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Subject:compare thee to a database From:cronin -at- DONVAN -dot- ENET -dot- DEC -dot- COM Date:Wed, 2 Jul 1997 08:06:56 EDT
Matthew,
The responses that others have made (file cabinets, etc.) are
all good ones that I have used myself. The only thing I would add
is to see if you can take advantage of what your audience already
knows. That is, is there something in their experience that is
so similar to a database that you can use it to show the concept,
but different in ways that you can show the advantages of an
electronic database.
I am really reaching back here, but I seem to recall that legal precedents
are stored and organized in ways that are similar to the organization
of a database (albeit in paper) and for much the same reasons of
rule-driven insertion and retrieval of data. I don't recall the names
given to the hierarchy, but it might be useful in showing the
hierarchical organization of an electronic database.
Good luck.
Gene Cronin
Principal Writer, Digital Equipment Corp.
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How would you complete the following sentence if you knew that your
audience were (was?) a bunch of attorneys whose computer skills were
novice at best:
"A database is like..."
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