letters and symbols world wide
b. Be reliable, flexible and easy to handle by the processor and other computer
components and electronic circuitry.
c. Used as unit of quantification of data and information processed, handled,
exchanged or stored.
d. Be compatible with computer processor, memory and storage media.
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6- The use of a set of 2 bits where each one may have 2 values will offer only 4 different
combinations (2^2) which are in this case: 00, 01, 10, 11
7- Early computers used set of 4 bits (BCD) Binary Coded Decimal which has the
possibility to offer up to 2^4 = 16 different combinations that were enough to represent
the decimal and HEX digits, they also used set of six bits (BCDIC), Binary Coded
Decimal Interchange Code, for characters and printable graphic patterns, punched cards
and punched tapes used in Europe and the USA.
ASCII & EBCDIC (figure 2-7)
1963 the American government and IBM advanced an expanded set of 7 bits called (ASCII)
American Standard Code for Information Interchange to replace the old standards used in all
government agencies and services that set offer 2^7 = 128 different combinations to represent
data. This code was promptly extended to 8 bits later to offer 2^8 = 256 different combinations.
1- In the early 1960s, IBM launched its 360 computer series using 8 bits that was labeled
by IBM as (EBCDIC) Extended Binary Code Decimal Interchange Code, which is an
extension of the earlier set of 6 bits BCDIC.
2- The word “byte” deliberately advanced by Werner Buchholz to name the set of bits used
to represent data. It doesn’t mean 8 bits initially but it means it now because most
representation systems use 8 bits
3- The 8 bits set is called “octet” in most European systems.
4- The 8 bit set provides 2^8 = 256 different combinations which is still not enough to
represent all the scripts and characters of languages used around the world and the
graphical symbols and scripts used in arts and other activities of the environment.
1-
2345-
UNICODE
Because ASCII is biased to the English language, a much stronger representation
system called UNICODE was advanced, this system uses 2 bytes to represent data and
offer 2^16 = 65000 different combinations
EBCDIC is becoming obsolete and modern computer technology uses ASCII with the
possibility to convert files from ASCII to Unicode and vice versa.
While C, C++, C# use ASCII, JAVA uses Unicode for all applets and scripts, so all files
in websites and webservers need to be converted accordingly.
The conversion of ASCII files into Unicode is easy and achieved by filling zeroes to all
the left byte positions and the bad result is that the size of the file will double.
The table below illustrates the representation of decimal digits and some the characters
10
ASCII
Symbol
EBCDIC
00110000
00110001
00110010
00110011
00110100
00110101
00110110
00110111
00111000
00111001
01000001
01000010
01000011
01000100
01000101
01000110
01000111
01001000
01001001
01001010
01001011
01001100
01001101
01001110
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
11110000
11110001
11110010
11110011
11110100
11110101
11110110
11110111
11111000
11110001
11000001
11000010
11000011
11000100
11000101
11000110
11
01001111
01010000
01010001
01010010
01010011
01010100
01010101
01010110
01010111
01011000
01011001
01011010
01000000
00100100
01100001
01100010
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
@
$
a
b
Figure 2-7: Binary codes of some ASCII and EBCDIC numerals and letters
Important note: the Hex letters A B C D E F don’t have the same binary values as letters in this
table but as in the table below: Hex = 4 bits or a nibble of an octet (byte)
letter
A
binary
1010
B
C
D
1011
1100
1101
Fig 2-8 4 digit Binary values of HEX letters
E
F
1110
1111
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Binary representation of data
How can we represent all types of data?
1- Computers are expected to process all types of data of our modern global environment.
Business data is not an exception because it may include all types of data which are:
a. Text
b. Pictures
c. Documents
d. Audio and sound waves
e. Music audio and albums
f. Video and movie albums
g. Scripts and graphs and all type of data
2- The process of converting all known types of data into binary digits is necessary for the
computer to be able to process them.
