Recently Read: March 6, 2010

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Recently Read is an OCDQ regular segment.  Each entry provides links to blog posts, articles, books, and other material I found interesting enough to share.  Please note “recently read” is literal – therefore what I share wasn't necessarily recently published.

 

Data Quality

For simplicity, “Data Quality” also includes Data Governance, Master Data Management, and Business Intelligence.

  • Let the Data Geeks Play – Rob Paller is hosting a contest on his blog challenging all data geeks to submit an original song (or parody of an existing one) related to MDM, Data Governance, or Data Quality.  Deadline for submissions is March 20.
  • The First Step on your Data Quality Roadmap – Phil Wright describes how to learn lessons from what has happened before, and use this historical analysis as a basis for planning a successful strategy for your data quality initiative.
  • Bad word?: Data Owner – Henrik Liliendahl Sørensen examines how the common data quality terms “data owner” and “data ownership” are used and whether they are truly useful.  Excellent commentary was also received on this blog post.
  • Data as a smoke screen – Charles Blyth discusses how to get to the point where your consumers trust the data that you are providing to them.  This post includes a great graphic and received considerable commentary.
  • MDM Streamlines the Supply Chain – Evan Levy ruminates on the change management challenge for MDM—where change truly is constant—and how the supply chain can become incredibly flexible and streamlined as a result of MDM.
  • MDM as a Vendor Fight to Own Enterprise Data – Loraine Lawson (with help from actor Peter Boyle) looks at another angle of the recent MDM vendor consolidation, based on the recent remark “MDM is the new ERP” made by Jill Dyché. 
  • Data Quality Open Issues and Questions? – Jackie Roberts of DATAForge issues the blogosphere challenge of discussing real-world best practices for MDM, data governance, and data quality.  This blog post received some great comments.
  • Noise and Signal – David Loshin examines the implications of the rising volumes of unstructured data (especially from social media sources) and the related need for data (and metadata) quality to help filter out the signal from the noise.  
  • A gold DQ team! – Daniel Gent, inspired by the recent Winter Olympics and his country's success in ice hockey, discusses the skills and characteristics necessary for assembling a golden data quality team. 
  • Unpredictable Inaccuracy – Henrik Liliendahl Sørensen incites another thought-provoking discussion in the comments section of his blog with this post about the impact on data quality initiatives caused by the challenging reality of time.
  • Does your data quality help customers succeed? – Dylan Jones searches for the holy grail of data quality—providing your customers with great information quality that enables them to achieve their goals as quickly and simply as possible.
  • Charm School: It’s Not Just for IT Anymore – Jill Dyché reminds the business that it’s their business, too—and illustrates the need for a sustained hand-off cycle between IT and the business—and the days of the IT-business mind-meld are over.
  • Data Quality Lip Service – Phil Simon examines why leaders at many organizations merely pay lip service to data quality, and makes some recommendations for getting data quality its due.  Simon Says: “Read this blog post!”
  • What is the name of that block? – Rich Murnane provides a fascinating discussion about looking at things differently by sharing a TED video with Derek Sivers, who explains the different way locations are identified in Japan.
  • Aphorism of the week – Peter Thomas recently (and thankfully) returned to active blogging.  This blog post is a great signature piece representative of his excellent writing style, which proves that long blog posts can be worth reading.
  • How tasty is your data quality cheese? – Julian Schwarzenbach explains data quality using a cheese analogy, where cheese represents a corporate data set, mold represents poor data quality, which causes indigestion—and poor business decisions.
  • Wild stuff: Nines complement date format – Thorsten Radde provides a great example of the unique data quality challenges presented by legacy applications by explaining the date format known as Nine’s complement. 

 

Social Media

For simplicity, “Social Media” also includes Blogging, Writing, Social Networking, and Online Marketing.

  • Ten Things Social Media Can't Do – B.L. Ochman provides a healthy reminder for properly setting realistic expectations about social media, and provides a great list of ten things you should not expect from social media.
  • A Manifesto for Social Business – Graham Hill discusses how the nature of business is inexorably changing into a new kind of Social Business that is driven by social relationships, and lists fifteen themes (the Manifesto) of this change.
  • Framing Your Social Media Efforts – Chris Brogan explains there are three fundamental areas of practice for social media: (1) Listening, (2) Connecting, and (3) Publishing.
  • Minding the Gap – Tara Hunt examines the gap between the underlying values of business and the underlying human values that drive community.  This blog post also includes an excellent SlideShare presentation that I highly recommend.
  • The Albert Einstein Guide to Social Media – Amber Naslund channels the wisdom of Albert Einstein by using some of his most insightful quotes to frame a practical guide to a better understanding of social media.

 

Book Quotes

An eclectic list of quotes from some recently read (and/or simply my favorite) books.

  • From Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin – “You don't become indispensable merely because you are different.  But the only way to be indispensable is to be different.  That's because if you're the same, so are plenty of other people.  The only way to get what you're worth is to stand out, to exert emotional labor, to be seen as indispensable, and to produce interactions that organizations and people care deeply about.”

 

Related Posts

Recently Read: January 23, 2010

Recently Read: December 21, 2009

Recently Read: December 7, 2009

Recently Read: November 28, 2009

 

Recently Read Resources

Data Quality via My Google Reader

Social Media via My Google Reader

Books about Data Quality, Data Governance, Master Data Management, and Business Intelligence

Blogs about Data Quality, Data Governance, Master Data Management, and Business Intelligence

Books about Social Media, Blogging, Social Networking, and Online Marketing

Blogs and Websites about Social Media, Social Networking, and Online Marketing

Adventures in Data Profiling

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Data profiling is a critical step in a variety of information management projects, including data quality initiatives, MDM implementations, data migration and consolidation, building a data warehouse, and many others.

Understanding your data is essential to using it effectively and improving its quality – and to achieve these goals, there is simply no substitute for data analysis.

 

Webinar

In this vendor-neutral eLearningCurve webinar, I discuss the common functionality provided by data profiling tools, which can help automate some of the work needed to begin your preliminary data analysis.

You can download (no registration required) the webinar (.wmv file) using this link: Adventures in Data Profiling Webinar

 

Presentation

You can download the presentation (no registration required) used in the webinar as an Adobe Acrobat Document (.pdf file) using this link: Adventures in Data Profiling Presentation

 

Complete Blog Series

You can read (no registration required) the complete OCDQ blog series Adventures in Data Profiling by following these links:

The Circle of Quality

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Explaining why data quality is so vitally important to an organization's success that it needs to be viewed as a corporate asset is unfortunately not an easy task to accomplish. 

A common mistake made during such attempts is failing to frame data quality issues in a business context, which leads the organization's business stakeholders to understandably mistake data quality for a purely technical issue apparently lacking any tangible impact on their daily business decisions.

