Category Heterogeneous Communication

Category Proposal

I'm proposing a new category about sharing information between diverse systems. "Diverse" means different vendors, different programming languages, different tools, etc. It's a complex, important, and contentious subject matter. It can be distinguished from "distributed" systems in that distributed may be the same language/tool/brand, just spread about location-wise. Before I start sticking this tag in many topics, I'd like to see comments on its existence and name. Thanks. --Top

In principle, I think it's a fine idea. But, I'd like some clarification on the topic area. You've used "diverse" in the above paragraph, which is one thing and you've used "heterogeneous" in the title, which is subtly different and may imply something significantly different. You've used "distributed" in the above paragraph, which is one thing, but you've used "communication" in the title, which certainly intersects "distributed" but is not the same thing, obviously.

"Heterogeneous", as used in computing contexts, generally means diverse systems. However, it typically implies the fact that they are made to appear as a single unified system. Is that what you intend? For example, "heterogeneous database systems" refer to multiple databases -- often from different vendors, and sometimes even employing different architectures and/or database languages -- that have been integrated to look, from a user's point of view, like a single system.

Also, "distributed systems" may be either heterogeneous or homogeneous. There is no implication of same language/tool/brand, etc.

Therefore, I would infer from "heterogeneous communication" that it is intended to refer to communications systems that incorporate diverse protocols, tools, etc., but which are integrated so as to appear to be a single, unified, perhaps even homogeneous system. "Diverse communication" would, to me, better cover your intent.

What would you recommend to de-emphasize the "appear integrated" aspect? "Diverse" instead of "heterogeneous"? We don't need to exclude integration because there's not an alternative category right now, but not be too specific (until the point a split is worthwhile due to volume). Thus, at this stage we should cover both ad-hoc communication and "appear integrated" under a single topic name. Would CategoryDiverseCommunication? be sufficient to cover both?

Yup, I like it.

The downside is that it sounds like "social" communication, such as "cultural diversity".

How about category "diverse info sharing" so that it doesn't sound like human communication-related?