I’ve found something that’s a great start to this problem.   What is the problem?  the problem is: trying to tie together ALL the following needs into one software box:

• Business Metadata – terms & definitions
• Technical Metadata – terms & Definitions
• Roles & Responsibilities – provide governance over these things
• Subscription based – SaaS will do nicely
• Ubiquitous access – Hand-held computing accessible
• Notification based – updates and changes notify appropriate individuals
• Workflow Managed – approvals, edits, changes, and publishing status
• Web-services – All metadata available through web-services.

Well, there are a few more items on my wishlist, but there is one software product I just discovered that I really like:  http://www.datacookbook.com from IData Inc (http://www.idatainc.com)

I’ve been asking for something like this for years, and in the Data Vault world we NEED something like this.  I encourage you (at a minimum) to take their tour, or contact them for a demo – it’s exciting technology with a promising future.  It’s already fairly well matured and has been in use in the higher ed arena for a couple years now.  As far as EDW/BI – there are tons of possibilties.  One of my favorite uses for this would be to sit in a meeting as a data steward, and enter the terms that are discussed during business requirements, then email the terms to the right people at the end of the meeting for filling in the right (or the first) definition!

I also blogged on some of these things here: http://www.b-eye-network.com/blogs/linstedt/archives/2010/03/vendor_of_busin.php

** DISCLAIMER **
I am not working for, nor under contract of, nor receiving any funds of any kind for this review, I’m really pleased with this technology, and can put it to use today.

So check it out, I think you’ll like it.

Cheers,
Dan L
DanL@DanLinstedt.com