Questões

Everyone keeps data. Big organizations spend millions to look after their payroll, customer and transaction data. The penalties for getting it wrong are severe: businesses may collapse, shareholders and customers lose money, and for many organizations (airlines, health boards, energy companies), it is not exaggerating to say that even personal safety may be put at risk. And then there are the lawsuits. The problems in successfully designing, installing, and maintaining such large databases are the subject of numerous books on data management and software engineering. However, many small databases are used within large organizations and also for small businesses, clubs, and private concerns. When these go wrong, it doesn't make the front page of the papers; but the costs, often hidden, can be just as serious.

 Where do we find these smaller electronic databases? Sports clubs will have membership information and match results; small businesses might maintain their own customer data. Within large organizations, there will also be a number of small projects to maintain data information that isn't easily or conveniently managed by the large system-wide databases. Researchers may keep their own experiment and survey results; groups will want to manage their own rosters or keep track of equipment; departments may keep their own detailed accounts and submit just a summary to the organization's financial software.

Most of these small databases are set up by end users. These are people whose main job is something other than that of a Computer professional. They will typically be scientists, administrators, technicians, accountants, or teachers, and many will have only modest skills when it comes to spreadsheet or database software. 

The resulting databases often do not live up to expectations. Time and energy is expended to set up a few tables in a database product such as Microsoft Access, or in setting up a spreadsheet in a product such as Excel. Even more time is spent collecting and keying in data. But invariably (often within a short time frame) there is a problem producing what seems to be a quite simple report or query. Often this is because the way the tables have been set up makes the required result very awkward, if not impossible, to achieve. 

A database that does not fulfill expectations becomes a costly exercise in more ways than one. We clearly have the cost of the time and effort expended on setting up an unsatisfactory application. However, a much more serious problem is the unability to make the best use of valuable data. This is especially so for research data. Scientific and social researchers may spend considerable money and many years designing experiments, hiring assistants and collecting and analyzing data, but often very little thought goes into storing it in an appropriately designed database. Unfortunately, some quite simple mistakes in design can mean that much of the potential information is lost. The immediate objective may be satisfied, but unforeseen uses of the data may be seriously compromised. Next year's grant opportunities are lost.

Nice to meet you

One of the things you learn when studying English is how to present yourself and most people learn phrases such as “How do you do?” or “Hi, my name is…”. However, one thing that language teachers don’t explain is that British people very rarely use these expressions. British people are not very good at introductions in informal situations. They are not sure what to say or what do with their hands. Whereas Brazilians or Americans will confidently extend their hands to people they meet at parties or social situations, English people prefer just to smile.

Expressions like “Hello, I’m John Smith”, “Hi, my name is…” are only used when we have to identify ourselves; for example when we go to an appointment at the dentist’s or the hairdresser’s, or if we’re telephoning someone to ask for information about ourselves.

Dialogues in school books where English teenagers present themselves to each other on the first day of school are pure fantasy. In informal social situations, British people prefer to stay chatting about something neutral like the weather, or else they use humour to break the ice. When the conversation has progressed, or even just before leaving, you can say, “I’m Ann, by the way.”, or “I didn’t catch your name”. If you meet the person again you can say, “Hello again” or, more colloquially, “Hi ya”, which stands for “Hello, nice to see you again”.

In the case of formal meetings or business situations, many language courses teach the expression “How do you do?” – to which you should answer “How do you do?”. This phrase is also recommended by the website ediplomat.com and Drett’, the famous specialist publisher that has a range of guides on British etiquette. I have said “How do you do” in my entire life and no one has never said that to me! In today’s Britain this expression is best reserved for extremely formal situations. It is, however, something that people over 60 might say, so if your elderly boss or professor uses this expression with you, then it’s polite to answer in the same way

        Maya Angelou (1928-2014) had a broad and distinguished career both inside and outside the literary realm. She is most famous for her work as a poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist, working with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. She also worked in entertainment as a singer, a dancer, an actor, and a director. Her poetry was inspired and informed by her life and work, and this personal connection made her poems profound and powerful. Over the course of a career spanning the 1960s to her death in 2014, she captured, provoked, inspired, and ultimately transformed American people and culture.

Internet: <poetryfoundation.org> (adapted).