3- The conversion process technology is known as: DIGITIZATION
The following paragraphs will explain how the basic ingredients of all these listed topics can be
done. We will start with the simplest
1-
Digitizing text: depending on the language used, a text comprises characters
and scripts that have ASCII binary equivalent or Unicode binary equivalent and all the
program has to do is to fit the binary value of each character’
a. Foreign Languages that have scripts use an intermediate step of conversion
ASCII-Unicode.
b. The pure text file has the smallest size
2-
Digitizing picture: The technology involved in digitizing pictures is an old
picture copying technology that consists of superposing a grid over the picture and
digitizing the cells of the grid as follow:
a. Each cell is called a pixel that stands for (picture element) or (picture cell).
b. The number of pixels of the picture is known as its “resolution”
c. Each cell has coordinates
d. Under each cell there is a color
e. Unlike the artist pallet composed of three basic colors Red, Yellow and Blue, the
digital color pallet consists of three basic colors Red, Green and Blue (RGB).
f. The intensity or amplitude of each basic color is stored in one byte which means
that we need 3 bytes to store one color spot.
g. The total possible color representation in 3 bytes (24 bits) is 2^24 = 16.6 million
different possible colors.
h. Example: a picture (800 x 600) will have a resolution 480000 pixels needs to be
stored: 480000 x 3 = 1440000 bytes almost 1.5 megabytes
i. That’s why picture files or document that has text and pictures are very big files
and need big storage area and fast Internet access.
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Figure 2-5 illustrates how we digitize pictures (picture courtesy Microsoft clip art library)
1- Resolution: the number of pixels in the grid is known as the picture resolution which is
the product of the number of rows multiplied by the number of columns: Resolution =
columns x rows.
a. The higher the resolution the higher the picture quality and the lower the
resolution the lower the picture quality because, with more pixels, more color
details are represented and the average color of the pixel will be much more
representative.
b. The higher the resolution the bigger the file and the lower the resolution the lower
the file volume of the picture.
c. Below is an example that illustrates the process:
i. 1000 pixel resolution will need a file of 3000 bytes for one-picture file and
9000 bytes for 3-picture file
ii. 2000 pixel resolution will need 6000 bytes for one picture file and 18000
bytes for 3-picture file.
d. High definition screens and monitors have very high resolution resulting in the
best possible picture quality. But need a special filtering technology and high
speed upload and download of the involved huge files.
2- Digitization process: To digitize a pixel we need:
a. To determine its location in the picture by its coordinates: For example r 50, c 80
correspond to the pixel located at the intersection of the row 50 and the column
80.
b. To identify its average color in RGB. We take the average color because the
pixel is extended over a relatively large area where colors are not the same all
over the area.
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3- Digitizing sounds: The sound waves are continuous waves generated by:
a. The change of air pressure
b. The magnetic vibration of loud speakers
c. The direct pressure variation caused by
i. keys of musical instrument
ii. human vocal cords
d. These waves are digitized using the sampling technology
e. A sound wave is continuous in time (horizontal axis of the graph) and variable in
amplitude or voltage intensity (vertical axis of the graph).
f. Digitizing the wave requires that we divide the horizontal axis into many equal
parcels of several microseconds each and dividing the vertical axis into 256
parcels of amplitude if we need to store the amplitude of each parcel in one byte
or 65536 parcels if the technology allows to store each one in 2 bytes.
Amplitude or
Signal strength
66000
6000
Time
4- Digitizing audio files:
a. Audio files are composed of a spectrum of waves, each wave corresponds to a
particular sound.
b. The big number of overlapping waves makes it impossible to digitize the entire
spectrum because the size of audio files becomes prohibitive.
c. MP3 is the most popular technology in audio digitizing and consists of the
following steps:
i. Perception step also called psychoacoustic consists of:
1. Discarding all waves that are beyond human hearing perception.
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2. Eliminating and filtering out signal strength that is higher than the
human hearing perception range.
ii. Digitizing the remaining waves is easy if we repeat for each wave the
sound process as it was discussed above. The size of MP3 file is usually
around 1/11 of its size on the CD and may be less or more depending on
the number of kilobits used in the process.
