How
Databases Changed The World by Tim DiChiara, Site Editor
(
SearchDatabase.com)
How did the database industry get started? How has it changed the
face of business? What were the key milestones, the big obstacles
and the lessons learned? I recently came across an interesting
panel discussion addressing these very issues, featuring many of
the database pioneers and leaders of the last 30 years: Chris Date,
Herb Edelstein, Bob Epstein, Ken Jacobs, Pat Selinger, Roger Sippl
and Michael Stonebraker. It's available via streaming
video
and was recorded in February at the Computer History Museum in
Mountain View, California. After a chatty and lengthy (45 minutes!)
introduction only interesting to hardcore insiders, you can see
Chris Date waxing eloquent about Ted Codd (complete with quotes
from Shakespeare, no less), Herb Edelstein waxing eloquent about
Chris Date, and Michael Stonebraker at his geeky best. There's also
interesting trivia about the beginnings of SQL, the role of INGRES,
why the relational model will stand the test of time and some
friendly Oracle and IBM bashing (and Microsoft and Sybase and...).
I urge all you data management pros interested in broadening your
knowledge of the field to check it out! If you're still not
satiated, don't forget about our collection of backgrounders about
the DBMS and the data management industry.