In the mid-1990's all of software moved to objects — all except data management. Oracle and IBM held data management locked on the relational model developed in the late 1970's.
Ruby, SOA, and OWL are all based on object models.
We think that the intersection of Web 2.0, SOA, and the ontology standards of the Semantic Web may prove to be what finally frees up data management to move to a high-level semantic model as well.
The relational lock on data management is a little like the San Andreas fault.
In southern California, the Pacific Plate has slid
north along the Continental Plate nearly 40 feet since the 1906 earthquake.
But north of San Francisco the intersection of a third plate, the Juan de Fuca Plate, has kept the fault line locked.
Pressure has been building up for decades.