// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did data format management say to its date? You're formatted to be mine.

Data format management (DFM) is the application of a systematic approach to the selection and use of the data formats used to encode information for storage on a computer.

In practical terms, data format management is the analysis of data formats and their associated technical, legal or economic attributes which can either enhance or detract from the ability of a digital asset or a given information systems to meet specified objectives.

Data format management is necessary as the amount of information and number of people creating it grows. This is especially the case as the information with which users are working is difficult to generate, store, costly to acquire, or to be shared.

Data format management as an analytic tool or approach is data format neutral.

Historically individuals, organization and businesses have been categorized by their type of computer or their operating system. Today, however, it is primarily productivity software, such as spreadsheet or word processor programs, and the way these programs store information that also defines an entity. For instance, when browsing the web it is not important which kind of computer is responsible for hosting a site, only that the information it publishes is in a format that is readable by the viewing browser. In this instance the data format of the published information has more to do with defining compatibilities than the underlying hardware or operating system.

Several initiatives have been established to record those data formats commonly used and the software available to read them, for example the Pronom project at the UK National Archives.

External links

The Library of Congress, Sustainability of Digital Formats

v t e Data
Information, data, and value	Information Meta Type Structure Ecosystem Library Infrastructure Value
Data categories and semantic structure	Data categories Master data Master data management Reference data Transaction data Analytical data Metadata Code tables Controlled vocabulary Crosswalks Hierarchies Observation data Dark data Trade and market data
Data management and governance	Management Governance Cooperatives Ethics Stewardship Lineage Curation Localization Preservation Retention Publishing Open data Master data management Reference data
Data quality, trust, and protection	Quality Information quality Validation Cleansing Scrubbing Integrity Protection (privacy) Security Anonymization De-identification Re-identification Minimization Erasure Remanence Corruption Degradation Loss Recovery
Quality dimensions	Accuracy Completeness Consistency Timeliness Validity Uniqueness Integrity Conformity Relevance
Data engineering and movement	Engineering Integration Storage ETL/ELT Extract Transform Load Migration Synchronization Compression Fusion Format management
Data preparation and operations	Acquisition Augmentation Collection Annotation Editing Deduplication Pre-processing Preparation Processing Reduction Redundancy Wrangling/munging Scraping Rescue
Analysis, science, and interpretation	Big Analysis Exploration Mining Science Topological data analysis Warehouse Business intelligence
Data economy and exchange	Data economy Sharing Open data Philanthropy Data as a service Data broker Responsible reuse
Exchange, use, and public context	Exhaust Farming Archaeology
Distributed data, domains, and digital twins	Data mesh Data product Data domains Data categories Data digital twins Digital thread Operational twins Analytical twins
Vendors and actors	Data vendors Data technology vendors Data service providers Data brokers Chief data officers Information professionals Informatica IBM SAP Oracle SAS Qlik Experian Alation
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// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did data format management say to its date? You're formatted to be mine.

See also

External links