Information Conversion

Abstract

If information has any longevity to it, it will inevitably need to be transformed someday into another form. Either it will need cleansing to be made more consistent, or enhancement to provide additional value, or it will simply be transformed to work in a new environment. We typically think of these types of processes as data conversion. But there are really many different aspects to conversion, enough that it is useful to clarify what we mean and define some terms. Throughout this chapter we will talk about conversions, migration, translation, filtering, extractions, and even some other processes that are similar but fairly unique.