An organization's success is measured by the quality of the results it produces.  The results are dependent on the quality of its business decisions.  Those decisions rely on the quality of its information.  That information is based on the quality of its data. 

Therefore, data must be viewed as a corporate asset because high quality data serves as a solid foundation for business success.

As the above diagram illustrates, quality is a fundamental requirement and success criterion all throughout the interconnected Data–>Information–>Decision–>Result business context continuum, which I refer to as The Circle of Quality.

 

The Circle of Quality

Peter Benson of the ECCMA explains that data is intrinsically simple and can be divided into one of two categories:

  1. Master Data – data that identifies and describes things
  2. Transaction Data – data that describes events

In other words, master data is an abstract description of the real-world entities with which the organization conducts business (e.g., customers and vendors).  Transaction data is an abstract description of the real-world interactions that the organization has with those entities (e.g., sales and purchases).

Although a common definition for data quality is fitness for the purpose of use, the common challenge is that all data has multiple uses—and each specific use has its own specific fitness requirements. 

Viewing each specific use as the information that is derived from data, I define information as data in use or data in action.

Although data's quality can be objectively measured separate from its many uses (i.e., data can be fit to serve as at least the basis for each and every purpose), information's quality can only be subjectively measured according to its specific use.

Therefore, information is being customized to meet the subjective needs of a particular business unit and/or a particular tactical or strategic initiative.  In other words, the information is being used as the basis for making a critical business decision.

The quality of the decision is measured by the business result that it produces.  Of course, the reality is that the result is often not immediate and also contingent upon a complex interplay of multiple business decisions.

The result can also produce more data, which could come in the form of new transaction data associated with either existing master data (e.g., sales to existing customers) or new master data (e.g., purchases from new vendors). 

Either way, with the arrival of this new data, yet another spin around The Circle of Quality begins all over again . . .

 

Conclusion

The Circle of Quality illustrates the interconnected business context continuum formed by data, information, decisions, and results.  Additionally, it demonstrates the need for a sustained enterprise-wide program of data governance and data quality, which is necessary for managing data as a corporate asset.

The Circle of Quality also helps illustrate the true challenge of root cause analysis, where poor quality could be occurring in one or more places within the business context continuum. 

And of course, even total quality management is no guarantee of success since it is certainly possible to have high quality data, derive high quality information from it, and then make high quality business decisions based upon it—but still get poor results.

However, it's also easy to imagine the highly questionable results produced when data quality is not considered vital to an organization's success.  Therefore, not managing data as a corporate asset is nothing less than extremely risky business.

 

Related Posts

Beyond a “Single Version of the Truth”

Poor Data Quality is a Virus

DQ-Tip: “Don't pass bad data on to the next person...”

The Only Thing Necessary for Poor Data Quality

Hyperactive Data Quality (Second Edition)

The General Theory of Data Quality

Data Governance and Data Quality

The Data-Information Continuum

Social Karma (Part 6)

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In Part 5 of this series:  We continued discussing the basics of developing your social media strategy by reviewing some recommended best practices and general guidelines for engaging your community, as well as the basics of social media ROI.

In Part 6, we will discuss some of the books that have been the most helpful to my social media education. 

The following list (in no particular order) includes links to and quotes from five of my favorite social media books.  The last book is actually about social networking in the social scientific sense, but does contain useful material for social media discussions.

 

The Whuffie Factor

The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business by Tara Hunt.

  • “Whuffie is the residual outcome—the currency—of your reputation.  You lose or gain it based on positive or negative actions, your contributions to the community, and what people think of you.”
  • “Whuffie flows from the trust, reciprocity, information, and cooperation that moves quickly within social networks.”
  • “Turn the bullhorn around: Stop talking and start listening.”
  • “Become part of the community you serve and figure out who it is you are serving.  It isn't everyone.”
  • “To truly become part of the community you serve, you must add value.”
  • “Instead of being concerned with quantity, you need to become more concerned with quality of relationships.  This doesn't mean that quantitative measurements disappear, it just means they aren't your most dominant measurement.”

 

Crush It!

Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk.

  • “Your business and your personal brand need to be one and the same.  Your latest tweet and comment on Facebook and most recent blog post—that's your résumé now.  It's a whole new world, build your personal brand and get ready for it.”
  • “Can you think of any business that isn't in some way dependent on human interaction?”
  • “If you're not using Twitter because you're in the camp that believes it's stupid, you're going to lose out.  It doesn't matter if you think it's stupid, it's free communication.  That in and of itself has value, and you should take advantage of it.”
  • “You're in business to serve your community.  Don't ever forget it.  Don't betray their trust.”
  • “The other thing you're going to do is accept that just having good content and Internet access is not enough to take your business to the top.  Someone with less passion and talent and poorer content can totally beat you if they're willing to work longer and harder than you are.”
  • “Creating community—that's where the bulk of your hustle is going to go and where the bulk of your success will be determined.  Creating community is about starting conversations.”
  • “Building and sustaining community is a never-ending part of doing business.”
  • “Don't get obsessed with how many friends or fans are following you—the stats are only marginally important.  What's important is the intensity of your community's engagement and interaction with you.  The quality of the conversation is much more revealing than the number of people having it.”
  • “Making connections, creating and continuing meaningful interaction with other people, whether in person or in the digital domain, is the only reason we're here.”

 

Trust Agents

Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith.

  • “Focus on connecting with the people—the human stuff is far more important than the software.”
  • “The Web and social media give you the opportunity to reveal the human side of your business.”
  • “Building any kind of following online is difficult enough.  It requires solid leadership skills, the ability to create a sense of belonging, a gracious attitude, transparency about who you are, and empowering the community to feel important.”
  • “Trust agents build networks almost reflexively by being helpful, by promoting the good work that others do, by sharing even their best stuff without hesitation, and by finding ways to deliver even more value on top of all that without asking for anything in return.”
  • “Attention is and will continue to be our scarcest resource.”
  • “Social networking is not about getting attention for attention's sake, but rather about being a part of the network, making other people aware that you are there—and that you'll be there in the future, too.”
  • “If you are to learn how to be a trust agent, the skill of being a Human Artist—someone who understands how to communicate with people in a real and thoughtful way—is very important to what you're doing.”

 

Six Pixels of Separation

Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone. by Mitch Joel.

