Scott Beaugrand PPDM's new CEO presided over the spring member meeting in Houston last month. PPDM is on a pretty steady course. The business model – Build a data model, offer it up to the members, get feedback, and start over – is now tried and tested, and it works. This is largely thanks to the volunteer effort put into the association by the members themselves.

Is PPDM Canadian? Is the Pope Catholic! Yes, originally, although we have been taken to task for pointing this out before. Indeed the spring member meeting's location in Houston shows that there is significant activity outside of Canada. There is also great enthusiasm for the PPDM data model in South America, although European interest has dwindled over the last couple of years. What pushes a Houston based oil co. to bother with PPDM? Well a lot of oil companies still build, or at least buy and tweak their databases. PPDM is a practical choice for companies that want to go straight to a physical database.

But the main driver behind PPDM's following in the US is the fact that PPDM is the data model behind IHS Energy's P2000 database product. So for buyers and tweakers of PI/Dwights data, PPDM is of some relevance. PPDM are looking to expand their visibility, but are hampered by limited resources. Current PPDM activity is centered on extending the data model into new business areas. Work is in progress on extending the Land area of the model, and the Spatial committee is currently looking into simple ways in which the model can be spatially enabled.

ESRI's SDE and Oracle's SDC/SDO are to be usable with the next version (3.5) of the PPDM data model. A joint effort with POSC is underway to provide a single standard for reference tables. This is part of a renewed attempt at collaboration with a view to presenting a more "unified front" to the industry.