5 Years and 500 Posts
/On March 13, 2009 I launched this blog and, just a month away from its 5th anniversary, this is its 500th post. What began as a way to collect my thoughts in between consulting engagements eventually grew into my primary occupation as a freelance writer.
Over the past 5 years and 500 posts, I have offered a vendor-neutral perspective on data quality and its many related disciplines, including data governance, master data management, business intelligence and, with growing frequency in recent years, big data.
I have written about the gamut of data quality from Adventures in Data Profiling to Zeno’s Paradox and Zero Defects. Along the way I pondered how data quality is affected by a variety of effects such as blemishing, bystander, Cassandra, and Cupertino. I examined assumptions, expectations, and miracle exceptions. I even tried to herd Buttered Cats, Chicken Littles, and D-O-Gs.
At times I have channeled the wisdom of philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato, and Blaise Pascal, poets such as Robert Frost, James Joyce, and Wallace Stevens, bands such as The Proclaimers, Eagles, and The Rolling Stones, as well as bloggers and industry thought leaders such as Henrik Liliendahl Sørensen, Jill Dyché, Dylan Jones, Gwen Thomas, and Phil Simon.
Many times I relied on the wisdom of the social media crowd, especially Twitter, which inspired posts about various topics such as morbidly obese data, getting Higgy with data, the Data Cold War, Spartan data quality, and the Curse of the Poor Data Quality.
Other times I found inspiration in movies such as Finding Nemo, Star Wars, and The Big Lebowski, television shows/characters such as MacGyver, Jack Bauer, and Star Trek, as well as comic strips such as The Family Circus, Popeye the Sailor, and Dilbert.
Reading lots of books also provided lots of blogging fodder, and not only books by data quality authors such as Jack Olson, Danette McGilvray, and David Loshin. The ideas for a few of my favorite posts came from reading books not at all related to the data management industry written by authors such as Chip and Dan Heath, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Steven Johnson.
And on OCDQ Radio, I recorded discussions with great folks working in the data management industry, including special guests such as John Ladley, Laura Sebastian-Coleman, Tom Redman, Melinda Thielbar, John Owens, and William McKnight.
For following Obsessive-Compulsive Data Quality for 5 years and 500 posts, I offer 5 words: Thank you all very much.
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