# Proposed new subcategory in "Data Management": "Tech" **URL:** \ **Category:** Meta\ **Created:** [July 13, 2021, 4:16pm UTC](https://www.rubin.community/t/proposed-new-subcategory-in-data-management-tech/5650 "2021-07-13T16:16:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![genghisken](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/www.rubin.community/genghisken/32/1674_2.png) [@genghisken](https://www.rubin.community/u/genghisken)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 4:16pm UTC](https://www.rubin.community/t/proposed-new-subcategory-in-data-management-tech/5650/1 "2021-07-13T16:16:23Z")
At the Brokers workshop in April 2021, we had a productive discussion about the use of various back-end database technologies (e.g. SQL, No-SQL, Graph, Object) which various brokers have adopted for their query engines. Amongst various topics we discussed use of these technologies in facilitating flexible (especially spatially indexed) queries, and deployment challenges in cloud-based infrastructures. Although there are plenty of generic discussion forums geared towards these themes, few, if any, provide an astronomy oriented approach. Hence I propose a sub-category under “Data Management” named “Tech”. The category is initially aimed at broker developers, but of course we welcome contributors from anyone in the Rubin community. Under the “About” section, I propose: A forum for discussing back-end database technology implementations, initially aimed at broker developers, relating to curation and querying of Rubin data. ---
**Author:** ![parejkoj](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/www.rubin.community/parejkoj/32/138_2.png) [@parejkoj](https://www.rubin.community/u/parejkoj)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 6:32pm UTC](https://www.rubin.community/t/proposed-new-subcategory-in-data-management-tech/5650/2 "2021-07-13T18:32:23Z")
If the goal of this subforum is to discuss brokers and database technology, I’d suggest calling it “database” or “broker development”: just “tech” is far too generic. ---
**Author:** ![MelissaGraham](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/www.rubin.community/melissagraham/32/2549_2.png) [@MelissaGraham](https://www.rubin.community/u/MelissaGraham)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 7:54pm UTC](https://www.rubin.community/t/proposed-new-subcategory-in-data-management-tech/5650/3 "2021-07-13T19:54:40Z")
These kinds of technical discussions between brokers developers, Rubin staff, and the science community (everyone and anyone, really) would be very appropriate for the [Alerts & Brokers](http://www.rubin.community/c/sci/alertsbrokers/46) category. Alternatively to making a new category, perhaps we should just update the “[About the Alerts & Brokers Category](http://www.rubin.community/t/about-the-alerts-brokers-category/4504)” topic for that category to make this clearer? Discussion of making it a new category is still open though. ---
**Author:** ![genghisken](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/www.rubin.community/genghisken/32/1674_2.png) [@genghisken](https://www.rubin.community/u/genghisken)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 9:15pm UTC](https://www.rubin.community/t/proposed-new-subcategory-in-data-management-tech/5650/4 "2021-07-13T21:15:37Z")
Many thanks for the helpful suggestions! Agreed - maybe “Tech” is just too generic. Happy to have it under the [Alerts & Brokers](http://www.rubin.community/c/sci/alertsbrokers/46) category. Looks like we haven’t been very busy there, so even a simple topic under there won’t exactly get lost! At least initially. Is it possible to have a “Database” or “Databases” or “Database Technologies” tag or subtopic? Don’t worry if not. ---
**Author:** ![MelissaGraham](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/www.rubin.community/melissagraham/32/2549_2.png) [@MelissaGraham](https://www.rubin.community/u/MelissaGraham)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 9:35pm UTC](https://www.rubin.community/t/proposed-new-subcategory-in-data-management-tech/5650/5 "2021-07-13T21:35:42Z")
And thank YOU for using the Community Forum @genghisken!! 😄 “Alerts & Brokers” is already a sub-category (of Science) and we don’t have sub-sub-categories, but all technical discussions like you described could carried out by starting new topics in the Alerts & Brokers category. You’re right that tags are also useful for this situation. I only found a few relevant [existing tags](http://www.rubin.community/tags) ([alert](http://www.rubin.community/tag/alert), [brokers](http://www.rubin.community/tag/brokers), and [sql](http://www.rubin.community/tag/sql)) but more can easily be made. I can see that your user account, @genghisken, has a trust level of three which means [you can create new tags](http://www.rubin.community/t/how-to-propose-a-new-category-or-tag/4403). ---
**Author:** ![genghisken](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/www.rubin.community/genghisken/32/1674_2.png) [@genghisken](https://www.rubin.community/u/genghisken)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 9:42pm UTC](https://www.rubin.community/t/proposed-new-subcategory-in-data-management-tech/5650/6 "2021-07-13T21:42:17Z")
Ah - that’s great! Many thanks @MelissaGraham! Looking forward to the day we can have some discussions in person again!