[FOSS_health] Re: interoperability

[David Forslund]

Precisely.   I have a simple analogy to explain this.  Just because a 
group of people all might use MS Access does not mean that they have any 
real ability to exchange data between these systems.  They are all 
running the same software, but have probably created their own data 
dictionaries (tables, etc).   The DoD have all used the same software, 
but weren't required to use a common dictionary or to maintain a common 
dictionary.  This may have changed more recently, but it certainly was 
the case around the year 2000.   I think the VA has done a better job in 
this regard.

Dave
Joseph Dal Molin wrote:
> In both open and proprietary systems users of the same application 
> across multiple organizations usually have the power to add new 
> terminology etc. without some centralized "terminology" 
> standardization process.
>
> Joseph
>
> Nandalal Gunaratne wrote:
>> David,
>>
>> "Just running the same system at multiple locations is
>> no guarantee of semantic interoperability."
>>
>> Please explain why this is so, in brief.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Nanda
>>
>