Too Many Meanings, Not Enough Words
How many words are there in the English language? The Oxford Dictionaries answers this question with a very strong “it…
Ted Hills
What’s the Difference between JSON and XML?
There are two languages commonly used to express data, but they are very different, and are better and worse for…
Three Levels of Models Versus Business
Three Levels of Model Abstraction Traditional entity-relationship (E-R) modeling recognizes three different levels of abstraction at which models are developed:…
The Duck-Billed Platypus, or How Strict Data Hierarchies Can Choke You
You might remember back to your early school days, when you learned about the five major divisions of the vertebrates…
Understand Relational to Understand the Secrets of Data
I don’t like talking about the relational theory of data. It is absolutely fundamental to any deep understanding of data,…
Data Architecture COMN Sense: Data Types and Roles
One of the most illuminating lessons I’ve learned about data modeling came from Len Silverston’s universal data models, where he…
Data Architecture COMN Sense: Big Knowledge?
We are coming to grips with big data through analytical techniques that enable us to reduce it to useful insights…
Data Architecture COMN Sense – Is the Data Warehouse Dead?
It was a pleasure to attend a data warehousing event in Austin, Texas in early December to take a few…
Data Architecture COMN Sense: What are Data and Information?
Occasionally I encounter discussions on various social media sites arguing passionately about the definitions of the terms “data” and “information.”…
Data Architecture COMN Sense – The Missing Logical Layer in Data Management
Around 2009 someone used the term “NoSQL” to describe an emerging class of database management systems (DBMSs) that, as the…