  • “It's no longer about how much budget you dump into advertising and PR in hopes that people will see and respond to your messaging.  The new online channels will work for you as long as you are working for them by adding value, your voice, and the ability for your consumers to connect, engage, and take part.” 
  • “This new economy is driven by your time vested—and not by your money invested.”
  • “Networking online is core to success because it's not blatant sales and marketing.”
  • “You can't have a strong business without a strong community.”
  • “The digital social spaces are built on trust and trust alone.”
  • “Your ability to leverage true ROI is going to come from the level of trust you have built and the community you serve.”
  • “Nothing stinks of insincerity more than using these new digital channels and not listening to the other conversations.”
  • “The more human, honest, and transparent you are, the quicker you will be able to build trust and leverage it to build community and your business.”
  • “You're not looking for sheer mass numbers of people for the sake of traffic.  Traffic has levels of quality that only you can measure.  Focus on building community and not traffic.”
  • “The long-term game of sustainability in the online channels is one of quality versus quantity.”

 

Connected

Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives by Nicholas A. Christakis, MD, PhD and James H. Fowler, PhD.

  • “Six Degrees of Separation: We are all connected to everyone else by an average of six degrees of separation (your friend is one degree from you, your friends' friend is two degrees, and so on).” 
  • “Three Degrees of Influence: Everything we do or say tends to ripple through our network, having an impact on our friends (one degree), our friends' friends (two degrees), and even our friends' friends' friends (three degrees).  Our influence gradually dissipates and ceases to have a noticeable effect on people beyond the social frontier that lies at three degrees of separation.  Likewise, we are influenced by friends within three degrees but generally not those beyond.”
  • “Just as brains can do things that no single neuron can do, so can social networks do things that no single person can do.”
  • “Social networks have value precisely because they can help us achieve what we could not achieve on our own.”
  • “Since information flows freely within a close circle of friends, it is likely that people know more or less everything that their close friends know. We might trust socially distant people less, but the information and contacts they have may be intrinsically more valuable because we cannot access them ourselves.”
  • “Networks with a mix of weak and strong ties allow easy communication but also foster greater creativity because of the ideas of new members of the group and the synergies they create.”
  • “Although social networks may help us do what we could not do on our own, they also often give more power to people who are well connected.  As a result, those with the most connections often reap the highest rewards.”
  • “Social networking fosters strong ties with groups that optimize trust and then connects them via weaker ties to members of other groups to optimize their ability to find creative solutions when problems arise.”
  • “For thousands of years, social interactions were built solely on face-to-face communication.  The invention of each new method of communication has contributed to a debate stretching back centuries about how technology affects community.  Yet, new technologies just realize our ancient propensity to connect to other humans, albeit with electrons flowing through cyberspace rather than conversations drifting through air.”
  • “The recent surge in mobile phones, the Internet, and social networking sites has shifted our ability to stay in touch with one another into overdrive, causing us to become hyperconnected.”

 

In Part 7 of this series:  We will discuss some recommended best practices and general guidelines for using Twitter.

 

Related Posts

Social Karma (Part 1) – Series Introduction

Social Karma (Part 2) – Social Media Preparation

Social Karma (Part 3) – Listening Stations, Home Base, and Outposts

Social Karma (Part 4) – Blogging Best Practices

Social Karma (Part 5) – Connection, Engagement, and ROI Basics

Social Karma (Part 7) – Twitter

The Game of Darts – An Allegory

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Darts

Photo via Flickr (Creative Commons License) by: Mike Burns


The Game of Darts – An Allegory

“Other than the people involved, what else do you need in order to play the game of darts?”

With this question, so began another one of grandfather’s life lessons. 

“Darts . . . a dartboard . . . and a scorecard,” I said slowly.

“Very good,” grandfather responded.  “Why do you need each one of them?”

“You throw the darts at the dartboard in order to score points and the scorecard keeps track of who’s winning,” I said.

“Excellent,” said grandfather.  “Now which do you think is more fun, keeping score or throwing darts?”

“Since I’m still too young to throw darts, I guess I’m supposed to say keeping score,” I sarcastically replied.

Grandfather gave me an icy stare.  He wasn’t a fan of sarcasm.

“Sorry,” I said quietly while looking down at my scuffling feet.  “But throwing darts is obviously more fun.”

“Yes, obviously throwing darts is more fun,” grandfather continued, “but keeping score is important as we previously established.  Now, which do you think is more fun, throwing darts or being the dartboard?”

“Huh? I . . . um . . . I’m sorry,” I stammered.  “I don't understand the question.”

“Do you think it would be fun being the dartboard?” repeated grandfather.  “Obviously, I do not mean you or any person for that matter, and I want to be very clear on this—especially if your parents ask—NEVER actually throw darts at anyone!  I am asking you to use your imagination and think about what the game of darts feels like from the perspective of the dartboard.”

I quietly stared at the dartboard while my eight-year-old mind struggled to make sense of the question.

“Don’t hurt yourself by thinking too hard,” grandfather joked.

“I don’t think it would be any fun at all to be the dartboard,” I answered in a soft and serious tone.  “I bet the dartboard doesn’t like this game at all.  I bet the dartboard thinks this game sucks—er, I mean—stinks.”

“Yes, the dartboard probably thinks the game is cruel,” grandfather replied.  “After all, it’s not like the dartboard ever gets to take a turn . . . and throw itself at the darts.”

Grandfather gave me a goofy grin and then he laughed out loud.  He was a big fan of laughter.

I giggled uncontrollably while my eight-year-old mind played a cartoon-like image of the dartboard throwing itself at the darts.

As we both slowly regained our composure, grandfather continued.  “Now, let’s imagine that the game of darts is an allegory, another way of thinking about something, such as three people having a conversation.  For example, you, me, and your brother.”

“Um, okay,” I replied.

“Let’s say your brother is upset and yelling at me about something,” started grandfather.

“Ha!  That’s easy to imagine,” I interrupted.  “Sorry, you were saying?”

“Your brother is upset—yes, easy to imagine but not the point—of the three required things necessary in order to play the game, which one is your brother?” asked grandfather.

“The darts!” I replied.

“And if he is yelling at me, which one of the three things am I?” asked grandfather.

“The dartboard—and that makes me the scorecard—why I am always the scorecard?” I whined.

“Settle down, I’m trying to make a point here,” grandfather retorted.

“You can’t make a point—you’re the dartboard—not the darts,” I mumbled.

“Very good smart ass—er, I mean smart aleck—yes, I am the dartboard and being the dartboard isn’t any fun, remember?” grandfather replied.

I quietly nodded my head, knowing not to push my luck with another sarcastic remark.

“But if nobody’s the dartboard,” grandfather resumed, “then your brother and I couldn’t be playing the game of darts, could we?”

I had previously been through enough lessons with grandfather that I knew what was coming next.

“So, what’s my p—what am I trying to say?” asked grandfather.

