Joel Larson Visit

Joel Larson presented to the class his explanation on databases It was interesting to have described for us how the disintermediation of technology and data entry was merged together. He talked about how before technology was implemented in grocery stores, a grocer would not have an accurate understanding of their stock on hand or how much they needed to order to keep well-selling items in stock and minimize the amount they purchased of low-selling items. With the advent and implementation of Universal Purchase Code (UPC) Barcoding, it gave all retailers, not just grocery stores, and accurate representation of their stock in an editable electronic database. He further showed us how databases were structured and how databases were also collaborative to be able to create specific search criteria to access and interact data. Joel also talked about the "information continuum" and how it has the capacity to predict based on trends of that data. I thought this was pretty interesting because it's like "technological clairvoyance." Joel surmised that the use of large bodies of information to categorically identify trends in buying, selling, occurrences of use, and other patterns can lead to a more efficient and streamlined approach to the systems we encounter every day. I found this guest speaker very interesting. I didn't really think it was going to be especially useful but was presently surprised at how learning how internal databases are important to our everyday lives, from our student information on our ID cards, all the way to buying groceries.