Database Management Software – An Important Element in the Information Technology Process

Information, in a broad sense, is structured, processed and organised information. It gives context to data and allows decision making on the basis of facts. For instance, a single customer’s sale in a restaurant is information it becomes information the business can utilise to find out which the least or most popular dishes are. Similarly, all the information about an individual, like what address he lives at, where he works and so on is information. However, information does not have a specific format as it varies from person to person and even field to field.

As information has no format, it is neither useful to people nor to the administration which generates, processes and delivers them. This is why, for instance, laws are formulated, made, sanctioned and maintained as physical information. But as the information is not usable in its original form, it needs to be translated or disassembled into some form of informative equivalent. In other words, it needs to become information in the Semantic Web or the information model of the twenty first century. The information model, by the way, refers to the idea that there is a language independent of content that makes information meaningful, that is, if it can help one reason about a given instance of the physical world.

The information theory also postulates that we can use information to control causation and to make predictions about future events it is a powerful tool for making sense out of the causal dynamics of the universe. It is beyond doubt that, for the foreseeable future, information theory will have a significant impact on how laws are formulated, how social organisations evolve, and how individuals deal with each other in a typical society. However, even after information theory has been around for a long time, many questions about the nature of information still remain. The following discussion highlights some of these questions and suggests answers that can at least be contemplated.

How does the information generated in information systems affect knowledge and understanding? Is information technology a priori a tool for advancing human beings or is it instead an emergent property of our society and culture? What about pragmatics? Pragmatics is the study of practical reasoning and the foundations of technical change and organizations. According to the pragmatics principle, organizations should base their technological, economic and political strategies on “what works”. The information technology community often disputes this principle, arguing that the utility of new information systems should override any desire to preserve the existing order of things.

Can information technology benefit society in other ways? For starters, the Internet has opened up enormous new opportunities for business, science and nonprofit organizations. In addition, it has created a vast market for sophisticated software. Innovations in information systems have also contributed to higher productivity, improved marketing, enhanced customer service, and more efficient distribution of goods and services. What about social benefits?

Organizations that have embraced information technology have faced a number of issues, ranging from security threats to ineffective communication and information exchange. Security breaches involving banks’ computers, for instance, have resulted in huge monetary losses and a great deal of public embarrassment. The widespread availability of low cost, high quality and widely deployed computer systems has also had a significant positive impact on the labor market. Organizations now need not wait for an information technology “recession” to gain advantage. Organizations today must develop a coordinated information technology infrastructure to gain advantage over their competitors. Organizations that do so will reap the rewards of database management software, which, as Lawrence Lessig has illustrated in depth, is one of the key elements in any successful information technologies system.