“Um, that when three people are having a conversation,” I slowly responded, “and one of them starts yelling at another, the one who is yelling is the darts, the one being yelled at is the dartboard, it’s no fun being the dartboard, no one likes getting yelled at, but . . . everyone needs someone to yell at . . . and needs someone else to keep score?”

“That’s pretty close,” grandfather replied.  “In most conversations, everyone is simply waiting for their turn to speak—their turn to throw the word-darts.  When it’s not their turn, they become the scorecard in order to track how the conversation is going.  The dartboard is usually the topic of the conversation—what they’re taking turns throwing the word-darts at.  However, when the conversation turns into an argument . . .”

“Then they start throwing word-darts at each other,” I interjected on cue, “taking turns turning each other into the dartboard, and nobody likes being the dartboard!”

“Correct!” said grandfather.

“But you also said that if nobody is the dartboard, then you can’t play the game.  I’m a little confused,” I responded.

“Yes, that is the most challenging thing about effective communication,” continued grandfather.  “Although no one likes being the dartboard, sometimes a dartboard is exactly what the other person needs you to be.  Other times, a scorecard is exactly what the other person needs you to be . . .”

“When they need to be the only one throwing all of the word-darts?” I asked.

“Correct!” said grandfather.

“Therefore, what you’re saying is that,” I thoughtfully concluded, “sometimes you’re the darts, sometimes you’re the scorecard, and sometimes you’re the dartboard.  You can’t play the game of darts unless you have all three.  Therefore, you can’t have effective communication unless you’re willing to sometimes talk, sometimes listen, and sometimes be willing to get yelled at.”

“That’s my boy!” said grandfather.  “You know, you’re pretty smart for your age.”

“That’s because I take after grandmother.”

 

Related Posts

Podcast: Open Your Ears

Shut Your Mouth

Hailing Frequencies Open

Data Quality Mad Libs (Part 1)

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Data Quality Mad Libs is a new OCDQ series.

For the uninitiated, Mad Libs are sentences with several of their key words or phrases left intentionally blank. 

Next to each blank is indicated what type of word should be entered, but you get to choose the actual words. 

The completed sentence can be as thought-provoking, comical, or nonsensical as you want to make it.

 

Data Quality Mad Lib

“The most

_______________ (adjective)

thing about

_______________ (noun or phrase)

is that it

_______________ (verb)

your

_______________ (noun or phrase)

by essentially

_______________ (phrase)

your enterprise systems.”

 

My Version

“The most surprising thing about master data management is that it improves your customer data quality by essentially deleting every customer record from your enterprise systems.”

 

Share Your Version

Post a comment below and share your completed version of this Data Quality Mad Lib.

The Wisdom of the Social Media Crowd

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In his blog post A Story Culture, Michael Lopp, author of Managing Humans (check out the book's great promotional website), used the intriguing phrase “connective information tissue” to describe the value of tweets (status messages sent via Twitter).

 

Information Hierarchy

Challenged by his editor to better understand what information is, Lopp starts with the definition of the Information Hierarchy provided by Ray R. Larson at Berkeley:

  • Data – The raw material of information
  • Information – Data organized and presented by someone
  • Knowledge – Information read, heard or seen and understood
  • Wisdom – Distilled and integrated knowledge and understanding

Lopp then examines how information ascends this hierarchy using the perennial vehicle designed for its transmission—the story.

 

Shattered bits of narrative

“The traditional narrative,” explains Lopp, “has been shattered into bits of well-indexed information.  Google wasn’t the first indexing tool, but it’s certainly the best.  Still, Google is powerfully dumb.  Yes, I can find whatever piece of information I’m looking for, but what’s more interesting are all the related pieces of information.  How do you query for knowledge via Google?  How about wisdom?”

Constructing (or reconstructing) a meaningful narrative from shattered bits of information requires a human storyteller.

“There’s no replacing,” explains Lopp, “a human being combing through seemingly disparate pieces of information to evaluate, interpret, and combine it into something unexpected; into a new work.  Into a story.”

 

What tale can tattered tweets truly tell?

With their 140 character limit, tweets are certainly capable of being classified as shattered bits of narrative.

However, according to Lopp, “the point of Twitter isn’t knowledge or understanding, it’s merely connective information tissue.  It’s small bits of information carefully selected by those you’ve chosen to follow and its value isn’t in what they send, it’s how it fits into the story in your head.  There are great stories to be found on Twitter, but you have to do the work.”

Case in point—it was the tweet sent by Rob Paller that lead me to the blog post I am trying to write a great story about now.

Of course, as Lopp acknowledges, Twitter is not an isolated example. 

Information continues to be shared in smaller and smaller bits in accordance with our shorter and shorter attention spans. 

“Paradoxically, it’s never been easier to share or meaningfully interact with more people with less physical, in-person effort,” explains Lopp.  “Your ability to compose and convey information as well as express yourself through your fingertips is a skill that is only going to increase—and increase in value—as people become more comfortable with their place in communities that span the planet, and as the tools to connect them become more commonplace.” 

As social media's conversation medium continues to supplant traditional media's broadcast medium, it is enabling a world that fulfills James Joyce's vision in Finnegans Wake: “my consumers, are they not my producers?”

In other words, we are both consuming and producing the connective information tissue that forms our collective intelligence.

 

We are all storytellers

Even before the evolution of written language, storytelling played an integral role in every human culture.  Listening to stories and retelling them to others continues to be the predominant means of expressing our emotions and ideas.  Writing (and reading) greatly improves our ability to communicate, educate, record our history, and thereby pass on our information, knowledge, and wisdom to future generations.

We are now living in an amazing age where the very air we breath is literally teeming with information.  Digital data streams are continuously transmitted across the globe at near instantaneous speeds.  We need storytellers now more than ever. 

However, storytelling is neither an esoteric skill possessed by only a select few, nor is it the sole providence of writers. 

“The construction of a story,” explains Lopp, “has very little to do with writing.  It has to do with the semi-magical process of you taking disparate pieces of information, combining them into something new, which includes your experience and understanding, and then giving them to someone else.”

In a story culture, we are all storytellers. 

Storytelling may not be as simple (or as fun) as playing a game of Mad Libs.  However, it is important to realize that the very act of thinking is a form of storytelling.  The thought process is your brain collecting the shattered bits of information whirling around in your head and weaving them together into a narrative that, at least at first, might not make sense—even to you. 

The thought process isn't always simple and it isn't always fast.  Especially when all those voices in your head talk at once. 

My own thinking often feels like I am herding cats or—thanks to the “semi-magical process” makes me describe it—as if I am “full of broken thoughts I could not repair” (from the song Hurt originally by Nine Inch Nails and covered by Johnny Cash).

Eventually, you assemble a tale actually worth telling.  But even though you may be certain that the force is strong with this one, your tale is not a story yet. 

