Stages of data management

[Julian-Dumitrascu]

1. At least from some history books and from some documentary films we can gather that people can live using older means or newer means.
   Before we get to using e.g. computers or machines that we've used for up to a decade, we can have a look at life with only a few simple means, used e.g. for cutting (into) beings or for storing some things.
   It seems that people walked barefoot before crafting soles. This is one of the many examples of paying more and more attention to an experience, until one thinks of changing a method or a means.
   While we may have used signs for 37 ka, we had created some writing systems 5 ka ago. It seems that a pretty high percentage of people could read in some countries from around the Mediterranean Sea some 2 ka ago. Things kept changing, and some European peoples (the Brits, the Swedes, the Danes, the Poles, the French) went for full literacy some 300 years ago.
   Between 1950 and 2015, literacy grew from 55.7% to 86.2%, so 745 million people aged 15 and above were illiterate in 2015.
   In the meanwhile, 6.1 billion (75% of) people are using computers.
   90% of people can use electrical energy.

2. While we can discuss any form in which we have organised signs, I focus on a few of them.
   2.1 It seems we have been writing characters mainly in rows and that sometimes we crossed rows at an angle of approximately 90 degrees, so we created grids. We have the habit of using signs within quadrilateral or rectangular frames.
   We shaped sheets, books, and screens according to this habit.
   Computers have displayed tables at least since 1969.
   2.2 It's useful to adapt computers more to our nervous system, e.g. by making them let us handle interface elements as objects.

3. There seems to have been a time with hardly any trading.
   While gatherers may have traded a bit (or bits) at least within tribes, people had exceeding resources when they settled.
   At first, any person tries to do everything by oneself. We are quick to team up; we agree on who does what. To the extent that one of us keeps carrying out the same activity, they specialise in it and they neglect their household; so we provide to them what they would have got themselves, had they not been serving their community.
   Such trading can be organised better and better.

4. Some computer users are using software like MicroSoft Word to draw tables. We used to draw tables when we had to. Now computers can do this for us. They also help us use the data in tables.
   Example: Coda is a program for content management, like MicroSoft Word. Such programs have been created because people want not only to take some notes, write some paragraphs, and manage content in a more complex way (by using features available in Coda and maybe in MicroSoft Loop), but also to organise various types of information. It doesn't really matter how many: computers can handle a handful, a bunch, and a bunch of bunches. When one asks Coda to create a table, that table can include more than text, so it becomes easier to link, edit, and otherwise process data.

5. Once we combine what we discuss in the previous sections, we can focus on the fact that we can use computer programs at least for organising many pieces of information that matter e.g. when we trade.
   5.1 While one can buy more useful software, grids are the main pattern in which specialised computer programs like AirTable display data. Some software developers have called such views:

• table
• list
• grid
• board
• gallery
• calendar
  5.2 With data management programs we can process data conditionally with:
  5.2.1 "automations"
  5.2.2 "formulae"
  5.2.3 conditional logic for the form view

6. One is not as able at all times; e.g. one's sight can change.
   I'd try to stay as healthy as possible, so that I can still sit, type, read, and talk using a computer.

7. I started with desktop computers because only desktop computers were available to me in 1989. I bought a laptop computer in 2000.
   Some people started with a smartphone because this is what operators of mobile telephony networks pushed. We are willing to discuss with anybody what benefits they want and are related to using computers, and to make a personalised analysis that shows which type of computer (e.g. a smartphone or a tablet / laptop / desktop computer) offers them the highest benefit-cost ratio.
   We can help people use the result of such an analysis. Example: We can help one make sure that one can use a computer in whichever building one needs one.
   This use can suffice.
   I don't like carrying computers. What about you?

8. How much do we need to travel?
   8.1 One travels for business:
   8.1.1 e.g. to a field or a factory.
   Such needs can be met by means of local transport. One might prefer a quiet ride or a talk with a colleague to using a portable computer.
   8.1.2 farther.
   We can interact over the Internet, so we might not travel to place orders with somebody.
   When you want to place orders with us, you can ask to meet one of us in a certain locality.
   8.2 One travels for leisure across hundreds or thousands of kilometres.
   To the extent that one hasn't planned one's trip, one would use a computer to do so. People search the Internet e.g. for products during leisure trips. Sol Travel makes available computers in some of the housing units they rent to travellers. This means that one can avoid such costs:

• carry computers around
• worry about them being drenched, broken, or stolen
• insure portable computers
• pay for using telecommunication services abroad

How do you view computers?
In what year were you born? In which countries have you used computers? I'm not asking you to publish some personal information, but I express interest e.g. in how you have interacted with sellers of computers and computer programs.
The more important thing is: How useful can computers be for which things in our lives?