Question

For each of the following examples, indicate whether the data is structured, semi-structured, unstructured, or a mix of each. Explain your answer.

1. A company runs many social media campaigns to increase sales. The company collects data about the amount spent on each ad campaign, the number of people who click on each ad, whether each person clicking on an ad completed a purchase, and the location (city and country) of each person who clicked on an ad.
2. A company performs performance evaluations of all its employees each quarter. The evaluations include comments made by peers of each employee, a supervisor’s write-up of performance during the quarter with a rating on a 5-point scale, and performance metrics relative to their job title (e.g., sales completed for sales people, units repaired for repair people, etc.).
3. A call center records all phone calls between employees and customers. The company stores the data for review if any allegations are made of inappropriate employee behavior.
4. A company scrapes data from a review website where customers can write in about products they have purchased. The company analyzes each of the reviews but only records the number of words in the review, a rating of the tone of the review (scores from −3 to +3), and the number of stars given (1 to 4).
5. A university tracks student’s course registrations each semester. The university records the course number, course description, and course credit hours for each student.
6. A mechanic keeps a digital catalog of all part numbers and part descriptions for each type of vehicle the company services.
7. A non-profit organization keeps a record of all past donors. The organization tracks names, dates of donations, amount donated, and additional comments about the donor and their donation.
8. An online retailer tracks IP addresses from each web visit. The retailer monitors IP addresses to see if visits are coming from IP addresses known to hack company websites.
9. A company scrapes data from a review website where customers can write in about products they have purchased. The company stores each of the written reviews.
10. A company owns a football stadium. During games, the company takes high-definition photos of all fans. The company stores these images and plans eventually to use advanced technologies to see which fans wear the team’s colors so they can market clothing to them.

Answer 1

	Particulars	Data Type	Explanation
1	A company runs many social media campaigns	structured	Because the data adheres to a pre-defined data model and is therefore straightforward to analyse
2	A company performs performance evaluations	semi-structured	Because it does not conform with the formal structure of data models
			but nonetheless contain tags to separate semantic elements and enforce hierarchies of records and fields within the data
3	A call center records all phone calls	unstructured	Because this data either does not have a predefined data model or is not organised in a pre-defined manner
4	A company scrapes data from a review website	semi-structured	Because it does not conform with the formal structure of data models
			but nonetheless contain tags to separate semantic elements and enforce hierarchies of records and fields within the data
5	A university tracks student’s course registrations	structured	Because the data adheres to a pre-defined data model and is therefore straightforward to analyse
6	A mechanic keeps a digital catalog	structured	Because the data adheres to a pre-defined data model and is therefore straightforward to analyse
7	A non-profit organization keeps a record of all past donors	structured	Because the data adheres to a pre-defined data model and is therefore straightforward to analyse
8	An online retailer tracks IP addresses	unstructured	Because this data either does not have a predefined data model or is not organised in a pre-defined manner
9	A company scrapes data from a review website	unstructured	Because this data either does not have a predefined data model or is not organised in a pre-defined manner
10	A company owns a football stadium	unstructured	Because this data either does not have a predefined data model or is not organised in a pre-defined manner