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copied!<p>I think you have to consider that the non-relational DBMS differ a lot regarding their data model and therefore the conceptual data design will also differ a lot. In the thread <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/nosql-discussion/browse_thread/thread/bbe3aa69071fd7b9/b5bb363c32f598c9" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Data Design in Non-Relational Databases</a> of the <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/nosql-discussion/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">NOSQL Google group</a> the different paradigms are categorized like this:</p> <ol> <li>Bigtable-like systems (HBase, Hypertable, etc)</li> <li>Key-value stores (Tokyo, Voldemort, etc)</li> <li>Document databases (CouchDB, MongoDB, etc)</li> <li>Graph databases (AllegroGraph, Neo4j, Sesame, etc)</li> </ol> <p>I'm mostly into <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1000162/have-anyone-used-graph-based-databases-http-neo4j-org">graph databases</a>, and the elegance of data design using this paradigm was what brought me there, tired of the shortcomings of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_database_management_system" rel="nofollow noreferrer">RDBMS</a>. I have put a few examples of data design using a graph database on this <a href="http://wiki.neo4j.org/content/Domain_Modeling_Gallery" rel="nofollow noreferrer">wiki page</a> and there's an <a href="http://wiki.neo4j.org/content/IMDB_The_Domain" rel="nofollow noreferrer">example of how to model</a> the basic <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Movie_Database" rel="nofollow noreferrer">IMDB</a> movie/actor/role data too.</p> <p>The presentation slides (slideshare) <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/adorepump/graph-databases-and-the-future-of-largescale-knowledge-management" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Graph Databases and the Future of Large-Scale Knowledge Management</a> by <a href="http://markorodriguez.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Marko Rodriguez</a> contains a very nice introduction to data design using a graph database as well.</p> <p><em>Answering the specific questions from a graphdb point of view:</em></p> <p>Alternate design: adding relationships between many different kinds of entities without any worries or a need to predefine which entities can get connected.</p> <p>Bridging the gap: I tend to do this different for every case, based on the domain itself, as I don't want a "table-oriented graph" and the like. However, <a href="http://wiki.neo4j.org/content/SQL_Importer" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here's</a> some information on automatic translation from RDBMS to graphdb.</p> <p>Explicit data models: I do these all the time (whiteboard style), and then use the model as it is in the DB as well.</p> <p>Miss from RDBMS world: easy ways to create reports. Update: maybe it's not <em>that</em> hard to create reports from a graph database, see <a href="http://www.reportsanywhere.com/pebble/2010/05/30/creating_a_report_for_a_neo4j_sample_database.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Creating a Report for a Neo4J Sample Database</a>.</p>

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