Summary

Unstructured data is more than just any data which isn't structured. It's a complete set of different types of data that can be categorized into different groups, with rules that can be used to define and manage them.

The introduction of digital objects enables a large set of unstructured data to be classified using the human senses as a base for that classification. By describing multimedia, digital images, video, audio, and documents can be categorized and methods detailed for the handling and manipulation of those digital objects.

The use of a database that can support objects makes it a lot easier to manage large volumes of digital objects. Though these objects can be stored in a filesystem, there are now a lot of advantages to having them stored inside the database.

Chapter 2, Understanding Digital Objects, will go into detail on each of the different multimedia types and how they work in the real world.