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Data Management |
CSIRO Exploration & Mining, 39 Fairway, Nedlands, WA 6009, Australia
For technical applications in the mining industry, large institutional data models are the exception rather than the norm. Much more common, given the distributed nature of the business, and the scattered locations of the specialists involved, is the personal or project database. Such a database is set up for a project (or part of a project), and is developed using a data model defined specifically for that project. At the end of the project, the database may be archived or it may be supplied to a central group for integration with a corporate database. If uncontrolled, such methods of database management can lead either to direct drastic loss of data or to incompatibilities in data recording standards. The use of common software standards and data dictionaries throughout an organization can reduce radically these dangers and can produce positive benefits not only in data recovery but in reusability of techniques.
