Databases in real life

In today’s digital era, our life seems easier because of its technologies. Computer technology is the most influential among others. It supports anything that related to the new inventions and innovations. One of important role in computer technology is a database. Although database is not as popular as web application in computer technology innovations, it determines whether such application system is good or not. Database is ‘a shared collection of logically related data and its description, designed to meet the information needs of an organization’ (Connolly & Begg 2010, p. 65). In the past week, I have interacted with them such as the database in flight data, student system, bank, library and Facebook.

I just arrived in Australia last week. I flew from Jakarta, Indonesia to Adelaide by Singapore Airlines. Before they let me sat in the plane, they had to check first whether my name was on their flight list and in the correct flight number. They checked my ticket on their computer data which is flight database. The ticket has an attributes such as passenger name, flight number, place and time of departure, place and time of arrival. Those attributes are some of many attributes in their database. After they checked the ticket and my passport, they printed my boarding pass which has an attributes such as boarding number, boarding time and seat number. The flight database has all data to proceeds from the beginning which is ticket booking until the end, passengers’ arrival. Moreover, they will have the history of the flight saved in their database.

The first time I arrived at Flinders University, I noticed on my phone that there was Wi-Fi available. Unfortunately, I couldn’t use the Wi-Fi service instantly because my friend said...

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...arch by using name which is very difficult because a lot of people with the same name. Second, we can also search by using an email address which is the fastest and easiest way to find a person/friend. Email address is a unique attribute in Facebook user database. Email address is required to sign up in Facebook before we register our first name, last name, date of birth and relationship status.

Every organization has their own method designing their database. Building a good database, it means a good step to reach their organizational purposes. Interacting with some systems that computerized, it means we interact with their databases. Hence, how many organizations that have our data in their databases?

Works Cited

Connolly, T & Begg, C 2010, Database systems: a practical approach to design, implementation and management, 5th Ed, Pearson Education, Boston, MA.