Visualising a living database

Using a virtual cafe, for readers to comment upon each chapter as it is written, is a good way for an author to appreciate how people can interpret explanations in different ways. A case in point is the conceptualisation of a living database, where almost everyone who read the last chapter saw it in a different light.

After reading the last chapter, one reviewer wrote:

I'm still not quite clear on what Peter is proposing -> to keep track of the people generating the data (like a net phone book), or the data they are generating...?

Depending on what is shared, surely the data that is uploaded to the database (or a pointer to it, at least) would take a similar form to that data which is already on the web -> in which case the standard problem of relevance and quality of information is going to be a major issue.

Current search engines are getting better all the time, and we've already hit the 'search engine of search engines' barrier. Thus, I think Peter will require a different type/source of information for this project to work (if he's going to do what I think he's going to do...!)

Pete

This reviewer seems to be thinking in terms of a conventional database, where either the names of people, or the information they provide, is recorded by a database management system. This would see the purpose of the database as being a depository of information that is accessed by the users.

Although a living database can be visualised as working in this way, the conceptualisation is totally different. The function of the computer needs to be seen as providing only an infrastructure – a formatted, but otherwise empty space – where users can insert their presence.

The action would consist of users inserting their presence in places where they would be most likely to find people who can provide them with exactly the kind of service, help or information they need. In other words, the computer programming of the database isn't concerned with storing and providing information, it is about providing a landscape in which people can move around to meet each other.

This point was appreciated by another reviewer, Hubert Spall, an English Web site developer, who wrote:

The advantage of the Internet seems to be in the speed with which communication takes place, so, by using e-mail effectively we can network our business more easily. This is the case even if our main business is off-line. The web site then becomes a repository for information too vast to be discussed with each contact, customer or partner individually. The web site itself may have nothing directly to do with the business - no online selling involved, the product or service itself existing outside of any computer related area - but simply provide an information point for the real business.

In order to bring in business via a web site it is often necessary to provide a free information service about a whole lot of stuff RELATED to your business, but not leading directly to any sales - providing a facade of objectivity, the appearance (real or imagined) of a free service. And this is where costs begin to escalate...

The alternative model [the living database] provides a virtual environment which enables people in the specialised area we are interested in to find and communicate with others who have some knowledge or service they need. The use of intelligent agents allows searching for the relevant people to be personalised and specific.

Hubert Spall

Another reviewer, Mary Rickman-Taylor,from the Arizona Institute of Business and Technology, also realised that chapter 8 was about providing an environment where people could find each other. She viewed the living database in a more abstract form:

Chapter 8 pulls into tangible reality what perhaps many of us have been doing as we have been going along. In a sense the n- dimensional people space will become the "super group" that writers have promoted for years as being one on the tools for success. That is, the collection of people that can help one move in the direction of successful endeavors, of solutions to problems that are not amenable to easy solutions by the limited means of a small group, but that can be approached in the people space referred to in Chapter 8.

Mary Rickman-Taylor

Mary Rickman-Taylor had realised that chapter 8 hadn't been about storing information, but, about devising a strategy to find useful contacts. Throughout this trilogy, constant stress has been laid upon the need to deal with people rather than information. This is because information and knowledge in the world of technology is continuously changing, expanding and evolving. It has the appearance of a fractal: the more you know, the more you find there is to know. Every branch of knowledge has innumerable niches and every niche has innumerable branches. Only humans can deal with this kind of dynamic complexity and they do this by interacting with each other and sharing knowledge.

Computers are undoubtedly ideal devices for handling vast amounts of information. Hierarchical branching can be employed to store and retrieve data according to specified categories or divisions of categories. However, if the information is undergoing continuous evolutionary change or the organising structure becomes unstable, intractable problems arise.

Considering the bricks and mortar example, described in the last chapter, the system of retrieving particular garments from piles of miscellaneous cast offs looks as if it can be modelled in the form of a regular database. Suppliers, buyers and products can be listed and categorised, and it would seem relatively straightforward to create relational links between them. However, if such a database were to be used in a real world situation it would be subject to continuous dynamic change due to unpredictable fashion swings.

To explain, think of current fashion creating a demand for long skirts. This would create a concentration of interest in that particular garment area, with buyers looking for rag merchants sorting out long skirts and rag merchants responded to the market demand by selectively sorting for them. Then, for no logical reason, fashion might suddenly switch to short skirts. This would cause all information concerning long skirts to become redundant and the database would have to start reflecting the new interest in short skirts.

Then, skirts might go out of fashion altogether as ladies turned to wearing dresses. Interest in skirts would evaporate, as people would then want to know everything there is to know about dresses. If this volatility of interests is happening all the time, it would be totally frustrating for database managers, who would be continually revising and updating the content and organisation of their systems.

The paradigm shift, of visualising a people space instead of a conventional database, would completely remove all problems associated with information volatility because there would be no information to change. Instead, there would just be a framework of designated areas where people meet . When information needs change, people simply move their presence to new areas in the space where their new information needs can be met. For example, if interest changes from skirts to dresses, people would simply move their presence from the areas where skirts are being discussed to the areas where people are discussing dresses.

The database function would be minimal: simply to register the current locational presence of people as they choose to move between different areas of interest. These locational changes would be instigated by the people themselves: the database simply recording their current choices.