“Just like information isn’t knowledge until it’s understood,” as Lopp thoughtfully explains, “your tale isn’t a story until you give it to someone else—until they have a chance to see what they think about your inspiration.”

 

The Wisdom of the Social Media Crowd

One of my favorite books is The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki, which was originally published in 2004 (i.e., 2 B.T.E., two years “Before the Twitter Era”) before the real rise to prominence of social media.  Aspects of social media (such as blogging) were already prevalent at the time, but most of today's leading social networking tools were still in their nascent phase.

However, I believe many of Surowiecki's insights are very applicable to social media.  Take for example the four conditions that characterize wise crowds:

  1. Diversity of opinion
  2. Independence
  3. Decentralization
  4. Aggregation

Returning to Lopp's concept, it is social media's small bits of connective information tissue, gathered from diverse digital sources, acting as independent agents, lacking any centralized information authority, aggregated with your own knowledge, which you then construct into a story and share with others—that is The Wisdom of the Social Media Crowd.

 

Related Posts

The War of Word Craft

Will people still read in the future?

Brevity is the Soul of Social Media

 

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Maybe you're just not that into your data?

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This Sunday is February 14—Valentine's Day—the annual celebration of enduring romance, where true love is publicly judged according to your willingness to purchase chocolate, roses, and extremely expensive jewelry, and privately judged in ways that nobody (and please, trust me when I say nobody) wants to see you post on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, or your blog.

Valentine's Day is for people in love to celebrate their love privately in whatever way works best for them.

Valentine's Day is not for data. 

However, when was the last time you showed your data how much you care?

Data needs love too.

 

Tainted Data

Sometimes, I am sure that you feel you've got to run away, you've got to get away from the pain that poor data quality has driven into the heart of your organization.

The data you share throughout the enterprise seems to have lost its light, for you toss and turn, you can't sleep at night.

Once you ran to data—you ran—now you run from data—this tainted data you've been given.

You feel you've given data all a person could give.  It's taken your tears and that's not nearly all.

Oh, tainted data—tainted data.

You really want IT (if you're with the Business) or the Business (if you're with IT) to make things right.

And you think data quality just needs a one-time cleansing project for someone else to play.

But I'm sorry, data quality doesn't play that way.

Don't ignore data, please. It cannot stand the way you tease.  Data loves you though you hurt it so.

Data doesn't want to pack its things and go.

 

It's not your data, it's you

The majority of data quality initiatives are reactive projects launched in the aftermath of an event when poor data quality negatively impacted decision-critical information.

Many of these projects end in failure.  Some fail because of lofty expectations or unmanaged scope creep.  Most fail because they are based on the flawed perspective that data quality problems can be permanently “fixed” by a one-time project as opposed to needing a sustained program.

Tactical initiatives will often have a necessarily narrow focus.  Reactive data quality projects are sometimes driven by a business triage for the most critical data problems requiring near-term prioritization that simply can't wait for the effects that would be caused by implementing a proactive strategic initiative (i.e., one that may have prevented the problems from happening).

Even when a reactive data quality project is successful, it's success will only be short-lived. 

Another project will be necessary when the organization is forced into triage once again during the next inevitable crisis where poor data quality negatively impacts decision-critical information.

One reactive project at a time will never do data quality right—because one is the loneliness number that you'll ever do.

 

Maybe you're just not that into your data?

Across the vast digital landscape of the Internet, I see you rolling your eyes because you know what's coming next—the talk.

That's right—it's time to talk about your relationship with data, about your need to take responsibility for data quality.

I see you hesitate.  After all, nobody has a data governance ring on their finger, do they?

Data governance establishes policies and procedures to align people throughout the organization.  Successful data quality initiatives require the Business and IT to forge an ongoing and iterative collaboration. 

Neither the Business nor IT alone has all of the necessary knowledge and resources required to achieve data quality success. 

The Business usually owns the data and understands its meaning and use in the day-to-day operation of the enterprise and IT usually owns the hardware and software infrastructure of the enterprise's technical architecture. 

The Business and IT must partner together to define the necessary data quality standards and processes.

But maybe you previously attempted a data governance program or other initiative requiring Business-IT collaboration.

Perhaps harsh words were spoken, promises were broken, old wounds were opened, and collaboration walked out that door. 

Are you too proud to make up?  Are you ready to break up?

Or maybe you're just not that into your data?

 

I don't know much

Look at your data, I know its poor quality is showing.  Look at your organization, you don't know where it's going. 

So many questions still left unanswered, so much that's never broken through. 

But the Business and IT were made for each other.  Just like Data Governance and Data Quality were made for each other.

Just like you and your data were made for each other.

I don't know much, but I know data needs love too.  And that may be all I need to know.

 

I had to say I Love Data Quality in a Blog Post

Well, I know it was kind of strange.  I hope it made some sense to you.  But what I had to say couldn't wait. 

I know you will understand.  Every time I tried to tell you, the words just came out wrong. 

So, I had to say I love data quality in a blog post.

Maybe every time the time was right for you to start your data governance program, all your words just came out wrong. 

Maybe you'll have to say you love data quality and you need a data governance program using this blog post?

Happy Valentine's Day to you and yours. 

Happy Data Governance and Data Quality to you and your data.

Related Posts

Data Quality is Sexy

Social Karma (Part 5)

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In Part 4 of this series:  We discussed some of the recommended blogging best practices and general guidelines for creating useful content in your own unique blogging style.

In Part 5, we will continue discussing the basics of developing your social media strategy by reviewing some other recommended best practices and general guidelines for engaging your community—beyond the pages of your blog.

 

The Talk Nobody Wants To Hear

If we're honest, then we have to admit, when we considered getting involved with social media, we all had the same question:

“What's in this for me?”

It is a perfectly natural and totally legitimate question.  As we have discussed throughout the series, more than anything else, effectively using social media requires a significant commitment—mostly measured in time. 

Without question, the “opportunity cost” of social media is high, so you are right to question your return on investment (ROI). 

This series is about using social media in a business context.  Therefore, ROI is about far more than simply measuring the quality of your experience.  I am not going to lie to you—measuring the ROI of social media is very challenging. 

However, before we can even attempt to measure ROI, we  must honestly evaluate why we are investing in the first place.

The primary reason I started blogging was to demonstrate my expertise and establish my authority with regards to data quality and its related disciplines.  As an independent consultant, I am trying to help sell my consulting, speaking, and writing services. 

You and/or your company are probably considering using social media to help sell your products and services as well.

However, the only way for any of us to accomplish our goals is—first and foremost—to focus on helping others. 

This is the talk nobody wants to hear: 

“Social media is NOT about you.”

