Oracle tackles the context conundrum

The trouble with keeping data in a standard relational database is that such information does not typically come with machine-readable descriptions of what the data is. Searching through an Air Force database will not provide any indication that what you are looking at is an Air Force database.

As long as the database is used by its intended audience, this lack of database self-awareness is not a problem. But when another system needs to access the data, how will it make sense of the columns and rows of data? It is this semantic cluelessness that slows the process of gathering intelligence from the data.

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