Database Industry Study

This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------9C72BFBEB3629284C64A7BF3 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Dear Database Expert, I am an engineer from Austria and currently working on my Masters thesis in Information Systems at Hawaii Pacific University. I have chosen you/your institution as a recipient for a specialized and very selective database study, due to your credentials, reputation, and expertise in the database field. The attached survey is the cornerstone of my professional paper and of great importance to the success of my work. The topic of my study is: An Assessment of Object-Oriented and Object-Relational Database Management Systems as the Evolutionary Successor to the Relational Model Due to the fact that my target population is composed of a rather narrow circle of leading experts and authorities in the field, I highly depend on your opinion, support, and response to this study, and on every single contribution. Furthermore, I would appreciate it if you would forward this survey to qualified persons at your site (qualified students, coworkers, colleagues, employees, etc.) or suggest further recipients to whom I could send the material. Referrals should fulfill the requirements for the target population of this survey, that means expert status in a database related field. The survey documents are provided for download at my Web site (plain ASCII, PS, PDF, HTML) for additional convenience. You are welcome to visit http://www.aloha.net/~schmied/survey.html I am grateful for your time, suggestions, and generous collaboration. I will provide my results and findings as downloadable documents on my Web page (PS, PDF, HTML) by the end of this year. Please return the enclosed survey by November 1st by using email attachments. I can ensure you that your contribution will be kept completely confidential. Thank you again for your participation and support. With compliments, Gernot Schmied _______________________________________________________________ Dipl.-Ing. TU Gernot Schmied | Voice : +1 808 923-3044 155 Paoakalani Ave., Apt. 902 | Fax : +1 808 926-2052 Honolulu, Hawaii, HI 96815, USA | Pager : +1 808 582-0329 --------------------------------------------------------------- schmied@aloha.net schmied@ffphhp01.tu-graz.ac.at http://www.aloha.net/~schmied --------------------------------------------------------------- Platform: OS/2 Warp 4.0, Windows95, Linux Redhat 4.2 --------------------------------------------------------------- --------------9C72BFBEB3629284C64A7BF3 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; name="survey.txt" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline; filename="survey.txt" DATABASE SURVEY - Please deactivate line-breaking and word wrapping! - If you have troubles with long lines, you can download an ASCII text version of this survey from my Web page (http://www.aloha.net/~schmied/survey.html) _ When you edit this text file, please replace the placeholder "_" with an "x" for checks and fill in the blanks "________" by replacing the placeholders with your answers. The following acronyms are used throughout the survey: RDBMSs Relational Database Management Systems OODBMSs Object-Oriented Database Management Systems ORDBMSs Object-Relational Database Management Systems ODBMSs Object DBMSs (Synonym for OODBMSs and ORDBMSs) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q1 Please specify your position inside the database community (Please check all categories that apply) _ Database Researcher/Scientist _ Programmer _ Database Consultant _ Database Administrator _ Database Designer/Architect _ Database Vendor _ System Architect/Engineer/Designer _ Educator/Lecturer _ Systems Analyst/Business Analyst/Systems Engineer _ Author/Writer _ IS/IT/MIS Manager/Decision Maker/CIO/CTO/Director _ Database Developer _ Other _______________________________________________________________________ Q2 Your institutional affiliation: _________________________________________________________ Q3 Your geographical location (country/state): ______________________________________________ Q4 Years of experience in the database/data management field: __ Q5 Age: __ Q6 Income/year in US $ (optional): Q7 Your highest educational level achieved: _ <20,000 _ Doctorate _ 20,000-40,000 _ Masters Degree _ 40,000-60,000 _ Bachelors Degree _ 60,000-80,000 _ Associate Degree _ 80,000-100,000 _ >100,000 _ Other __________________________________ Q8 Please offer a list of five limitations/weaknesses/shortcomings you experienced with pure RDBMSs: 1. _______________________________________ 4. ___________________________________________ 2. _______________________________________ 5. ___________________________________________ 3. _______________________________________ Q9 Do you think the solution to these problems requires rather an evolutionary (refinement of current relational concepts) or revolutionary approach (such as object-oriented concepts) to database development? _ Evolution _ Revolution Q10 In your judgment, what concept will dominate the database field in the near/far future? RDBMSs OODBMSs ORDBMSs Something different Difficult to predict In two years _ _ _ _ _ n five years _ _ _ _ _ In ten years _ _ _ _ _ Q11 What data types are you using in your database applications/databases/research (check all that apply)? _ BLOBs (binary large objects) _ Multimedia (Audio, video, animation, VRML) _ Medical (X-Ray, CT, EEG, MRI) _ Design (CAD,CAE,CIM,CAM) _ Geographical _ Other _______________________________________________________________________ Q12 Offer a list of issues that are currently unsatisfactorily implemented, missing, or problematic in OODBMSs: 1. _______________________________________ 4. ___________________________________________ 2. _______________________________________ 5. ___________________________________________ 3. _______________________________________ Q13 Which one of the three architectural approaches (RDBMSs, OODBMS, ORDBMSs) is suited best to address the different demands of the specialized database domains (check only one per line)? RDBMSs OODBMSs ORDBMSs Implementation dependent Distributed Databases _ _ _ _ ? Spatial/Geographical Databases _ _ _ _ Deductive Databases _ _ _ _ Active Databases _ _ _ _ Temporal Databases _ _ _ _ Expert Systems/Decision Support Systems _ _ _ _ Very Large Databases (Terabyte/Pe