Home Base = Connection, Outposts = Engagement

Home Base with Outposts for ocdqblog

In Part 3, we discussed establishing a blog as your home base (where you have complete control), which is connected to your outposts (where you don't have complete control) that provide a presence out in other parts of your online community. 

We also discussed how “connection is the message of social media's medium.”  This is true.  However, effective community participation is about extending connection into engagement—and this actually occurs mainly at your outposts.

As this trend analysis chart provided by PostRank shows, off-site (outpost) has surpassed on-site (home base) for engagement:

Measuring Engagement of the Social Web: ‘07-’09

“Shift happens,” explains Shawn Rogers.  “In the past many of us relied on the metrics of trackbacks, comments, forum posts, and other on-site interactions to determine the level of engagement we have with our online community.  Over the past 3 years, there has been a noticeable shift in these numbers.”

I believe true community engagement has always occurred off-site, but what has changed in recent years is social networking sites (outposts) have rapidly evolved into truly effective services. 

On-site (home base) connection is important and will continue to be—and true engagement can occur on your home base.  However, because you are in control, it can sometimes seem like it's all about you—despite even your best intentions. 

Therefore, effectively using social media requires that you go to where the conversations are occurring—your outposts—and participate without always trying to invite everyone back to your home base.

Outpost engagement best practices include the following:

  • Promote the content of others far more often than you promote your own content
  • If you use Twitter, then re-tweet more than you tweet (Note: a future part in this series will discuss Twitter in detail)
  • Leave meaningful comments on other blogs—and only include a link to one of your blog posts if it is truly relevant
  • Try to respond as promptly to a message left on one of your outposts as you would to a comment left on your blog
  • If you blog about conversations that originated on one of your outposts, then properly attribute the others involved  

 

Quality is more important than Quantity

How many followers do you have on Twitter?  How many friends and fans do you have on Facebook?  How many connections and recommendations do you have on LinkedIn?  How many visitors, subscribers, and comments do you have on your blog?

Social media can sometimes feel like a popularity contest. 

This is one of the many reasons that measuring social media ROI can often feel like you are searching for the Sasquatch or the Loch Ness Monster.  No, ROI is not an urban myth.  However, in social media, quality is more important than quantity.

Your outposts and listening stations (Part 2 and Part 3) provide excellent feedback loops allowing you to determine if you're effectively getting your message out and more important, if you're creating a noticeable online presence. 

But true ROI is not measured in followers, fans, recommendations, subscribers, comments or other feedback.  Although this analysis is useful and its associated metrics are meaningful, it is important to realize that this only measures connection.

True ROI is about measuring your engagement with the online community. 

Engagement is about going beyond simply establishing a presence and achieving active participation.  Are you adding value to the community by creating useful content and contributing something meaningful to the collective conversations?

Engagement is measured by the quality of the relationships you are able to form and maintain—and not the quantity of connections you are able to collect and count.  Social media is a long-term investment in the community. 

Therefore, the truth is you must be patient—your true social media ROI may take a long time to materialize. 

 

Small Town, Big Business

Many organizations as well as individual professionals struggle to understand the value of social media because they attempt to relate to it using a traditional business perspective.

Most of the organizations I discuss social media with are very uncomfortable with being personal and acting human while participating in online communities—because they believe that would somehow be “unprofessional” behavior.

This viewpoint relates to a common misperception about social media—that “social” means “try to act like everyone's friend.”

However, we certainly don’t want organizations to try to act like (or try to become) our friends.  In social media—just like any professional or personal interaction—the emphasis needs to be on transparency, which will help build genuine rapport and trust.

I believe the unrelenting growth and popularity of the online communities being facilitated by social media are driving the commercial landscape back to a business model reminiscent of small towns.

On Main Street in the small town where I grew up, I remember many small businesses. 

Although I wasn't necessarily friends with the proprietors of these businesses, they weren't total strangers to me.  I saw them around town, in the park walking their dog, on the playground with their kids, and at local sporting events.

In other words, I knew that in addition to being professionals who wanted to sell me something if I visited their business, they were also human beings who weren’t any different than the people I did call my friends.

Social media definitely has the professional potential of big business—but it requires the personal rapport of a small town.

 

Don't Ignore “The Man Behind the Curtain”

In this OCDQ Video, I discuss the importance of the human variable in the social media equation.

  If you are having trouble viewing this video, then you can watch it on Vimeo by clicking on this link: OCDQ Video

 

In Part 6 of this series:  We will discuss some of the books that have been the most helpful to my social media education.

 

Related Posts

Social Karma (Part 1) – Series Introduction

Social Karma (Part 2) – Social Media Preparation

Social Karma (Part 3) – Listening Stations, Home Base, and Outposts

Social Karma (Part 4) – Blogging Best Practices

Social Karma (Part 6) – Social Media Books

Social Karma (Part 7) – Twitter

Comic Relief: Dilbert to the Rescue

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For truly comic relief, there is perhaps no better resource than Scott Adams and the Dilbert comic strip.

Therefore, today's blog post simply provides some Dilbert Views on the following topics:

  • Enterprise Architecture
  • Strategic Planning
  • Collaboration
  • Consultants

 

Enterprise Architecture

Dilbert.com

Dilbert.com

 

Strategic Planning

Dilbert.com

Dilbert.com

 

Collaboration

Dilbert.com

Dilbert.com

 

Consultants

Dilbert.com

Dilbert.com

The Twitter Clockwork is NOT Orange

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Recently, a Twitter-related tête à tête à tête involving David Carr of The New York Times, Nick Bilton of The New York Times, and George Packer of The New Yorker temporarily made both the Blogosphere all abuzz and the Twitterverse all atwitter.

This was simply another entry in the deeply polarizing debate between those for (Carr and Bilton) and against (Packer) Twitter.

 

A new decade of debate begins

On January 1, 2010, David Carr published his thoughts in the article Why Twitter Will Endure:

“By carefully curating the people you follow, Twitter becomes an always-on data stream from really bright people in their respective fields, whose tweets are often full of links to incredibly vital, timely information.”

. . . 

“Nearly a year in, I’ve come to understand that the real value of the service is listening to a wired collective voice.”

. . .

“At first, Twitter can be overwhelming, but think of it as a river of data rushing past that I dip a cup into every once in a while. Much of what I need to know is in that cup . . . I almost always learn about it first on Twitter.”

. . .

“All those riches do not come at zero cost: If you think e-mail and surfing can make time disappear, wait until you get ahold of Twitter, or more likely, it gets ahold of you.  There is always something more interesting on Twitter than whatever you happen to be working on.”

