October 2008 starts DATABASED ADVISOR's 26th year -- amazing! The first issue appeared in October 1983, just five months after the company was incorporated.

Twenty five years after our founding seems a good time to review our roots (I last did so in 1996). Because so much has changed, I flipped through past issues of DATABASED ADVISOR to recall how the database world, software development, information technology, and this magazine have evolved across the decades.

The 1983 Premiere Issue carried the slogan "Featuring dBASE II," and included "Running CP/M from dBASE II," "Ashton-Tate's New Friday!", and "Tradenet," an online service. Writers could submit articles on 8" CP/M disk or by modem. In the second issue, "Ask the Advisor" (later "Ask Advisor") debuted, as did long-time DATABASED ADVISOR writer Alan Simpson.

Advertisers included SBT Corporation, The Champion, and Autocode. "DBA" started to catch on as a nickname for the magazine.

1984 brought a field report on "RunTime," the first Ashton-Tate conference. Big news was the new dBASE II 2.6, the first 16-bit version. In February, the mission of DATABASED ADVISOR was officially expanded to cover all microcomputer-related database development and management tools and techniques, including Revelation, KnowledgeMan, Probase, R:BASE, and networking. New products: The Norton Utilities, DataFlex, cENGLISH, Multilink, DayFlo, and Ashton-Tate's Framework. Condor didn't meet expectations, while dBASE III did. dB Compiler appeared.

New ads: Fox & Geller's Quickcode, a 10MB hard drive "for only $995," dSHIRTS from Cary Prague, and AccountMate II. November brought the first ad for FoxBASE II, claiming "dBASE II outfoxed!" An ad by Sensible Solution showed Ernest Borgnine ("McHale's Navy") and his wife. The next month, the Borgnines were on the cover, eating breakfast while reading DATABASED ADVISOR!

In 1985, covers showed "famous people reading DATABASED ADVISOR," including Gumby(!) and Ashton-Tate chairman Ed Esber. Articles explored dBASE's SUPERLok copy protection scheme, and 10-Base's SQL support. Ansa debuted Paradox. George Goley reviewed R:BASE 5000, Tom Rettig looked at the Developer's Release of dBASE III, and Lan Barnes evaluated Clipper. VersaSoft's DBMAN was "a formidable dBASE challenger!"

New products: Adam Osborne's VP-Planner, Reflex, Informix-SQL, Helix for Macintosh, and askSam. The DATABASED ADVISOR Source Code Disk was introduced. David Irwin started DATABASED ADVISOR's back-page column of news, gossip, and opinions, in recent years presented by Buzz Hunter, ADVISOR's investigative reporter.

1986 brought dBASE III PLUS, and strong interest in the Clipper Extended Library and user-defined functions, including a fabulous library from Tom Rettig (famous for being the original star of TV's "Lassie" series).

Articles: PROGRESS, DESQview, Philippe Kahn on Borland's purchase of Reflex. Alan Simpson debuted "Learning Paradox." Reviewed: R:BASE System V, dBRIEF, and FoxBASE+.

Ads: R&R Relational Report Writer, Genifer, DataEase, and Alpha/three.

In 1987, a field report on the Meeting of the Minds conference criticized Ashton-Tate's simplistic tutorials and its avoidance of dBASE for real apps. Russell Freeland became a DBA contributor. Columns: dBASE III PLUS, Revelation, Quicksilver/dBXL, Clipper, Rich Finkelstein on SQL, Brian Smith on Paradox, George Goley on R:BASE, and me on "Assorted Software."

Articles: INGRES SQL, FoxBASE+ 2.0, Emerald Bay, multi-user and multi-tasking programming, and the proposed "Standard dBASE" specs, developed by an independent committee whose work halted when Ashton-Tate threatened to sue. New ad: Gupta Technologies, maker of SQLbase.

In 1988, client-server was a hot topic. DATABASED ADVISOR covered Paradox, Progress, XDB, Macintosh databases, Sybase SQL Server, dBASE IV (coming soon), Clipper Summer 87, R:BASE for OS/2, Professional Oracle, Informix, Clarion, Framework III, DataPerfect, an expected Lotus database that never actually arrived, and the first Clipper Developers Conference.

At Ashton-Tate’s Meeting of the Minds II, Ed Esber apologized for the way developers had been treated since 1986. To counter "misuse" of the name "dBASE," A-T coined "dCal," dBASE Common Application Language; developers and ADVISOR used "Xbase" instead.

Ads: Oracle's jet fighter shot down Ashton-Tate's rickety biplane in flames; Force III, "the ultimate dBase Compiler."

Articles: Mac Rubel on Clipper; Rick Spence's new Hardcore Clipper column, my new "The VAR Report" column.

dBASE IV finally was released, or as I quoted an Ashton-Tate marketing executive, they "threw it over the wall." I was banished from Ashton-Tate for publishing this accurate statement, and the executive was forbidden to talk with me (as he told me, quietly).

In January 1989, DATABASED ADVISOR revealed Ashton-Tate was suing Fox Software. Articles: Novell, Informix, Oracle, micro-mainframe connections, CASE, Superbase, Borland, DataEase, Lotus, Microsoft "Omega," Apple, Claris (now known as FileMaker), SQL Server, and IBM OS/2 Database Manager. Nantucket discussed "Pegasus." I gave the first look at Fox Software, FoxPro, and the Fox Developers Conference. Dan Gutierrez wrote about serial communications.

