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Matthew Long is <<attempting explain databases to a
non-technical audience using simple metaphors>> for <<a
bunch of attorneys whose computer skills were novice at
best>>
My first reaction is to treat them the way they treat us:
don't use any words of less than 5 syllables, don't use any
words the same way they're used in standard English, and
create a metaphor that no non-writer could ever understand.
But that would be my evil twin speaking. <grin>
More practically, try something like "Database software is
like a friendly reference librarian in a library:
Librarians store very similar things on the same shelf,
related things on nearby shelves, and very different things
on distant shelves or perhaps even in another library. Just
as when you're working with a librarian, if you can
determine what you need to know, the database software can
find it for you; if you can determine how you need to
rearrange the books, the librarian can do it for you."
Feel free to acknowledge me if you choose this latter
approach, but not the former one... I may need a lawyer
some day. <grin>
--Geoff Hart @8^{)} geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.
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