Response to “Eight Problems with Big Data”
After reading Jay Stanley’s ACLU article on “Eight Problems with Big Data,” it is worth reflecting on what could be construed as a fear-mongering indictment of the use of big data analytics and the implication that big data analytics and its implementation of data mining algorithms are tantamount to all-out invasion of privacy. What is interesting, though, is the presumption that privacy advocates have been “grappling” with data mining since “not long after 9/11,” yet data mining was already quite a mature discipline by that point in time, as was the general use of customer data for marketing, sales, and other business purposes. Raising an alarm about “big data” and “data mining” today is akin to shutting the barn door decades after the horses have bolted. Read more
Data Governance and Quality: Data Reuse vs. Data Repurposing
I have been assembling a slide deck for an upcoming TDWI web seminar on Strategic Planning and the World of Big Data, and I am finding that I might sometimes use two different terms (“data reuse” and “data repurposing,” in case you ignored the tootle of this post) interchangeably when in fact those two words could have slightly different meanings or intents. So should I be cavalier and use them as synonyms?
When I thought about it, I did see some clarity in differentiating the definitions:
- “data reuse” means taking a data asset and using more than once for the same purpose.
- “data repurposing” means taking a data asset previously used for one (or more) specific purpose(s) and using that data set four a completely different purpose. Read more
Prohibition, Mandating “Ethical” Compliance, and Data Quality
I just finished reading a very interesting book on the evolution of Prohibition in the US in the mid-late 1800s and early 1900s. The book, “Last Call” by Daniel Okrent, followed the temperance movement that started with a bunch of men pledging to stop drinking through its alignment with the women’s suffrage movement, to the passage of the Prohibition amendment, followed by its eventual repeal. One revelation to me was that , according to the author, the political processes that enabled the passage of prohibition essentially created the modern methods of political lobbying, the ability of minority parties to significantly sway majority rule, and (when push comes to shove) that when you mandate behavioral changes, you probably should have four things in mind:
- Your value proposition must be appealing enough to convince those you are trying to regulate that it is in their best interests to comply;
- You should ensure that you have adequate resources for inspection, monitoring, and enforcement;
- You don’t allow so many loopholes that enable the ad hoc creation of classes or parties who can blatantly evade compliance; and
- You don’t reward illicit behavior. Read more
Data Governance and Federal Agencies
As I was thinking about the content for an upcoming training session on data governance and government activities, I reflected on some experiences in government consulting that were addressed via some aspect of data governance. For simplicity, I thought I’d distill those thoughts into an example demonstrating the need for a comprehensive data governance strategy for federal agencies. Read more
Things I Want to Know About Customers
Since it has been a while since I posted to this blog (busy, busy – but busy is good!), I decided to take a break this morning and log some ideas that basically relate quality information to customer visibility. Read more
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