Can Open Data and EDM Cooperate?

Last week in this column, I characterized the data standards models being advanced separately by Open Data Model and the EDM Council as a competition, and that perhaps should be revisited, after seeing reactions to this on Inside Reference Data's LinkedIn discussion group, as well as to the original news story itself about Open Data Model setting its classifications.

Mike Bennett, head of semantics and standards at the EDM Council, commenting on Inside Reference Data's news story, says Open Data Model's role is unclear, because it is positioned as a data model but has features of a semantic model. Rodger Nixon, chief executive and founder of Open Data Model, sees the differences as having to do with innovation. "If we are in competition, it is in the field of ideas," he says. "The premise of the Open Data Model is the traditional way we have approached the task of designing and developing relational databases is badly flawed. It is not cost-effective, not conducive to data quality and it limits our ability to produce better analytics."

Nixon calls Open Data Model's work "a quixotic effort to change the way people think about design, to persuade people there is an alternative." Currently, I'm deep into Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs biography, and this comment struck me as very reminiscent of the Apple-Microsoft battles recounted in that book, particularly in how Apple thrived on having innovative but self-contained end-to-end services and systems, while Microsoft sought to be the universal standard that could work with everything. Nixon positions Open Data Model as an innovator, noting that "even the EDM Council understands that what we are trying to do is quite different and potentially revolutionary."

That said, one question now is whether Open Data Model ends up pushing the EDM Council to pick up on its innovation, as Microsoft tried to do with the Zune music player, or whether the EDM Council persuades Open Data Model to make its offerings work with their efforts, as Apple did by writing iTunes software for Windows. Another question is whether Open Data Model and the EDM Council can work together for mutual benefit, as even Apple and Microsoft have been known to do at times.

Richard Robinson of EMC Consulting, commenting in the LinkedIn discussion, points to the importance of this cooperation. "The solutions proposed should work together, for different needs and purposes—one where a strict hierarchy is needed for business purposes, versus an ontology that provides flexibility in being able to consume and ingest data from multiple sources that operate proprietary formats with different semantic underpinnings," he says. "The key is to cross-pollinate various working group members so they know what other groups are working on, and for what purpose. [They can] pool their resources when they have a common issue and goal and coordinate when they have related tracks but different focus."

If Open Data Model and the EDM Council are not truly competitors, is it possible that they can create a "co-opetition" that will drive innovation, offer options for users and benefit everyone?