© 2003 M.Kersten

The Database Striptease & Informative Query Answers

Martin Kersten

CWI, Amsterdam

May 4, 2003 Lowell, USA

© 2003 M.Kersten

The Database Striptease• My Volvo S80 has

– A integrated phone database

– A 6-CD GIS database

– A 14-CD Audio database

– A 3 Channel audio database

– A streaming database with traffic info

– A hardware control database

© 2003 M.Kersten

The Database Striptease• At home we have

– A distributed telephone database

– Several electronic agenda databases

– MP-3 databases of the boys

– A large DVD database

– Tens of photo databases

– Insurance …

– ….

© 2003 M.Kersten

The Database Striptease• My life depends on ca 50 incomplete, inconsistent, replicated small-

large databases.

• As technology developer, I have not been able to locate even a basic SQL interface to start managing them.

• As a person with finite resources to enjoy life, let the DBMS handle my data management problems

© 2003 M.Kersten

The Database Striptease• GRAND CHALLENGE:

Develop an organic database software system which can be embedded in a wide collection of hardware appliances and provides an autonomous self-descriptive, self-organizing, self-repairable, self-aware and stable data store-recall functionality to its environment

© 2003 M.Kersten

GONG-2

© 2003 M.Kersten

Informative Query Answers

• Setting the stage– At //www.cwi.nl/~mk/onderwijs/db2/voc.tar.gz you

will find a database of the VOC (East Indian Trading Company) stored as an XML file.

– You can load this file into a relational DBMS to prepare for querying. Any of the standard products will do.

– You have a form-based interface in front of you that permits presentation of a few records of the database

© 2003 M.Kersten

Informative Query Answers

• Next step: fill the missing part ???

select * from VOC where ????????????

Boat Master Kind Tonnage Built Yard Chamber Departure CallatCape

© 2003 M.Kersten

Informative query answers

• HIDDEN AD-HOQ QUERY PROCESSING ASSUMPTION

– A user can only pose a precise query

• If he has a clear search objective

• If he understands the data distribution

• If he knows the semantic relationships

© 2003 M.Kersten

Informative Query Answers<voyage>

<number>4408.3</number><boatname>BRESLAU </boatname><master>Jan Kornelis Roos </master><tonnage>1150 </tonnage><hired>1774 </hired><yard>A </yard><chamber>Z </chamber><departure>15-02-1783 </departure> <harbour>Rammekens</harbour><callatcape>

<arrival>27-05-1783</arrival><departure> 12-06-1783</departure>

</callatcape><destination>

<arrival>06-08-1783</arrival><harbour> Batavia</harbour>

</destination></voyage>

© 2003 M.Kersten

Informative Query Answers

• GRAND CHALLENGE

Develop an informative query processor which takes

into account the user interest, ignorance, and lack of

knowledge on what to ask from the database and provides

the most informative answers in real time.