Content Management Systems Are Second Class Systems for the Rich

Actually the article I'm going to mention is called, "Databases Are So 20th Century" by Dave Kellogg in CMS Watch. I found it an interesting read for the start of a new year.

Kellogg's basic thesis is that database systems can never handle content well, and that the current efforts to manage content as XML in databases is now the fourth attempt to address the problem and is doomed to failure. As he says:

"First, you need to abandon the notion that content is a special case of data. Indeed, it's the other way around; data is a special case of content that happens be highly regular in structure."

What of content management systems? Kellogg says:

"Just as poor countries have rich residents, there is an upper class of content that gets to live in databases (e.g., corporate web content, aircraft repair manuals, new drug applications). Typically, this is accomplished through enterprise content management (ECM) systems that both break the content into bite-sized morsels that fit into relational "square tables" and track metadata about it (e.g., author, version, check-in status, required approvals).

So while upper-class content enjoys life in a database, the great irony is that ECM typically treats the content itself as opaque -- because of the limitations in the underlying database system. That is, while ECM tracks and manages a lot of information about the content, it actually does relatively little to help get inside content. Despite its middle name, ECM today isn't really about content. It's about metadata."

Since it doesn't appear that Kellogg's ideal system is likely to appear anytime soon, I guess we can go on selling and using ECM systems for some time! Happy New Year!

Giving Thanks

The weekend before last was Thanksgiving in Canada. I had a good weekend, but not as good as this last weekend. On Saturday afternoon there was a rain shower, and then the sky mostly cleared. I decided to go for a walk as the trees are at showing their peak Fall colours. Fortunately I remembered to take my camera with me.





It was one of those magical times: the low angle of the sun, raindrops sparkling, the Fall colours… I found myself almost ravenously running from one spot to the next to get as many pictures as I could before the light failed. Short of taking a picture of my foot, it was almost impossible not to get a good shot.





When the light and my camera battery finally failed, I came home exhilarated and truly thankful.









- Happy Thanksgivings to you all, whenever you actually celebrate!!

DIY satellites reinvent the space race

I love the idea of enabling something then seeing what people make of it. The following quotation says it best:

"I kind of look at this as the Apple II. The ordinary person can get something into space," said Bob Twiggs, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford

But, whereas the quotation references hobbyist computer hardware, the article is about miniature satellites!!

I love it.

NPS Pharmaceuticals: Medical Journal Reports Teduglutide Improves Intestinal Function in Patients With Short Bowel Syndrome

In a much earlier posting in April 2004 I wrote about my work years ago with Dr. Dan Drucker to develop a derivative of the human hormone GLP-2 to treat short bowel syndrome. NPS Pharmaceuticals, the acquirer of Allelix, my employer at the time, just released this news release about the positive results of a Phase 2 study and that they have now initiated a Phase 3 study. Yeah!!

///Martin\\\

Here's my favorite search engine: ///Martin\\\ Actually it is most people's favorite search engine, but thanks to the good folks at Google, Logogle lets one dream!