Carr goes on to quote Clay Shirky, author of the book Here Comes Everybody:

“It will be hard to wait out Twitter because it is lightweight, endlessly useful and gets better as more people use it.  Brands are using it, institutions are using it, and it is becoming a place where a lot of important conversations are being held.”

 

The most frightening picture of the future

On January 29, 2010, in his blog post Stop the World, George Packer declared that “the most frightening picture of the future that I’ve read thus far in the new decade has nothing to do with terrorism or banking or the world’s water reserves.”

What was the most frightening picture of the future that Packer had read less than a month into the new decade? 

The aforementioned article by David Carr—no, I am not kidding.

“Every time I hear about Twitter,” wrote Packer, “I want to yell Stop!  The notion of sending and getting brief updates to and from dozens or thousands of people every few minutes is an image from information hell.  I’m told that Twitter is a river into which I can dip my cup whenever I want.  But that supposes we’re all kneeling on the banks.  In fact, if you’re at all like me, you’re trying to keep your footing out in midstream, with the water level always dangerously close to your nostrils.  Twitter sounds less like sipping than drowning.”

Someone who admits that he has, in fact, never even used Twitter, continued with a crack addiction analogy:

“Who doesn’t want to be taken out of the boredom or sameness or pain of the present at any given moment?  That’s what drugs are for, and that’s why people become addicted to them. 

Carr himself was once a crack addict (he wrote about it in The Night of the Gun).  Twitter is crack for media addicts. 

It scares me, not because I’m morally superior to it, but because I don’t think I could handle it.  I’m afraid I’d end up letting my son go hungry.”

 

“Call me a digital crack dealer”

On February 3, 2010, in his blog post, The Twitter Train Has Left the Station, Nick Bilton responded:

“Call me a digital crack dealer, but here’s why Twitter is a vital part of the information economy—and why Mr. Packer and other doubters ought to at least give it a Tweet:

Hundreds of thousands of people now rely on Twitter every day for their business.  Food trucks and restaurants around the world tell patrons about daily food specials.  Corporations use the service to handle customer service issues.  Starbucks, Dell, Ford, JetBlue and many more companies use Twitter to offer discounts and coupons to their customers.  Public relations firms, ad agencies, schools, the State Department—even President Obama—use Twitter and other social networks to share information.”

. . .

“Most importantly, Twitter is transforming the nature of news, the industry from which Mr. Packer reaps his paycheck.  The news media are going through their most robust transformation since the dawn of the printing press, in large part due to the Internet and services like Twitter.  After this metamorphosis takes place, everyone will benefit from the information moving swiftly around the globe.”

Bilton concludes his post with a train analogy:

“Ironically, Mr. Packer notes how much he treasures his Amtrak rides in the quiet car of the train, with his laptop closed and cellphone turned off.  As I’ve found in previous research, when trains were a new technology 150 years ago, some journalists and intellectuals worried about the destruction that the railroads would bring to society.  One news article at the time warned that trains would ‘blight crops with their smoke, terrorize livestock … and people could asphyxiate’ if they traveled on them.

I wonder if, 150 years ago, Mr. Packer would be riding the train at all, or if he would have stayed home, afraid to engage in an evolving society and demanding that the trains be stopped.”

 

Our apparent appetite for our own destruction

On February 4, 2010, in his blog post Neither Luddite nor Biltonite, George Packer responded:

“It’s true that I hadn’t used Twitter (not consciously, anyway—my editors inform me that this blog has for some time had an automated Twitter feed).  I haven’t used crack, either, but—as a Bilton reader pointed out—you don’t need to do the drug to understand the effects.”

. . .

“Just about everyone I know complains about the same thing when they’re being honest—including, maybe especially, people whose business is reading and writing.  They mourn the loss of books and the loss of time for books.  It’s no less true of me, which is why I’m trying to place a few limits on the flood of information that I allow into my head.”

. . .

“There’s no way for readers to be online, surfing, e-mailing, posting, tweeting, reading tweets, and soon enough doing the thing that will come after Twitter, without paying a high price in available time, attention span, reading comprehension, and experience of the immediately surrounding world.  The Internet and the devices it’s spawned are systematically changing our intellectual activities with breathtaking speed, and more profoundly than over the past seven centuries combined.  It shouldn’t be an act of heresy to ask about the trade-offs that come with this revolution.”

. . .

“The response to my post tells me that techno-worship is a triumphalist and intolerant cult that doesn’t like to be asked questions.  If a Luddite is someone who fears and hates all technological change, a Biltonite is someone who celebrates all technological change: because we can, we must.  I’d like to think that in 1860 I would have been an early train passenger, but I’d also like to think that in 1960 I’d have urged my wife to go off Thalidomide.”

. . .

“American newspapers and magazines will continue to die by the dozen.  The economic basis for reporting (as opposed to information-sharing, posting, and Tweeting) will continue to erode.  You have to be a truly hard-core techno-worshipper to call this robust.  Any journalist who cheerleads uncritically for Twitter is essentially asking for his own destruction.”

. . .

“It’s true that Bilton will have news updates within seconds that reach me after minutes or hours or even days. 

It’s a trade-off I can live with.”

Packer concludes his post by quoting the end of G. B. Trudeau's book My Shorts R Bunching. Thoughts?:

“The time you spend reading this tweet is gone, lost forever, carrying you closer to death.  Am trying not to abuse the privilege.”

 

The Twitter Clockwork is NOT Orange

A Clockwork Orange

The primary propaganda used by the anti-Twitter lunatic fringe is comparing the microblogging and social networking service to that disturbing scene (pictured above) from the movie A Clockwork Orange, where you are confined within a straight jacket, your head strapped into a restraining chair preventing you from looking away, your eyes clamped to remain open—and you are forced to stare endlessly into the abyss of the cultural apocalypse that the Twitterverse is apparently supposed to represent.

You can feel free to call me a Biltonite, because I obviously agree far more with Bilton and Carr—and not with Packer.

Of course, I recommend you read all four of the articles/posts I linked to and selectively quoted above.  Especially Carr's article, which was far more balanced than either my quotes or Packer's posts reflect. 

 

Social Media Will Endure

We continue to witness the decline of print media and the corresponding evolution of social media.  I completely understand why Packer (and others with a vested interest in print media) want to believe social media is a revolution that must be put down. 

Hence the outrageous exaggerations Packer uses when comparing Twitter with drug abuse (crack cocaine) and the truly offensive remark of comparing Twitter with one of the worst medical tragedies in modern history (Thalidomide). 

I believe the primary reason that social media will endure, beyond our increasing interest in exchanging what has traditionally been only a broadcast medium (print media) for a conversation medium, is because it is enabling our communication to return to the more direct and immediate forms of information sharing that existed even before the evolution of written language.

