Community Service

Nov 02, 2009 by Jim Harris in Data Quality

Greetings and salutations! 

Welcome to my first blog post on the DataFlux Community of Experts. 

Those of you who know me from my blog, Obsessive-Compulsive Data Quality, might be wondering why an independent and vendor-neutral blogger like me is now blogging on a corporate blog.  Is it because DataFlux possesses some incriminating evidence about me?  No, of course not – unless you count that one compromising photograph of me from DataFlux IDEAS 2009.

Truth be told, I have always admired DataFlux for the approach they have taken with their corporate blog.  First of all, none of the bloggers are DataFlux employees.  Second, DataFlux products and services are hardly ever mentioned.  Third, there are no “click here and a salesperson will contact you immediately” links and in fact, no sales pitches of any kind.  All three of these things are incredibly rare for a corporate blog – and incredibly refreshing.

This blog community is described as a “forum for industry thought leaders to provide perspective and insight and engage in discussions on issues surrounding data governance, data quality and data integration.”  Although I don’t always feel like I am the leader of my own thoughts, I am glad to be the latest “thought leader” to join this forum.

I am known for my sense of humor, but there is one thing that I have always taken seriously – community.  It is one of my favorite words.  This forum is a community of experts and I am an expert on the topic of data quality. 

I will let you in on a secret – experts are people just like you.  We have lots of questions, more questions than answers in fact.  We are not smarter than you.  We have simply made more mistakes.  Making mistakes is one of my greatest strengths, which is why I am such an expert. 

“Expert” is just a word used to describe someone who openly shares their mistakes (and the lessons learned from them) with you, hoping to help you learn the lessons and avoid making the same mistakes yourself.  My favorite aspect of blogging is the dialogue and discussion provided via comments from my readers.  If you share your thoughts, experiences, and yes, even your mistakes, then I know that I will also learn and the entire community will be the better for it.

“Community of Experts” is just another way of saying experts serving the community, or more simply, community service. 

Please let me know how I can be of service to you. 

I am looking forward to our discussions.

Tags: Data Quality