Databases:
In my last job I had to deal with databases that related to energy use. I had to quickly absorb SQL in order to filter and create tables, so I have a functional knowledge, but am nowhere near fluent. These were relational databases, and as far as I knew these were the only types of databases that existed. It was interesting to learn about Hierarchical and Network models, though I am having trouble visualizing them.
Metadata:
Up until now metadata was only the tags on mp3s, as far as I knew. It seems like almost everything has metadata. Inconsistency in the labeling of my mp3s has always been a pet peeve of mine, so I can understand the need for a standardization system like the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative. DCMI's capacity to expand to meet the needs of specific metadata needs of different communities.
(About the DCMI article, did anyone else have trouble accessing this? I ended up using Google's cache version.)
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4 comments:
I'm curious, as someone who's worked with databases and SQL, did you find that difficult to learn. I don't really have any experience with the whole concept of databases other than with Excel spreadsheets....
Well, I basically learned coding in order to filter and sort big tables, then export the data to excel. In addition, I had to write some simple programs that would append many excel and text files into a database. It wasn't that hard, but I did have to refer to a manual a lot of the time. I have had almost no programming experience, and I was able to get a handle on the basics fairly quickly.
I don't have SQL experience either Rebecca.
my experience from databases were identifying fields the programmer needed to create and then test it, over and over again. Before our main database was finally built, we were using Excel spreadsheets and a blackboard, for 1,000 records!!! (crazy)
I agree with what you stated about metadata - it does seem like there could be metadata about nearly everything. Metadata is one of those terms I heard a lot but didn't quite "get" before this program - and now, it pops up everywhere. It really is simpler than it sounds.
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