The potential of discovery comes from the realization that alternate contexts may reveal additional valuable information. A metaphor for database discovery is mining. The metaphor is to somehow 'sift' through the 'ore' of a database to discover information 'nuggets'. Data mining elicits knowledge that is implicit in the databases. In a sense, we could say that database mining may make implicit knowledge available for use.
Database mining is a relatively new area of interest.
Various methods have been tried. However, the results so far have not been completely satisfactory. Soft computing may have much to offer.