J2K and the Light at the End of an Era
By Bob Kaehms
Sometimes you have to search long and hard for a nugget of gold -- or a topic for a 600 word column. On such a monumental occasion as the rolling of the clocks, I found myself rolling my eyes while rolling past all the Y2K and millennium hype.
What could I possibly add to echo this month, year, or century in this issue? We're featuring databases, after all. What could be more appropriate, and what could my 600 words add to the billions that have been passed around the world-wide water cooler over the previous 12 months?
Pokemon!
The perfect starting point for the new century -- the epitome of the mass market, virtual market, blurring of content, context and product -- is touched on in this month's article on fulfillment. To understand this phenomenon, I asked my two daughters to explain the Pokemon phenomenon to me, and why the trading cards are so valuable.
Do these 6- and 8-year olds have a secret database program unbeknownst to the adult population? What is the trick? How can they keep track of the 150 known and evolving Pokemons, their power, and their value? How is it that a 3-year old who can't read and can't even play the Pokemon game can identify Charmander by its outline alone?
What do I sense in digging through these cultural datapoints that makes me think I'll find an answer? Should I take a clue from Dan Greening (see "Data Mining on the Web") and find a way to separate the information from the noise?
"Clearly state the problem," states Dan.<>
