CNN posted a story about the worlds oldest database being put online. The Domesday Book is one of Britans oldest public records and is a detailed survey of more than 13,000 places owned by Harold II, as well as details of the people and countryside. Interestingly, the survey was undertaken so that the king could borrow money to pay for mercenaries (to defend the realm from invaders).

Apart from the history, it is interesting that the database is now online and searchable to anyone for a fee of about $7 (US) per page. While I wonder about the wisdom of charging such a high fee for access, it is still very interesting to see antiquity interact with information architecture.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 6th, 2006 at 12:34 pm and is filed under Databases, Information Architecture, In the News, Reporting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.