Dennis, I have on my desk, all in varying stages of being read: Inmon's book Building the Data Warehouse (very understandable)
Kimball's articles from his site and from the Intelligententerprise.com site (somewhat understandable, I think you need a base from which to read his articles). His books are on order and should arrive today Tim Gorman's book Essential Oracle8i Data Warehousing (this I haven't started, as Tim tells me to read it AFTER I have a basic understanding of data warehousing) The Oracle8i Data Warehousing documentation (actually pretty readable and understandable) Ya think I might be over-researching this stuff and panicking a bit? Rachel --- DENNIS WILLIAMS <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Ian, > > - In the beginning was the data warehouse and yeah it was good. It > would > solve all corporate problems and would encompass all corporate data > so all > corporate minions would see the same data. > - But yeah it took so long to create the corporate data warehouse > that > management despaired and canceled the project. Or by the time the > monster > data warehouse came blinking and straining into the daylight all the > users > said that the company had evolved in the meanwhile and the warehouse > was > obsolete. > - So data warehouses gained a bad rep from corporate managers and > yeah > none would fain to propose the conception of a data warehouse for > fear of > castigation. > - Then some marketing interns bribed a DBA to send them data > weekly. And > they stored this data in a database and lo, their superiors were > impressed. > - Everyone was in awe of the marketing database, but none dared > tarnish it > by speaking the name which shall not be mentioned, so it was > christened a > "data mart". > - And lo, the data marts multiplied and were fruitful. And the DBA > cursed > the day she was weak and did give data to the marketing interns. > - Then another prophet did arise and did challenge the prophet > Kimball. > His name was Inmon. And he did claim to be the progenitor of data > warehouses. And therefore all should do data warehousing his way and > use his > terms. > - And great confusion arose over the land. And many debates ensued, > including some face to face between Inmon and Kimball. And terms such > as > Operational Data Store (ODS) were bandied about. > - And some said that queries against the ODS were acceptable and > others > deemed them forbidden. And some said that if it looks like a data > warehouse > and smells like a data warehouse it verily indeed is a data > warehouse. > - And consultants warred against consultants and did call the other > consultants ignoramuses in front of management such that nobody knew > what > anybody was talking about. > - And the DBAs said that creating a data warehouse or data mart was > not > nearly as hard as figuring out what to call it. > > The moral of the story is to figure out what you need to do and be > aware > that different authors use the same terms for different purposes and > coin > their own terms. Personally, I have understood everything that > Kimball has > written and have never been able to read one of Inmon's articles to > the end. > But maybe that is just me. > Dennis Williams > DBA > Lifetouch, Inc. > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > -----Original Message----- > Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2002 2:38 PM > To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L > Outdated? > > > Ian, > > Good question. I think that I've seen more recenct references in > articles > that state the current thinking of DW/DM. I'm sure that I've seen > Inmon > refer to them that way, or maybe it was Richard Winter? > > Anyway, I guess that part is a bit dated. There is so much good > information > in that book though, that it's still worth its weight in gold. You > won't > find too many > publications for $60 that will take you step by step through building > an > entire > data warehouse, including the infrastructure. > > Jared > > > > > > > "MacGregor, Ian A." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > 05/21/2002 05:48 PM > Please respond to ORACLE-L > > > To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > cc: > Subject: RE: Data Warehouse experts, a simple question > for > you| Outdated? > > > I am new to his books, three chapters in. The first release of the > "Data > Warehouse Toolkit" defines a data warehouse much as a data mart is > today. > Today we think of a data warehouse as having a highly normalized > structure which stores information from various sources. We build > data > marts with structures optimized for querying; e.g., star schemas, > from the > warehouse. Kimball writes of the warehouse itself being based on a > star > schema. > > The term data warehouse has not been immutable over the years. It > was > probably defined exactly as he has done when the book was first > written. > Do his new books redefine "data warehouse"? > > Ian MacGregor > Stanford Linear Accelerator Center > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > -----Original Message----- > Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2002 2:16 PM > To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L > > > I second Jared's opinion. Ralph's books are clear and easy to read. > This > is > the fundamentals of data warehousing. > Dennis Williams > DBA > Lifetouch, Inc. > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > -----Original Message----- > Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2002 2:30 PM > To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L > > > Yup, $60, and worth every penny. > > It may be 4 years old, but the information is still pertinent. > > Jared > > > > > > Joe Testa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent by: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > 05/20/2002 05:53 PM > Please respond to ORACLE-L > > > To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > cc: > Subject: Re: Data Warehouse experts, a simple question > for > you > > > looks like published aug of 98 for that book?, like $60? > > joe > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > >Joe, > > > >Add a generated PK to the time dimension. The PK is stored > >as an FK in the fact table. > > > >That way you can select from the time dimension by year, day, qtr, > >whatever, > >and easily pick out the correct fact table rows. > > > >"The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit" includes a spreadsheet to > generate > === message truncated === __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? LAUNCH - Your Yahoo! Music Experience http://launch.yahoo.com -- Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com -- Author: Rachel Carmichael INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Network Services -- (858) 538-5051 FAX: (858) 538-5051 San Diego, California -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists -------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). 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