Joe Gregorio writes about the disconnect between relational databases and regular users. He says the reason half the world's data are handled by Excel spreadsheets instead of databases is that spreadsheets are document centric tools, whereas relational databases require the user to think in a very different way.
He has a point there, I think, because we as developers could say that a spreadsheet is a bad place for the data, which should be stored in a database, but for the user that database may very well be a bad place for the way they think about their data. We can go on urging them to use databases forever and they will keep ignoring us and creating more spreadsheet based applications.
Or, someone could do something about it. This is Joe again:
"Want to create a unique and useful product? How about an application
like a spreadsheet that allowed you to morph along the way into a
series of forms. Instead of fighting the document centric way of
thinking, embrace it and use it to your applications advantage."
I wonder if Joe has heard about Dabble. It is a web application (written in Smalltalk using Seaside) for sharing and managing information in a manner very similar to what he describes. In fact, his post immediately brought to mind the very first post made on the Smallthought blog (the company that created Dabble) by Avi Bryant:
"It was, in fact, the dominance of the spreadsheet in this application
area that got me interested in it in the first place. The problem is,
the spreadsheet's really a pretty lousy tool for the job."
Dabble has made a lot of noise on the Smalltalk world and they recently got investment funding. Check it out, and while you're at it, take a look at Seaside too, it's the web framework I keep wanting to experiment with, if only I could find the time.
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