The Past, The Present, and The Future

1. The Past, The Present, andThe Future Dieter Gawlick Architect dieter.gawlick@oracle.com Lowell 2003

2. A Big Hole • Users need a coherent model to present: • The past - the history • What was known/happened when? • The present - the current state • We are doing OK • The future - know about ‘events’ ASAP • We need to be on top of things! • Applications: RTE, BAM, RFID, … Lowell 2003

3. What is The Problem? • History - often 30 to 70% of coding, and still • Incomplete • Error prone • No ‘separation of duty’ • Future - event generation is a significant design, implementation, and maintenance challenge • What should be published? • Demand analysis • Semantics • Queuing, publish/subscribe is of limited help Lowell 2003

4. Recommendations • Focus on theory • Model must be general enough to handle SQL/XML/domain data • Model needs to be complemented by • General information distribution model (with auditing) • Constraints, i.e., timely (re)action to ‘inconsistencies’ • Security integrated with data, (re)actions, information distribution, and organizational structure • Vocabularies, semantic context • A lot of the engineering is understood, try to stay away • There are still significant engineering challenges • > 10**7 queries (subscription ) with complex conditions • Distribution with many conflicting objectives • Optimal, secure, and long term storage of/access to history Lowell 2003

5. Another Problem • Why is it so hard to manage information? • Models are incomplete (SQL, XML) • Mapping to problems is often very complex – data, languages, transactions, security, visualization, …! • Visualization: Try a domain that is challenging and fun, e.g., ISTD • What are the fundamental flaws in ‘our’ approach? Lowell 2003

6. Questions Comments Lowell 2003