Author Archive

Russell Kay

Digital Government

Data visualization tools give form to the content

The human eye allows us to see objects and pictures of objects quite well, and we can absorb an astonishing amount of information from what we see. Unfortunately, we do not see nearly as well the information contained in masses of numbers or similar data. It's an old problem in scientific research. And we do what scientists have done—we use charts and graphs to help us interpret the data. But consider the mass of information in

  • By Russell Kay, GCN
Digital Government

Data warehousing tools

The term data warehousing was coined just six years ago by W.H. Inmon, a noted database expert and founder of Pine Cone Systems Inc. of Edgewood, Colo. Though widely used, it's also largely misunderstood. Before we look at specific types of data warehousing tools, let's clarify a few terms.

  • By Russell Kay, GCN
Digital Government

Push is on for data broadcasts

Push-pull technology made quite a splash last year and still has momentum for agencywide broadcasts. For example, it can be used to standardize every user on a particular version of software. Although some federal sites forbid subscribing to outside push channels that monopolize network bandwidth, push technology can effect change at thousands of desktop PCs better than broadcast e-mail attachments or simple pointers to an intranet site.

  • By Russell Kay, GCN