DQ-BE: How to Get Sesame Street’s Description Wrong
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This example of poor data quality was tweeted by @_youhadonejob and thankfully re-tweeted by @daraghobrien using the #dataquality and #iqtrainwreck hashtags.
Sesame Street is a children’s television series that celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2009 and is known for its educational content communicated through the use of Jim Henson’s Muppets, animation, short films, humor, and cultural references.
However, the description shown above, taken from a DVR television guide, would mislead you to believe that Sesame Street isn’t quite the wholesome family entertainment I remember as a child. Instead of telling me, like the series theme song does, how to get to a Sesame Street where everything’s A-OK and I can come and play with the friendly neighbors there, this example of how to get Sesame Street’s description wrong serves as a good lesson about how poor DQ is not A-OK.
As for the potential negative impact of this poor data quality, as Daragh O Brien noted via Twitter, electronic program guide (EPG) data is increasingly being used by devices such as smart TVs to restrict access to, and block recordings of, content. Poor EPG data quality isn’t just embarrassing. It can prove costly to providers by preventing their content from reaching its intended audience.
