ryancw
07-23-2007, 01:57 PM
At the medical school where I work, we are about to take up the topic of tracking students' experiences: how many of what kind of patients they see during their four years in school. This is a new regulatory requirement from our accrediting body. I'm a member of a small working group looking at strategies and options. Most would involve some sort of electronic database, of course.
There are many new companies that are offering web-based products/services to do the tracking. Students enter info (age, sex, diagnosis, etc.) and it is all transmitted to the company's servers. The companies offer periodic reports back to students and faculty. Varying amounts of eye-candy and features to differentiate one product from another, all trying to get market share.
I know little about these companies so far. Specifically, I don't know in what format they store the data. (I suppose SQL would be a good bet.) But one of the concepts to which I want to introduce the subcommittee is the idea of storage of digital data, file formats, long-term usability of data, and ease of migration to other solutions. In essence, I want to make sure that if a vendor we choose goes belly up, that we can still have our data.
These issues are completely foreign to the other members of the committee. Very bright people, but that does not mean they have a sophisticated understanding of computer information systems, and even less so of open-source philosophies.
Can anyone point me to on-line resources that explain, in *very* simple terms, the problems of storing data in proprietary, non-open, file formats? It would at least get them started thinking about the issue.
Thanks.
There are many new companies that are offering web-based products/services to do the tracking. Students enter info (age, sex, diagnosis, etc.) and it is all transmitted to the company's servers. The companies offer periodic reports back to students and faculty. Varying amounts of eye-candy and features to differentiate one product from another, all trying to get market share.
I know little about these companies so far. Specifically, I don't know in what format they store the data. (I suppose SQL would be a good bet.) But one of the concepts to which I want to introduce the subcommittee is the idea of storage of digital data, file formats, long-term usability of data, and ease of migration to other solutions. In essence, I want to make sure that if a vendor we choose goes belly up, that we can still have our data.
These issues are completely foreign to the other members of the committee. Very bright people, but that does not mean they have a sophisticated understanding of computer information systems, and even less so of open-source philosophies.
Can anyone point me to on-line resources that explain, in *very* simple terms, the problems of storing data in proprietary, non-open, file formats? It would at least get them started thinking about the issue.
Thanks.