AboutKevin King Expertise I can answer questions about the Multivalue data model, comparison and contrast with several implementations of the relational model, with specific emphasis on storage, processing, and retrieval optimization.
Experience Since 1981 I have been a programmer, analyst, consultant, and trainer with various Multivalue products and technologies. I hold two patents describing innovative storage mechanisms for multidimensional data, and continue to explore new optimization methods and techniques.
Publications IDBMA Spectrum Magazine,
SSELECT Magazine, Front Range TechBiz, Open Systems Database Association Newsletter, Longmont Daily Times-Call
Education/Credentials My (B.A) degree is in Information Systems with emphasis on information storage, data transfer, and programming languages.
Awards and Honors Contract Professional All-Star: March 2001
Question Why Relational Data Model is more popular as compared to others like OO, Network and hierarchical .
Answer Traction. While other DB models may allow storage and retrieval in more flexible formats, the relational model has the traction of thousands of installations, potentially millions of users, and a marketing budget from Oracle that is greater than the GNP of many countries.
The day is coming, however. The same thing happened with COBOL 20 years ago, it was the de facto standard for business application programming, but then as people began understanding its limitations other languages like C++ and Java gained more traction.
The only thing that's stopping this from happening right now is that nobody has the billion dollar marketing budget to compete with Oracle. So it'll have to happen like it did with COBOL, one by one organizations will start switching until the groundswell turns into a tsunami. Unfortunately, though, businesses are some of the worst organizations to try to influence a change in direction, so it's not going to be an easy transition.
