Re: Property ***, ad hoc, property page, flexible data


"Marshall Spight" <marshall.spight@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1122261556.993275.167950@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> dawn wrote:
> > Marshall Spight wrote:
> >
> > > because the values in
> > > the name column *aren't* metadata, since we don't know what they
> > > mean, other than "they are names."
> >
> > Who is the "we" in that sentence?
>
> The programmer and the software he writes.

I see two problems with the above:

First "we" is plural, and "the programmer" is singular. You may think I'm
nitpicking, but I don't think I am. When several programmers want to
understand what the data means, the understanding can be "joint" or
"several", to use the legalese terms.

Second, you confuse the role of "data architect" with the role of
"programmer". There's nothing to say that one person cannot do both roles,
and do each of them well. But they aren't the same role. And the vast
majority of programmers I've come in contact with have no knowledge of what
the data "really means". Their level of interpretation of the data is
strictly what's necessary in order to determine whether their programs are
delivering correct results. That's it.

That's not a deep enough understanding of the data and its purpose to make
data sharing feasible and cost effective among a wide and diverse user
community.


A disturbing trend is this: there are an increasing number of database
designers that are not fit to be data architects.



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