Data system is a term used to refer to an organized collection of symbols and processes that may be used to operate on such symbols.[1][2] Any organised collection of symbols and symbol-manipulating operations can be considered a data system. Hence, human-speech analysed at the level of phonemes can be considered a data system as can the Incan artefact of the khipu and an image stored as pixels. A data system is defined in terms of some data model and bears a resemblance to the idea of a physical symbol system.
Symbols within some data systems may be persistent or not. Hence, the sounds of human speech are non-persistent symbols because they decay rapidly in air. In contrast, pixels stored on some peripheral storage device are persistent symbols.
Ineducation, a data system is a computer system that aims to provide educators with student data to help solve educational problems.[3] Examples of data systems include Student Information Systems (SISs), assessment systems, Instructional Management Systems (IMSs), and data-warehousing systems, but distinctions between different types of data systems are blurring as these separate systems begin to serve more of the same functions.[4] Data systems that present data to educators in an over-the-counter data format embed labels, supplemental documentation, and help system and make key package/display and content decisions to improve the accuracy of data system users’ data analyses.[5]
