Data are everything in Cyberspace. Data are the reflections of nature and human behaviors, Datanature (all data in Cyberspace) is forming unconsciously and developing. Meanwhile, more data without references in nature, like computer viruses, some network games and junk data, are generated in Datanature. Datanature would gradually cover and exceed the facts in nature and have its own patterns, not just overlaps with nature and reflects the laws in nature. Nowadays, people always derive majority knowledge from Datanature and only minority by their own experience in nature. There would be new specific phenomena and patterns hidden in Datanature which differ from those of the nature or human behaviors. For example, the history of data (what is the first data), the evolution of data from structured data to unstructured data, or the development of network game, or the formation of data networks, data tribes and data countries.
At the beginning our culture and society are built on nature, and then computer science and technology help people store both culture and society and nature into computer systems when the computer was invented. Culture and society have been being built on both nature and Datanature. Furthermore, our culture and society will rely increasingly on Datanature. In Datanature, we will face many new problems. For example, if one asks how many papers are related to DNA in Science, it is easy to answer; if he asks how many fields are studied in science, it is difficult to answer; if he asks which paper is associated with each other in Science or what is indicated by all the papers in Science, it is more difficult to answer. Therefore, we say that Science itself is a valuable research topic. Science has been digitized and stored into computer systems in the form of data. It forms a data tribe or region like human tribe or region in nature.
Various datasets (data tribe or region) in Datanature are organized as a type of Datanetwork. A typically example is that online social networks and communities are formed by human behaviors in Datanature. Small World Theory in nature has been testing and verifying in Datanature. Therefore, the study on Datanetwork is one of issues in Datanature research. That is, traditional methods and theories developed in nature are being applied, transferred and extended in Datanature including classical complex network theory and graph mining algorithms.
Datanature is exceeding the facts in nature. Consequently, it is necessary to research on data in cyberspace. Data Science includes two key connotations. One is to provide a kind of novel research methods, called Scientific Research Method with Data, for nature science and social science, also referred to as Data-intensive Research Method; The other is to Research JUST on Data, i.e., study the phenomena and laws of Datanature including the history of data (what is the first data), the formation of Datanetworks, data tribes and data countries (like Google), the transformation and evolution of data, type of data, properties of data, etc.
Keywords: Data Science, Datanature, Datanetwork
(引用标注: Yangyong Zhu, Yun Xiong. What is Datanature? [TR][OL]. 2009. available at: http://www.dataology.fudan.edu.cn)