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# Glossary

Conceptual:
  A concept is an abstract, universal idea, notion, or entity that serves to designate a category or class of entities, events, or relations. Concepts are abstract in that they omit the differences of the things in their extension, treating them as if they were identical. They are universal in that they apply equally to everything in their extension. Concepts are also the basic elements of propositions, much the same way a word is the basic semantic element of a sentence.
Data (especially computer data):
  The presentation of facts, information or concepts which are created in a computer readable form or are translated into such a form.
Data and Database:
  An amount of data which are viewed by the operator as somehow going together plus additional data which is used by the DBMS to work correctly are called a database.
Database Management System:
  A database management system (DBMS) is a software product for the persistent, consistent and application independent storage and management of data. But also for the flexible and easy use of big and concurrently used databases.
Database System:
  A database system (DBS) consists of a DBMS and one or more databases.
Dimensions of Information:
  IIn the information theory three dimensions of information are distinguished: the syntactic, the semantic and the pragmatic. Let us take the example of a traffic light. In the syntactic dimension we differentiate the three colours red, yellow and green. But the traffic light makes more sense in the semantic dimension. In this dimension the colours are linked to meanings. Red means stop, green means go. However, only in the pragmatic dimension does the traffic light become useable for the traffic. Pragmatically, red means that the driver of a car must stop. (Anonymous)
Geodata:
  Geodata or data with a spatial relation are data about objects that through a position in space directly or indirectly can be referenced. The space is defined through a coordinate system which is in relation to the earth’s surface.
Geoinformation System:
  A geoinformation system allows capturing, storing, analysing and presenting of all data that describe a part of the earth’s surface and all on this part located technical and administrative equipment but also geoscientific, economic and ecologic features. (Translation) (BARTELME 1989)
Information:
  Information is a useable answer to a concrete question. (ZEHNDER 1998)
Information System:
  An information system extends the database with a couple of software tools for querying, presenting, transforming and analysing the data.
Metadata:
  Metadata is literally "data about data", is information that describes another set of data. A common example is a library catalog card, which contains data about the contents and location of a book: It is data about the data in the book referred to by the card. Other common contents of metadata include the source or author of the described dataset, how it should be accessed, and its limitations. Another important type of data about data is the links or relationship among data.
Redundancy:
  Redundancy, in general terms, refers to the quality or state of being redundant, that is: exceeding what is necessary or normal, containing an excess. This can have a negative connotation, superfluous, but also positive, serving as a duplicate for preventing failure of an entire system.
Structured Data:
  Data is called structured if it can be subdivided systematically and linked.
Syntax:
  Syntax can in linguistics be described as the study of the rules, or "patterned relations" that govern the way the words in a sentence come together.