Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Welcome - Data In Motion Blog

I often refer to "data in motion" to make the content of messages distinct from data in databases ("data at rest"). SOA and EDA share the characteristic that they free data from its containing resource application/database resource, formatting it (hopefully in XML), and put that data in motion between processing contexts. Freeing data and putting it in motion gives us a great opportunity to do things that we can't to data at rest.

First, a couple of things this blog is not trying to cover:
  • the details of XML - while I am deeply entrenched in XML, that subject is covered elsewhere
  • the details of infrastructure - that also well covered elsewhere
  • the pros and cons of SOA and EDA
  • semantic technologies and the semantic web
This blog is intended to explore what can we do with flowing data that we can't do with data entombed in applications. Topics of interest:
  • how can validation improve a SOA/EDA architecture
  • when is the right time to canonical-ize data
  • how can SOA/EDA impact data proliferation issues ("data puddling")
  • when are standard schemas useful and when do they get in the way
  • relationships between service provider, system of reference, and system of record and how SOA/EDA can improve those relationships
  • semantic veracity - in SOA that which we call a rose by any other name would not smell as sweet because we would not find it.
  • the interplay of context, data and behavior - data in motion carries with it more context than data at rest when normalized. How do we take advantage of this?

I am sure there are many more topics, but this should be a good starting list.