Unit 2 Revision Cards

There are many different holders of information:

- Idividuals hold their own personal information like date/ place of birth.

They may also hold the same information on other idividuals or organisations. This information can be gained through third parties, the internet, books or even stolen. 

- Buisnesses can hold similar information as individuals.

Including things like dates/ place of birth of employees. They may also hold commercial information on competitors, like internal finances and external relevant markerts.

- Governements and healthcare services also hold a lot of infomation.

This includes: tax information, electoral rolls, residence, hospitals we visited & treatment recieved. They can also have information that the idvidual is unware of. The gov. can also hold information on other countries, e.g. foreign office.

- Charities & community organisations also hold information.

Charities may hold information on the donors, like their bank account information. While community organisations may have information like names and numbers of community members.

Data can also be held in various locations:

- In developing countries they tend to have access to computers and the internet

As well as this they may also have a less-developed industrial base than developed countries. The human development index is lower also. Due to the lack of technology it leaves these countries stuck like this without the ability to gain information to help them change and develop.

- Rural loactions tend to have worse connections to the internet than urban areas

Rural loactions are in the countryside rather than urban locations which are in cities/ built-up areas. These poorer connections speeds (through either broadband, mobile data or both) means that accessing online information is harder as the devices cannot connect as quickly as if they were in an urban area. 

- Acess issues cause a global divide

Access to the internet is not spread evenly throughout the world, this inequality is the focus of the global divide. It impacts various areas of society, including education, tourism and democracy.

Information can be held in many different ways:

Paper: Traditional form of information storage, inc. forms, handwritten notes, maps & telephone directories. Positives & Negatives: Relatively cheap but sending larger amounts (e.g. books) globally by post can become quite expensive. It is also easily damged and is dfficult to keep the information secure.

Optical media: Film and music storage e.g. CDs/ DVDs software distribution. Data read by laser - how it gets its name. Positives & Negatives: CDs/DVDs are not expensive therefore multiple copies can be made and replaced if needed with very little financial implications. However they are also in read-only format so they cannot be edited. 

Magnetic media: Uses magnetic patterns to store. e.g. magnetic computer hard drives/ tapes. Often used to 'back-up'. Positives & Negatives: Hard drives rely on an internal spinning disc and will be damaged if dropped however they are used in computers so are less likely to be dropped anyway. Magnets placed near to magnetic media leave data inaccessible. Hard drives are also cheap but slower than things like SSD cards so hybrid options are avalible. Tape storage has to be searched completely to find a a part so is best for storage that doesn't require quick access.

Solid state media: Stores data in circuity rather than disc or tape. e.g. SSD cards & memory cards. Positives & Negatives: SSD cards are very fast, and can replace computer hard drives. They have the advantage of not requiring cooling air due to lack of moving parts they won't overheat.No moving parts also means it is more robust and less likely to be damaged if dropped so if good in portable devices. 

Key characteristics for media storage devices:

Mutability - ability to change to content stored. e.g. is it read only or read/write format.

Robustness - How likely it is to be damaged/ not damaged. e.g. SSD media less likely to be damged than magnetic

Acess to data - how quick and easy it is to access. e.g. how quickly can you get to the middle of a song.

Cost - How much it costs to purchase, use and mantain. e.g. SD cards are single purchase but cloud storage may have monthly payments.

Stoage Capacity - How much data can it hold. e.g. paper is theoretically unlimited but a hard drive may only have a certain amount avalible.

• This is so that it can be established how useful the media storage device is, depending on what criteria the is being looked for.
• Some media storage device have more or more useful benefits than others, such as SSD media is less likely to be damged than both paper and magneticd media as it is more robust then them.