Bursting Your Filter Bubble

Apr 24, 2013 by Jim Harris

In a previous post about data visualization, I discussed how our expectations can distort the data we visualize a lot more than we may realize, causing us to mistake dashboards for magic mirrors reflecting back our own image of what we want our data to show us.

Cargo Cult Data Science

Apr 10, 2013 by Jim Harris

Last week, Phil Simon blogged about being wary of snake oil salesman who claim to be data scientists.  In this post, I want to explore a related concept, namely being wary of thinking that you are performing data science by mimicking what data scientists do.

Requirements Flux

Feb 06, 2013 by Jim Harris

As Steve Jobs once said:

“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them.  By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”

The inevitable lag time between the definition of requirements and the delivery of solutions is perhaps the primary reason for the perpetual strife between the Business and IT.  I have…

Can we Measure the Half-Life of Data?

Jan 23, 2013 by Jim Harris

In my previous post, I discussed how data has an expiration date, after which it should at least be archived, or possibly even deleted.

Data has an Expiration Date

Jan 16, 2013 by Jim Harris

Have you ever wondered why bottled water has an expiration date?

Well, in the United States at least, it’s mostly New Jersey’s fault. A 1987 state law required all food products sold in New Jersey to display an expiration date of two years or less from their manufacturing date. So, in order to standardize interstate distribution, most bottled water manufacturers gave every bottle a two-year expiration date.

A Statistically Significant Resolution for 2013

Jan 09, 2013 by Jim Harris

Since 2012 appeared to be The Year of Big Data and 2013 is officially The International Year of Statistics, some people might believe that this will be the year business leaders get statistical religion on their own, or that this will be the year the monks of mathematics model-thump (i.e., the data scientist equivalent of Bible-thumping) business leaders into submission.

How-long-has-it-been-since-you-used-this-data-ween

Oct 31, 2012 by Jim Harris

Reading the musings of Rich Northwood about scary data rekindled my fears about the Zombie Data-pocalypse. Especially since today is October 31. Although Halloween gets more hoopla, it’s neither a trick nor a treat to say that in the data management trade, today is a very different kind of harrowing holiday.

Data Management: The Next Generation

Oct 24, 2012 by Jim Harris

I was a science fiction fan from an early age after Star Wars (now referred to as Episode IV: A New Hope) became the first movie that I ever saw in a theater. Being born in the 1970s meant that I didn’t see the original Star Trek television series until the reruns after its first movie debuted. Although I found the Star Wars movies more enjoyable than either the Star Trek movies or television episodes, in 1987, when Star Trek: The Next Generation debuted, I gradually became as big of a fan of Star Trek as I was of Star Wars.

Small Data and VRM

Oct 17, 2012 by Jim Harris

At last week’s IDEAS 2012 closing panel discussion, moderated by Gavin Day, panelists Rich Murnane, Phil Simon, Joyce Norris-Montanari and I were asked to predict trends for 2013. In this blog post, I explain the prediction I made about Small Data and VRM.