[ih] History of Online Databases

[David L. Mills]

Rick,

Not to deflect your adventure; but, I take exception to the distinction
between technical database and otherwise. One of the things really
important about Internet development is the fact that the developers
were also the dedicated users of the technology. The host name database
evolved to the DNS and that surely fits your mold of a "nontechnical"
distributed database. I suspect you will be uncomfortable about the
degree of nerd involved, but hey, nerds rule.

Dave

Rick wrote:
> 
> On 17 Jan 2003 at 21:17, David L. Mills wrote:
> > I submit the first online ubiquitous database was the ARPANET host name
> > file. This may not be what you have in mind.
> 
> Good point + you must be right. But the host name file
> was online of necessity, not through a choice of
> online vs offline.
> 
> What I really had in mind is when were the first
> databases designed for non-technical users -- research,
> academic or commercial -- that were online as a result
> of a conscious decision?
> 
> I would guess that the first such databases appeared
> very soon after the WWW became public. The need for
> dynamic content must have been apparent very quickly.
> 
> To me, it seems that it should have been a landmark
> event, and I'm puzzled why I can't find anything about
> it on the WWW today.
> 
> Could it be that online databases were already so common
> (John Day's land-use management system dates from 1974)
> that it was not considered anything special?
> 
> I'll give you another 'context' -- some people I know
> who run a UK non-profit org have set up what they call
> an 'online database'. In fact it is totally offline --
> they use it to generate 20,000 web pages which they then
> FTP to their server every week. I try to explain that
> nobody else does that - and never have done since the
> WWW began. I'm sure I'm correct, but is there any
> evidence? Apart from that, as someone who teaches web
> development and design, I have found that I need a
> detailed historical undertanding to do the job properly.
> I wasn't there at the time.
> 
> (Rick)
> --
> listsubs `[at]` dstudio.clara.net