Back when data was little and simple, self-service analysis advocates started the chant, “Free the data!” IT stood in the way, they said. Fast forward to 2016: “democratized data” has become common, but so has public concern over privacy.
That nettlesome struggle drove a discussion that now stands as the data industry’s’ most important discussion of 2016.… Read more...
The assessment of worldwide threats issued yesterday by director of national intelligence James Clapper has one more topic for panel discussions at data-industry events. The Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community says the Ruskies, Chinese, and others will “almost certainly” try to do more with our data than to steal it.… Read more...
Just give business users the data. Don’t wait for perfection. Just hand it over, clean or not, and let it start creating value.
That’s the kernel of Blake Johnson’s advice to organizations who want to make use of data. He’s a Stanford University consulting professor and a Teradata academic.… Read more...
The general manager of a local builder wanted my advice the other morning — how to find a data analyst. I’m sure a lot of small-business managers would like to know, too.
“I don’t know what I don’t know,” he says, “but I know that I don’t know.” He’s been trying to convince the boss that they had to see what the pile of data that had accumulated over the years could tell them.… Read more...
As if to renounce one more convention of business, a Berkeley-area businessperson I know couldn’t find data, so he went out and got some of his own. He had to evaluate market areas.
For three days, he stood by an ironing board with a map on top in front of the Cheese Board in Berkeley’s Gourmet Ghetto.… Read more...