What I do now is run the Database Technology Institute, with participants from both research and development. This team is focused on inventing and accelerating technology from research to product. It involves both teamwork and technical invention to solve real world problems. In the ten years I have been doing this, every release of every IBM relational database product has included technology from our team. So I'd say that the single most interesting element of my work is being able to invent something and see it quickly become part of a product that people use every day.
Databases touch every aspect of our lives.
You use databases when you cash checks, when you buy things at a store, make travel reservations or go to the doctor. The world's economy runs on databases. When my children were small, they would ask me why I had to go to work. I told them people have a responsibility to use their abilities and talent, and that I felt a real obligation to make the work people do easier, faster and more reliable. The phenomenon of the Internet has made computing and information accessible to millions of people.