office is dead? #2: dabble db

Posted on | June 29, 2006 | No Comments

dabble db is a web-based tool for data-management, -collection and -sharing, aimed at corporate information-workers which are currently organizing data among small teams using Microsoft Access or similar software. since Access’ initial launch in 1992 (click to read about the products’ history), Microsoft has done quite an amazing job in enabling database-amateurs with profound insight into business-processes to realize data-driven applications – without the cost of involving IT-departments or external services. sure, Access’ database-engine has been critized by pro-developers since day one (and rightly so). and yes, ad-hoc data-models designed by the typical Access-user tend to break. but still I think that Access is the most significant part of Microsoft’s Office-suite regarding empowerment of the user. surely it is the Office-application which is hardest to replace (either by opensource- or webbased-solutions).

dabble db migrates the spirit of early versions of Microsoft Access into todays web 2.0-reality. users are encouraged to start entering data right away, even without designing table-definitions or inter-table-dependencies. the data-model (which at its core is of course still based on a relational data-model, although ‘tables’ are called ‘categories’ which might lead to confusion at first) evolves iteratively, adding columns or references whenever they are needed. dabble’s AJAX-driven user-interface and the whole design-concept are really worth a look, a comprehensive screencast can be found here…

naturally, dabble’s biggest advantange are its features for sharing databases on the web. databases can be shared with specified users (invitation via email) or with the general public (read-only or even writeable). these collaborative features give dabble an advantage over Access, which is mostly still bound to local/corporate networks.
in it’s current state, dabble db addresses only the very basic needs of data-management. it is a great tool for distributed data-collection on the net. however, compared to desktop-applications, the feature-set is extremely limited – no customized forms, no reports, no scripting. currently there is no way to integrate images or other multimedia-data into dabble db. what might detain dabble’s success even more: it is actually costing money (starting with 25 US$ a month for a multi-user license, free trials are available). still, many applications can be solved with the current featureset sufficiently, so the next time you are in need of a simple collaborative data-management-tool while lacking a budget, you might give it a try!

 

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