Distributed database

There are several forms of distributed database:

• the normal web in which URIs change often and are inconsistent, e.g. across wiki code releases, which is really inexcusable given mod_rewrite
• standard wiki URIs making uniformly licensed and formatted articles available, e.g. public domain interwiki or GFDL corpus wikitext standard collections, at URIs which are easy to remember and persistent
• semi-structured wikitext with interwiki link standards and interwiki identity standards that make it possible to specify "what" and "who" in a way that works across an entire corpus - this would create a true GFDL Corpus
• standardized XML DTD and XML-Schemas, e.g. as proposed for health care

http://www.hl7.org/library/committees/structure/minutes/Minutes041999.doc

• object-oriented databases like ORB to make the data more consistently available via one programmatic interface;
• relational databases that further structure the data but restrict data types to a fixed set; Typically these are quite complex to truly distribute
• peer to peer networks that are more strictly hierarchical and reliant on namespace mechanics to match finder and publisher, e.g. Overnet, some REST equivalents now in early testing

Any of these might be required in Distributed Consumerium