[AccessD] The iPad is soooo cool (uhhh ok.)

Companies aggregate data all of the time, creating data records and then appending more and more 
fields as more / different "survey" information becomes available.  My client buys these databases 
and I perform the storage and manipulation of them.

John W. Colby
Colby Consulting

Reality is what refuses to go away
when you do not believe in it

On 10/31/2012 9:59 AM, Jack and Pat wrote:
> John,
> I sent this late last night (via gmail reply button) and it got bounced for
> being too large. I'm sending it as a stand alone message in another email
> system. Hope it makes it to you.
>
> ******------------ Original response -------------------**********
> I agree it doesn't sound like the typical database. But as you said, there
> are a number of facts about people and their preferences, habits, toys, etc.
> With the volumes you have and the diversity, and the common key that can be
> used to relate these various facts, you can respond to questions,
> suggestions or the "who does X and Y and is between 20 and 35". Seems a bit
> of a dream to a direct marketer trying to sell anything from auto insurance
> to  new homes or furniture or travel. Seems more cost effective than
> designing, running and using new survey results every time a new "who does X
> and W and ..." comes up.
>
> It sounds, and probably is, a bunch of surveys of people for various
> reasons. And someone has seen that the various reasons and the various
> surveys can be related to get a "pretty good approximation" of some new
> feature - not in the initial survey objective.
>
> Not sure how you describe it other than Subject, DateCreated, Total Records,
> Origin of the Data, Type of Questions/Responses (choose a value vs supply a
> value), then a list of fields/properties/attribute or whatever the "things"
> and some indication of the number of responses per  field "thingy". Some
> detail about the individual fields and the response types would be very
> useful to anyone wanting to use the data/facts in different environments.
>
> Just some ramblings that I'm sure you've considered.
> Good luck.
>