SODA: Generating SQL for Business Users

The purpose of data warehouses is to enable business analysts to make better decisions. Over the years the technology has matured and data warehouses have become extremely successful. As a consequence, more and more data has been added to the data warehouses and their schemas have become increasingly complex. These systems still work great in order to generate pre-canned reports. However, with their current complexity, they tend to be a poor match for non tech-savvy business analysts who need answers to ad-hoc queries that were not anticipated. This paper describes the design, implementation, and experience of the SODA system (Search over DAta Warehouse). SODA bridges the gap between the business needs of analysts and the technical complexity of current data warehouses. SODA enables a Google-like search experience for data warehouses by taking keyword queries of business users and automatically generating executable SQL. The key idea is to use a graph pattern matching algorithm that uses the metadata model of the data warehouse. Our results with real data from a global player in the financial services industry show that SODA produces queries with high precision and recall, and makes it much easier for business users to interactively explore highly-complex data warehouses.Comment: VLDB201

Why linking matters : a metajournalistic discourse analysis

Journalists have incorporated hyperlinks (i.e. linking) into their professional practice since the early stages of digital news expansion. Media scholars and professionals have continually championed their use, yet little is known about the perceptions and uses of links in journalism practice on a broad journalistic scale. Drawing on an analysis of metajournalistic discourses, this study finds that links in news resonate with different aspects of newsmaking: the transparency of news production processes, the user experience, and the economic context. While journalists and other news media experts may indeed see value in linking, that optimism is tempered by levels of caution and worry, suggesting a need for media scholars, journalists, and news organization to re-evaluate the deployment of links within the news proces