Amplitude or
Signal strength
66000
Audio spectrum
time
Amplitude or
Signal strength
66000
MP3 spectrum
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5-
Digitizing video files The video consists of two parts:
a. The moving pictures part that evolves at 24 fps (frames per second). The human
visual system (eye-brain) cannot perceive the time gap is higher than 1/15th of a
second, that is when the fps is higher than 14.
b. The continuous audio stream
c. These two components create massive data that is very hard to handle
d. An example of video stream consider 40 fps video and at 2 megapixel per frame
that would generate more than 80 megapixels per second.
e. Video compressing wile digitizing reduces the volume of video file to a
manageable size but on the flip side it reduces the quality of video.
f. A compromise has to be always made between the quality and the size because
no technology is able to achieve both simultaneously.
g. Codec (coder-decoder)
i. compared to (compressor-de-compressor) is software program that
enable video devices to encode and decode compressed video files:
ii. (.AVI of Windows and .MOV of MAC’s Quick time) need to have the
proper Codec installed to run a video file If the proper Codec is not
installed on the computer the file will not run.
iii. Popular Codecs are usually available in a single pack that you can
purchase and download online. However you need to create a restore
point prior to installing the pack because it may cause your system to be
bulky and unstable.
iv. It is advised that only one Codec pack be installed at a time.
Business and information:
1- It has been proven that no business can survive and prosper without clever and skilled
management whatever the business structure, organizational chart and plan are; and
whatever capital the business can invest to run its activity
2- No management can be productive without reliable information system.
3- Information in business can be compared to the blood in the body. And for the body to
survive, information must have some important characteristics:
a. Be accurate, updated, reliable and easily retrievable.
b. Be tightly connected to the business activity.
c. Has an easy flow within the business body.
d. Be timely delivered, interpreted and processed.
e. Must cover all business needs and fit all business forms.
4- Many polls conducted thru the last few years asking business and government
executives around the world what they consider the most important tool they need to run
their jobs and most of them highlighted information as the most important tool and asset.
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Modern business and information needs?
1- Introduction: most important aspects of modern economy can be resumed by
the following characteristics:
a. Global economy with an extended market frame or playing field or battleground that includes the whole universe
b. Networked economy that offers enhanced communication, acquisition,
promotion methods and all business agents beyond all limits.
c. Digital information system based on computer chips
d. Fast communication based on broad bandwidth
e. Market literacy about technology that is becoming more and more user
friendly with no need for expertise or specific skills.
f. IT departments imposed themselves as business information system de
facto specialists commissioned with equipping, organizing, updating and
providing information needs to all business departments.
g. Information needs vary with the category of business activity or
government agency.
h. Most needs are tightly related to department activities within each
establishment.
2- Information and business activities
a. Information technology (IT) department:
i. Computer hardware and software:
1. Input devices and software needed
2. Output devices and software needed
3. Processing possibilities needed
4. Mobile computing devices and apps needed
ii. Networking and communications policy and installation
iii. Internet access, website, email and databases
iv. Business application packages and cloud computing applications
v. Information documents (forms, interfaces and reports
vi. Data back-up policies
b. Human resources department (HR)
i. Permits and licenses
ii. Workforce market awareness
iii. Recruiting and staffing system
iv. training and updating system
v. Payroll, allowances and benefits system
vi. Promotion, Job assignment and re-organization system
vii. Public relations and customer service system
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c. Financial department
i. Account payables and payment policies
ii. Accounts receivable and collection policy
iii. Short and long term loans and payment scheduling
iv. Insurance policies set-up and follow-up
v. Portfolio, etc…
d. Material department
i. Market awareness:
1. Availability
2. Price
3. Competition
4. Research and development
ii. Inventory management system
iii. Sales management
1. Promotion and marketing
2. Order processing and fulfillment
3. After sale support
4. Customers feedback
iv. Supply management
1. Supplier agreements
