Public Database for Mobile Application What are the proper steps to hosting a public database. Currently I a building a mobile application with Adobe Flash Builder. I have used Microsoft SQL Server, My SQL as well as WAMP Server. All of these I have been told are private databases and thus will only allow my application to how the information as long as they are on the same internet connection. I have also been told that port forwarding my database isn't safe either. 

In this case what is the best approach to making my database public or what other source should I use to make my application accessible to world wide users.
For this scenario, the database server should not be publicly exposed, for obvious security reasons.

You should expose a public interface (API) of your application, probably by using something like web services. The mobile application instances then only communicate directly with the API.

This separation (decoupling) allows for all sorts of good things to happen, such as easier scale-out/load balancing.