Re: RDBMS design issue

On 7/9/2025 11:40 AM, Joe Gwinn wrote:

But, an agent with access to the data AND THE RELATIONSHIPS
BETWEEN THEM can extract additional information to add value.

 I think we've exhausted this SED thread, so I'll stop.
 =====================================
 But I did recall a key to the larger issue.  There are lots of ways to
organize library indexes.  The Savant of such things, Shiyali
Ramamrith Ranganathan, worked out the details in the 1930s, in India,
publishing in English.  He spent his entire career on this issue.
 .<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._R._Ranganathan>

You're not trying to organize a library index.  You're trying to imbue
data with *meaning* that another agency can understand.
If some ill has befallen you and I can't get in touch with your
"emergency contact", should I give up?  Perhaps if I knew which
of the names in your phone were RELATIVES I might give one of them
a try...
Which of the 7 doctors in my phone should be called if I was
having a dental problem?  Medical problem?  What about those
"doctors" who have nothing to do with medicine??  Which are
my *current* providers vs. records of PREVIOUS (now retired!)
providers?
How do you (another agency) synthesize this information without
access to my grey matter?