[LINK] Database 'name'

[Geoff Muldoon]

Brenda Aynsley wrote:
> Hi fellow Linkers, here's one (reposted with permission) for you to
> ponder over ... No-one springs to my mind in answering this, what about
> yours?
> 
> Hi all,
> I recently had a discussion with a journalist about who is the most
> well-known 'voice of authority' on databases in Australia. In particular
> someone who is conversant with both the technical and business aspects.
> 
> There was much head-scratching, and no name 'tripped off the tongue'.
> 
> I thought it might be a good question to submit to the OSIA mailing list
> to see what others thought.

Looking for an "expert on databases" is a bit like looking for an
"expert on computers".  The topic is so broad and deep that it is truly
impossible for a single person to be expert across everything.

IMO database expertise tends to delineate across at least two dimensions
- vendor and paradigm.

You'll get an Oracle technical guru that knows a bit fair bit about DB2
or ADABAS or MSSQL, but no one that will rightly claim "expertise" over
them all.

You'll get people who are expert in relation database management (RDBMS)
theory who know SFA about the particular intricacies of data warehouse
(DW) star-schema dimensional modeling (used by bigger business
intelligence systems), or spatial and cadastral (GIS) systems.

Additionally, these sub-sectors within the database field tend to
operate as truly global communities, so without demeaning any local
experts if I was to nominate say an Oracle/RDBMS technical person I
would instinctively look to either Tom Kyte (US) or Jonathan Lewis (UK).

And so far I only been covering the technical side of things, not the
business aspects .... which is probably really about "data management"
rather than databases themselves, an entire topic in its own right
unless you're just talking license models and market penetration,
interoperability, etc.

Cheers,

Geoff M

PS.  Within my specific area of the matrix - Oracle + data warehouse (+
specialisation in higher ed systems) - I am forever indebted to the
expertise of Wayne McCulloch at QUT.

-- 
Geoff Muldoon
MIS Corporate Systems Developer
Information Technology and Telecommunication Services
Southern Cross University
Lismore  NSW  Australia

Email         geoff.muldoon at scu.edu.au
Telephone     +61 2 6620 3097
Facsimile     +61 2 6620 3033

**
The most frightening words a system developer can hear -
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