Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!rutgers!columbia!manhattan!simsong
From: simsong@manhattan.columbia.edu (Simson L. Garfinkel)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Uses of CDROMS / WORMS
Message-ID: <5267@columbia.edu>
Date: 3 Feb 88 15:48:19 GMT
Sender: nobody@columbia.edu
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CDROMs are potentially an important publication medium for databases.  You
can stamp out databsaes of 560MB for a little more than $40/each.  This means
that you could restructure the way the database business is operated, from
selling access into a large database to selling the database and updates.

I don't know if this is going to happen.  I hope so.    It's a scarry thing
for a company to take the database that they make their living on and stamp
it onto a CDROM that anybody can buy.  But potentially they can make more
money by selling it for less (larger audience, and all that.)

For users, it makes a lot of technology and information available that wasn't
before.

For example, at Columibia I can now walk into the library and do a Lexis,
Medline, GSI or Readers' Guide search for free, because we have those databases
on CDROM.  That wouldn't be possible with 1GB magnetic winchesters, no matter
how cheap they are, because you still have to get the data.

----

WORMS are interesting for another reason, which has to do with data 
indestructibility.  With a good WORM file system (I have authored several),
you can accomidate potentially a fantastic amount of information, with updates,
and you retain an audit trail back to day one.  This is very attractive to
a financial market.  It's also attractive to writers who want to track
all changes to a document.

Just a few thoughts.

-simson