Table of Contents for

NoSQL and SQL Data Modeling: Bringing Together Data, Semantics, and Software

I am very grateful to Tony Shaw of Dataversity for giving me the opportunity to present this new modeling notation to a wider audience, first at the NoSQL Now! conference in San Jose in 2015, and then at the Enterprise Data World conference in San Diego in 2016. Daniel Upton attended my workshop at the NoSQL Now! conference, and introduced me to Steve Hoberman, data modeling enthusiast, leading author, and publisher. I met with Steve to talk about my ideas. Steve accepted my proposal for this book, and that is how it came into being.

The fundamental ideas behind concept and object modeling notation arose from my work on object-oriented programming language design, and from tackling the difficult problem of integrating objects and data. In the latter effort, I was helped tremendously by the many writings of C. J. Date, most especially Foundations for Future Database Systems: The Third Manifesto, Second Edition (by C. J. Date and Hugh Darwen). I had the opportunity to correspond with and speak to Mr. Date about this topic, and this finally enabled me to perceive the difference between data and objects. Mr. Date is not aware of the debt I owe him for the clarity of his thinking on all things relational. One should not read this acknowledgement as his endorsement of my ideas.

I have had the opportunity to discuss the Concept and Object Modeling Notation (COMN), and the ideas behind it, with colleagues at LexisNexis, most notably Roger Cass, Matthew Johnson, Michael Khatib, and Paul Rogers. They gave me the opportunity to test my ideas and my expression of them. Roger has the additional distinctions of having introduced me to Object Role Modeling, and of having put the “N” in COMN so that the acronym became pronounceable as “common”. My immediate manager and longtime friend Greg Saxton and our chief architect Ian Koenig encouraged me to pursue this work.

My wife Daphne Woods, a brilliant novelist, long ago trained this technologist in the mysteries of English grammar and composition. She also trained our daughter Heather through ten years of home schooling to near perfection in these fields. Consulting with these two during the writing of this book helped me with clarity and structure.

It was wonderful to have my colleague Laurel Shifrin, respected educator Dave Wells, and Steve Hoberman as technical reviewers. Laurel’s knowledge of unstructured data and Dave’s knowledge of structured data helped keep some unsupported assumptions out of the work. Dave’s early enthusiasm for COMN has been a tremendous boost. What a pleasure to have Steve, a leading author of data modeling books and my publisher, encouraging and promoting this work.

Here’s to all who have struggled to tame their data. I hope you find this makes the journey more pleasurable and more successful.