Chapter 4. Scales
“Where is the wisdom? Lost in the knowledge.
Where is the knowledge? Lost in the information.”
—T. S. Eliot
“Where is the information? Lost in the data.
Where is the data? Lost in the #@$%?!& database.”
—Joe Celko
There are different types of scales. And not all data can be measured with a scale. We like to think in terms of “something physical” that can be detected with a device, like mass, length, or electrical current, so that we can look for a known scale. But life is not that easy.
In the commercial world, some of the most important data is stored as text. Contracts, laws, regulations, manuals, and so forth are vital for any enterprise. There are some de jure and de facto search standards for text, but we are dealing with semantics ...
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