What is data?

ByKevin VanDriel

The word “data” gets thrown around a lot. If you don’t work with it every day, it may just seem like an abstract concept.

Definition of “data” by Webster’s Dictionary:

  1. factual information (such as measurements or statistics) used as a basis for reasoning, discussion, or calculation
  2. information in digital form that can be transmitted or processed
  3. information output by a sensing device or organ that includes both useful and irrelevant or redundant information and must be processed to be meaningful

If you’re reading this article, you’re participating in all 3 definitions.

What you just read is a fact, transmitted to you in a digital form, and my organic fingers typed all this for you to read with your eyes. Hopefully, none of it was redundant and all of it was useful.

For your phone or laptop to display this, a lot of things had to happen.

  1. I was asked to write this blog post by my web designer over Facebook Messenger on an Apple iPhone connected to a Wi-Fi router.
  2. I opened Notepad on my laptop and typed these words with my fingers on a wireless keypad.
  3. I opened a browser and inquired for the definition of “data” through Google, which in turn led me to a website hosted for Webster’s.
  4. I saved this Notepad text file and sent it to my web designer, Web Design by Mark.
  5. Mark posted this text in a WordPress blog format that’s attached to Vandromeda.com.
  6. You, as the reader, either subscribed to this blog or visited my page, which was the result of this data getting moved around.

It’s easy to take this for granted. Part of the beauty of data movement is being aware of how it transforms and why it exists. Ultimately, the function of data is to make its way to a brain somewhere in the world.

Increasingly, we forget that data represents a large, vast realm of information. Where it comes from and where it goes is what makes it live!

What does this have to do with Vandromeda? Vandromeda wants to move data. It’s that simple. Whether by transforming your business need into an automated report, or translating a file that’s hard to work with into something that’s not so awful, Vandromeda wants to be there.

Keep coming back for more news articles, as this is the first of many insights.

Kevin VanDriel