Take this nice piece from Forbes. The key thing here is that data is seen as the new oil (or black gold for that matter). Arguably, data is becoming a new currency and the effort to put a "value" on data is remarkable (and probably necessary. We will return on this concept at some point in the near future). But is it really? Interestingly, as Gary Burnison pointed out, "more data does not mean the right information. It just means more information." And this is a good point if you consider that the value of data resides more in its extrinsic power to help us make more informed decision (not necessarily the better) than in its volume, velocity, etc.
While we are on this, did you know that big data can clog the arteries of your organization?
In other words, data is just crude and needs to be refined by the smartest people in the room if it is to be turned into value. It sounds very logical to me.
And if data has (or acquires) value, is dark data worth more than light data? And what about data loss? It can leave you as grief-stricken as a widow...but here comes the metaphor par excellence, namely, data cloud where your data is hosted, protected, nurtured, and cared. However, nothing can prevent dead data, just live with that.
I also heard (but can't recall where) that inevitably your data will be scattered across multiple systems (which is not big news) leading to a "data debris" phenomenon. Fancy that!
My favorite, however, is data mining. It may just be an excess of cynicism of me but I cringe anytime I see a BI vendor promising to be able to sift through your data base and spot patterns (i.e. extract knowledge) to increase your revenue and/or cut costs. More seriously, the relation between data and information is key. It will be the subject of the next post.
There are more data metaphors out there...give it a shot. In the meantime, I'll keep believing that I master data!
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