Ashton-Tate discovered that developers considered dBASE IV to be a dud, a problem that lawsuits couldn't fix, and the company's reputation never recovered. (Something I recall when struggling with the bad joke known as Microsoft Windows Vista.)

In 1990, I became the chief editor. Client-server became mainstream. But local-area networking was still new, and connecting to distant locations was via very slow dial-up. The Internet existed and was being used by some large companies for email and a bit of file sharing, but there wasn't any contemplation that it would soon become open to the rest of us. The term World Wide Web didn't exist.

The early 1990s was an era of consolidation, or more accurately, big companies buying little companies. Borland bought Ashon-Tate to get the dBASE brand, and bought Wordtech to get a better version of dBASE. Microsoft bought Fox Software to get FoxPro, which it renamed Visual FoxPro. Computer Associates bought Nantucket to get Clipper and especially to get the next-generation Windows version which it named Visual Objects.

Meanwhile, new products were rolling out, including Microsoft Access. Powersoft launched PowerBase, and was soon purchased by Sybase, SQL Server came from Sybase and was first sold by Ashton-Tate, but is now owned by Microsoft. IBM paid billions for Lotus Development Corporation to get Lotus Notes. Even Novell bought a database engine, Btrieve. The big guns had arrived!

Developers needed so much help with these and other hot database development platforms that we launched a series of "baby" ADVISOR magazines, including FOXPRO ADVISOR, ACCESS ADVISOR, CLIPPER ADVISOR, VISUAL OBJECTS ADVISOR, LOTUS NOTES ADVISOR, POWERBUILDER ADVISOR, FILEMAKER PRO ADVISOR, and others. We also changed the corporate name of our company to match our well-established ADVISOR brand.

We tried to go full circle by also launching dBASE ADVISOR, but Borland's dBASE 5 had so many problems it didn't click with developers, so we shelved the magazine after a preview issue.

We also launched a family of conferences to bring the magazines to life, starting with ADVISOR-produced tracks at DB/Expo in San Francisco, then a series of live-by-satellite televised developer conferences, and then a wide variety of face-to-face ADVISOR DEVCON, ADVISOR LIVE, ADVISOR SUMMIT, ADVISOR WORKSHOP and other live events across North America, plus Asia and Europe.

In 1993, the Web arrived, a technology that used the Internet to allow direct access to individual pages of information -- hyper-text linking, it was called. The first browser arrived, making it possible for users to easily go to Web sites and pages and see the information stylized via early HTML tags. We started covering this new environment in-depth. At one of our first ADVISOR developer conferences, in Durham, North Carolina, the keynote topic was the Internet.

Through the mid '90s we helped readers understand how the Internet and especially the Web were empowering businesses, and enabling developers to provide solutions that used to be impossible. In 1996 I wrote that our major themes were Internet/intranet/extranet databases, data warehousing and mining, distributed databases, data and app integration, objects, ODBC and middleware, and 32-bit Windows. We even changed the magazine's name to DATABASED WEB ADVISOR for a while.

Of course, the Internet evolution also led to a mountain of money invested in over-the-top ideas and wild-eyed business ventures, the so-called dot-com boom that soon crashed in the dot-com bust.

We now know that the lasting value of the Internet wasn't crazy new companies. It mainly has helped established businesses better connect with customers, suppliers, and partners. This concept got branded e-business, so we took part of the magazine in that direction, launching E-BUSINESS ADVISOR in print, while continuing DATABASED ADVISOR online.

E-BUSINESS ADVISOR was a quick hit with business decision makers, leading us (and me) to some interesting opportunities. For instance, in Washington I chaired a Department of Defense panel discussion on e-commerce and XML -- odd to speak about e-business technology to a room packed with military uniforms. Then our magazine became sponsor of a new CNBC TV show, "The Next Wave with Leonard Nimoy." I was thrilled to join Leonard as co-host for six episodes, exploring e-business technology, ventures and practices.

In the 21st century one of the next waves is the evolution of e-business into mobile business, so we renamed the magazine MOBILE BUSINESS ADVISOR. The trend to tailoring business practices and technology to mobile and wireless users is still playing out, as is e-business, so we have Web areas devoted to them.

When we spun-off our separate publications it was because readers needed narrow concentration to achieve their business goals. But a decade later, the biggest business need is integration among separate technologies, platforms, environments, database systems, and user locations, and more. As convergence cranked up we heard from readers about the ever-broadening technologies they face. So in 2007 we put it all back together, merging most of our separate publications into a super-site, DATABASED.ADVISOR.com, which now gives subscribers ALL our technology articles, tips, and downloads. After 25 years, that seems like the perfect place to be.

But not all of life is digital, so over the years we've frequently provided information and advice beyond the pure technical -- I wrote a "how to succeed in business" column for several years, for instance. A few years ago we broadened our ADVISOR MEDIA publications and sites to include personal guidance, most notably at http://BoomerAdvisor.com. I hope you find it useful.

Be sure I know how ADVISOR MEDIA can help you from now on. Please write me at http://www.advisor.com/contact.