Heterogeneity

Heterogeneity
In general terms, heterogeneity refers to the quality of being diverse, something that contains different parts. Therefore, in the world of systems, it can refer to things such as a mix of data from different sources like SQL and XML, or that of systems, containing different types of hardware and software (Wikipedia, 2007). Heterogeneity is very important in the world of design and interfaces. It allows us to come up with several radically different solutions for the same problem (similar to what we are doing in class in terms of public spaces). In addition, through the study of heterogeneity in various things like spaces, buildings, objects and just design in general, one can learn numerous things such as the demographics the community has in that certain period of time or a more economical process in a certain type of packaging. The world gains more with heterogeneity. References: [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterogeneity] [|http://www.citeulike.org/user/yish/article/278655] http://architecturaldesign.wordpress.com/tag/design/

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There are several different meanings for heterogeneity referring to many different fields of study: chemistry, statistics, social and human science, systems and genetics. It is generally understood as a mixture of elements that have dissimilar qualities but in terms of user experience, heterogeneity is closest linked to Data Model Heterogeneity. Essentially, this refers to the many different possibilities of representing and storing the same information. The idea being that the semantics (of a set of data) are the same but the organization is altered. References: "Heterogeneous Database System". Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 1 August 2007. 13 September 2007. &lt; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterogeneous_Database_System &gt; "Heterogeneous". Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 14 September 2007. 14 September 2007. &lt; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterogeneous &gt;