2. Critical inventory level
3. Order quantities
4. Delivery timing and supply follow-up
e. Production department
i. Production lines and production equipment
ii. Raw material supply and inventory management
iii. Finished products inspection and release
iv. Packaging and storage equipment and supplies
v. Research and development
f. Transportation department
i. General transportation policy
ii. Delivery transportation policy
iii. Set-up of Itineraries
iv. Transportation back-up policy
v. Maintenance and repairs
19
Annex 2 - A
Conversion table Decimal to Binary
power
2^12 2^11 2^10 2^9 2^8 2^7 2^6 2^5 2^4 2^3 2^2 2^1 2^0
decimal 4096 2048 1024 512 256 128 64 32 16
8
4
2
1
2013
1994
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
1
0
1
1
1
0
0
1
1
0
1- Let’s covert 2013:
a. Look in the binary table above for the highest number that is lower than 2013
b. 1024 is lower than 2013
c. Write 1 under 1024 and subtract 2013 - 1024 = 989
d. 512 is lower than 989
e. Write 1 under 512 and subtract 989 – 512 = 477
f. 256 is lower than 477
g. Write 1 under 256 and subtract 477 – 256 = 221
h. 128 is lower than 221
i. Write 1 under 128 and subtract 221-128 = 93
j. 64 is lower than 93
k. Write 1 under 64 and subtract 93 – 64 = 29
l. 32 is higher than 29
m. Write 0 under 32 and move down
n. 16 is lower than 29
o. Write 1 under 16 and subtract 29 – 16 = 13
p. 8 is lower than 13
q. Write 1 under 8 and subtract 13 - 8 = 5
r. 4 is lower than 5
s. Write 1 under 4 and subtract 5 – 4 = 1
t. 2 is higher than 1
u. Write zero under 2 and move down
v. 1 is equal to 1
w. Write 1 under 1 and you are done
x. The binary number (11111011101) on the 2013 row of the table above represents the
binary 2013
2- To convert 1994 follow same steps above and you will get the binary number on the 1994 row in
the table above (11111001010)
20
ANNEX 2 – B
Decimal to Binary conversion
Decimal to binary conversion using successive division by 2 and write 1 when there is a reminder and
zero there is no reminder (divisible numbers.
1- The following division table shows how 2013 is converted:
Division by 2 of
subsequent
numbers
quotient
reminder
Digital bit
2013:2 = 1006
1006:2 = 503
503:2 = 251
251:2 = 125
125:2 = 62
62:2 = 31
31:2 = 15
15:2 = 7
7:2 = 3
3:2 = 1
1:2 = 0
1006
503
251
125
62
31
15
7
3
1
0
1
0
1
1
1
0
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
1
1
1
0
1
1
1
1
1
2- Conversion result is obtained by writing the bits from the bottom up and from left to right we
get the binary number 11111011101 that corresponds to the Decimal 2013
3- The result is the same we have got in the annex 2 – A method.
4- To convert 1994 or any other number use the same steps.
21
Information & business
Review topics
1- Quotes about information
2- Definition of information: Information can be defined in 2 ways:
3- Various forms of Knowledge defined as information
4- Statistical information: A collection of facts or data
5- The act of informing
6- Condition of being informed
7- Quality of information: characteristics of good information
8- Timely, accurate and complete information
9- Well based information and expertise
10- Easy to verify, process and communicate:
11- Categories of Information exchange forms
12- Digital information
13- The Mayan numerals: Simplified table of Mayan numeration system
14- The Roman numerals characteristics and table of Roman numerals.
15- Rules that govern the way Roman numbers As you will notice easily that
16- Characteristics of Roman numeration system and its modern use in our
society
17- The Arabic numerals
18- The Arabic numeration system table
19- Important characteristics of Arabic decimal system:
20- Binary system table
21- Characteristics of the Binary system
22- The hexadecimal or simply HEX numeration system
23- HEX numeration system conversion table
24- Characteristics of HEX numeration system
25- Data and information relationship
26- What is considered to be data or information
27- Levels of information
28- Conventional information
29- Coded information:
30- Data digitization
31- Byte why it is used? Octet.
32- ASCII data representation system
33- EBCDIC data representation system
34- 8 bit set provides 2^8 = 256
35- UNICODE representation system uses 2 bytes
36- Why we use Unicode?
37- Binary ASCII table
38- Hex borrowed letters A B C D E F and their binary value that is different than
ASCII representation as letters.
39- How we digitize text files
40- How e Digitize picture
22
41- What is pixel?
42- Resolution and file size
43- Digitization process of the pixel:
44- What generate the sound waves
45- Sampling technology
46- MP3 characteristics
47- Components of a video files
48- Video compression
49- Codec (coder-decoder)
50- Business and information: Characteristics of information in business.
51- Aspects of modern economy
52- How information covers business activities?
53- Information needs of Human resources department (HR)
54- Information needs of Financial department
55- Information needs of material department
56- Information needs of Production department
57- Information needs of Transportation department
23