Social media is an evolution and not a revolution being forced upon society by unrelenting technological advancements and techno-worship.  In many ways, social media is not a new concept at all—technology has simply finally caught up with us.

Humans have always been “social” by our very nature.  We have always thrived on connection, conversation, and community. 

Social media is rapidly evolving.  Therefore, specific services like Twitter may be replaced (or Twitter may continue to evolve). 

However, the essence of social media will endure—but the same can't be said of Packerites (neo-Luddites like George Packer).

 

What Say You?

Please share your thoughts on this debate by posting a comment below. 

Or you can share your thoughts with me on Twitter—which reminds me, it's time for me to be strapped back into the chair . . .

Commendable Comments (Part 5)

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 Thank You

Photo via Flickr (Creative Commons License) by: toettoet

Welcome to the 100th Obsessive-Compulsive Data Quality (OCDQ) blog post!

Absolutely without question, there is no better way to commemorate this milestone other than to also make this the 5th entry in my ongoing series for expressing my gratitude to my readers for their truly commendable comments on my blog posts. 

 

Commendable Comments

On Will people still read in the future?, Don Frederiksen commented:

“I had an opportunity to study and write about informal learning in the past year and one concept that resonated with me was the notion of Personal Learning Environments (PLE).

In the context of your post, I would regard reading as one element of my PLE, i.e., a method for processing content.  One power of the PLE is that you can control your content, process, objectives, and tools. 

Your PLE will also vary depending on where you are and even with the type of access you have.

For example, I have just spent the last two days without WiFi.  As frustrated as I was, I adapted my PLE based on that scenario.  This morning, I'm sitting in McDonald's drinking coffee but wasn't in a place to watch your video.  (Thank goodness you posted text.)

Even without my current location as a factor, I don't always watch videos or listen to podcasts because I have less control of the content and/or pace.

In regards to your questions, I like books, I read e-books, online content, occasional video, audio books, and Kindle on the iPhone.  Combine these items with TweetDeck, Google Reader, the paper version of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Amazon, and the Public Library, and you have identified the regular components of my PLE.  To me the tools and process will vary based on my situation.

I also recognize that other people will most likely employ different tools and processes.  The richness of our environment may suggest a decline in reading, but in the end it all comes down to different strokes for different folks.  Everyone motivated to learn can create their own PLE.”

On Shut Your Mouth, Augusto Albeghi (aka Stray__Cat) commented:

“In my opinion, this is a very slippery slope.

This post is true in a world of good-hearted people where everyone wants the best for the team. 

In the real world, the consultant is someone to blame for every problem the project encounters, e.g., they shut their mouth, they'll never be able to stand the critique and will be fired soon.

The better situation is to have expressed a clear recommendation, and if the the customer chooses not to follow it, then the consultant is formally shielded from any form of critique.

The consultant is likely to be caught in no man's land between opposing factions of the project, and must be able to take the right side by a clear statement.  Some customers ask the consultant what's the best thing to do, in order to blame the consultant instead of themselves if something goes wrong.

However, even given all of this, the advice to listen carefully to the customer is still absolutely the #1 lesson that a consultant must learn.”

On OOBE-DQ, Where Are You?, Jill Wanless (aka Sheezaredhead) commented:

“For us, the whole ‘ease of use’ vs. ‘powerful functionality’ debate was included in the business case for the purchase.  We identified the business requirements, included pros and cons of ease of use vs. functionality and made vendor recommendations based on the results of the pros vs. cons vs. requirements.

Also important to note, and included in our business case, was to question if the ease of use requires an intensive effort or costly training program, especially if your goal is to engage business users.

So to answer your questions, I would say if you have your requirements identified, and you do your homework on the benefits/risks/costs of the software, you should have all the information you need to make a logical decision based on the present situation.

Which, of course, will change somewhere down the line as everything does.

And for goodness sake (did I say goodness?), when things do change, always start with identifying the requirements.  Never assume the requirements are the same as they used to be.”

On OOBE-DQ, Where Are You?, Dylan Jones commented:

“I think the most important trend in recent years is where vendors are really starting to understand how data quality workflows should integrate with the knowledge workforce.

I'm seeing several products really get this and create simple user interfaces and functions based on the role of the knowledge worker involved.  These tools have a great balance between usable interface for business specific roles but also a great deal of power features under the bonnet.  That is the software I typically recommend but again it is also about budget, these solutions may be too expensive for some organizations.

There is a danger here though of adding powerful features to knowledge workers who don't fully understand the ramifications of committing those updates to that master customer list.  I still think we'll see IT playing a major role in the data quality process for some time to come, despite the business-focused marketing we're seeing in vendor land.”

On The Dumb and Dumber Guide to Data Quality, Monis Iqbal commented:

“Pretty convincing post for those allergic to long term corrective measures.

And this spawns another question and that is directed towards software developers who come and work on a product/project involving data manipulation and maintaining the quality of the data but aren't that concerned because they did their job of developing the product and then move on to another assignment.

I know I may be repeating the same arguments as presented in your post (Business vs IT) but these developers did care that the project handles data correctly and yet they aren't concerned about quality in the long term, however the person running the business is.

My point is that although data quality can only be achieved when both parties join hands together, I think it is the stakeholder who has to enforce it during all stages of the project lifecycle.”

Thank You

In this brief OCDQ Video, I express my gratitude to all of my readers for helping me reach my 100th blog post.

 

If you are having trouble viewing this video, then you can watch it on Vimeo by clicking on this link: OCDQ Video

 

Thanks for your comment

Blogging has made the digital version of my world much smaller and allowed my writing to reach parts of the world it wouldn’t otherwise have been able to reach.  My native language is English, which is also the only language I am fluent in. 

However, with lots of help from both my readers as well as Google Translate, I have been trying to at least learn how to write “Thanks for your comment” in as many languages as possible.

Here is the list (in alphabetical order by language) that I have compiled so far:

  • Afrikaans – Dankie vir jou kommentaar
  • Croatian – Hvala na komentaru
  • Danish – Tak for din kommentar
  • Dutch – Bedankt voor je opmerking
  • French – Merci pour votre commentaire
  • German – Danke für Deine Anmerkung
  • Italian – Grazie per il tuo commento
  • Norwegian – Takk for din kommentar
  • Portuguese – Obrigado pelo seu comentário
  • Spanish – Gracias por tu comentario
  • Swedish – Tack för din kommentar
  • Welsh – Diolch yn fawr am eich sylw chi

Please help continue my education by adding to (or correcting) the above list by posting a comment below.

 

Related Posts

Commendable Comments (Part 1)

Commendable Comments (Part 2)

Commendable Comments (Part 3)

Commendable Comments (Part 4)