Re: Relational databases

Matt and Claudio:

Thanks for the information -- very useful!  Regarding Matt's question about the use of relational databases -- I'd like to share some thoughts with the group and would be really interested in any comments.

Our view is that the collection of taxonomies one might build to support faceted search ought to be available for much broader use within the enterprise.  If your search tool is useful then those taxonomies must contain information of fundamental importance to the enterprise.  More generally, we think that the starting point for information architecture should be a basic corporate knowledge model that can be applied to faceted search, business intelligence, product catalog management, project and resource management, and a host of other knowledge-driven applications.  If that's the goal, the only practical choice for the knowledge repository is the RDBMS, since virtually every enterprise of any size uses an RDBMS as its central data store.

The joins can get intense -- you're right!  The flip side, however, is that the RDBMS offers us the most sophisticated query optimization engine ever developed.  Careful design can reduce the intensity of the joins (though it can't be eliminated).  And integration with other activities within the enterprise is instant, since most enterprise data is present within the RDBMS, most applications access the RDBMS, and most programmers have the skills to use the RDBMS.

It seems to us that commercial products tend to provide for knowledge modeling or taxonomy building only to the extent that they support a specific application.  In other words, document search systems allow one to build taxonomies that support document search; product catalog systems incorporate taxonomies that support the catalog; content management systems often represent navigation with a taxonomy; business intelligence systems have their own representation of applicable hierarchies.  This duplication of knowledge models adds unnecessary cost, complexity, and confusion and reduces the ROI delivered by IA and knowledge modeling endeavors .

Does anybody out there have experience with attempts to provide reusable, general purpose knowledge modeling as a base component of information architecture?  Or with the use of the RDBMS for this purpose?  Any success (or failure!) stories I ought to know about?  I'd really appreciate your input.  Feel free to write me directly (aschriever AT parkstreetsoftware DOT com) if you'd rather not hit the whole group.

Thanks again!

Andy Schriever




  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Matt Eichner 
  To: [email protected] 
  Sent: Monday, February 23, 2004 10:38 AM
  Subject: RE: [facetedclassification] Relational databases


  Andy,

  You may also find some of the work going on at Endeca quite interesting.  We
  have developed a library interface that uses a faceted interpretation of the
  MARC record (not unlike the FAST project at OCLC) and enables search fused
  with this navigation.  As part of that, we read in the LOC classification
  schedule (we considered Dewey; swapping is a few days' work), in addition to
  several other navigation constructs (e.g., geography = 651$a/600's$z, etc.)
  So, a user can execute a search on, say, "baseball" and then navigate by LOC
  class within the search results, and then cross that LOC class navigation
  with a particular geography (for instance, Japan).

  The main reason I write - we considered a database approach, but found it
  expensive/challenging to accommodate requirements for dimensionality,
  real-time navigation, and certain important features like fusing navigation
  with search (the joins became too intense, among other problems).  The
  search, in particular, was important - it seemed that users wanted this
  familiar tool to at least take a first crack at reducing the universe of
  results.  If there is interest within this group, I can send out some
  snapshots, or arrange a better/live description (the snapshots are ~700K in
  PowerPoint, so I don't want to crunch anyone's mailbox).

  Cheers,

  Matt.

  -----Original Message-----
  From: Claudio Gnoli [mailto:[email protected]]
  Sent: Monday, February 23, 2004 10:22 AM
  To: [email protected]
  Subject: [facetedclassification] Relational databases


  """ [Andy Schriever : Jan 8]
  one can apply the power of the RDBMS query engine 
  to knowledge representation techniques such as semantic 
  networks, class and object structures, and hierarchical 
  classifications.
  """

  Andy, you may find relevant for your purposes the work by 
  View-based systems <http://www.view-based-systems.com>, 
  where Steven Pollitt and Amanda Tinker have developed
  several tools and applications for library catalogues and other 
  databases, with special reference to the Dewey Decimal
  Classification.

  Best whishes.



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