Recently Read: March 6, 2010

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.

Applying “Lateral Thinking” to Data Quality – Ken O’Connor applies some Edward De Bono wisdom to data quality using the analogy of water quality where a factory's water inflow pipes are downstream from its outflow pipes.

Traditional Methods for Estimating Business Benefits of MDM – Larry Dubov of Initiate Systems examines calculating the return on investment for MDM using a simple business case scenario, and also provides links to several useful articles.

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.

The Battle for the (Master Data) Item Code Is In Full Swing – Andrew White examines the challenge of making MDM work with existing business applications, which often have their own custom business rules for governing master data.

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.

Referential Treatment - The Open Source Reference Data Trend – Steve Sarsfield shares his excitement about the growing trend of open source reference data and its positive impact on the future of data quality and data enrichment processes.

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.

Bridging the Gap between Data Governance and Technology – Marty Moseley of Initiate Systems bridges the “great divide” in data governance with CRUD—meaning Create, Read, Update and Delete—to create active online documentation.

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.

Why Are Marketers So Bad At Measuring Social Media? (And How Can They Get Better?) – Nate Elliott of Forrester examines the challenges of measuring social media ROI, and recommends a three-step approach.

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.

Nine Scientifically Proven Ways to Get Retweeted on Twitter – Dan Macsai of Fast Company shares with us some of what viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella shared in his report about The Science of ReTweets.

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.

The 6 Dangerous Fallacies of Social Media – Jay Baer examines six of the most common beliefs and expectations about social media and explains why they are all false.

How to Measure Return on Investment in Social Media – Brian Solis explains that 2010 begins a new era of marketing, one based on information, rationalization, resolve, and the need to truly measure your return on investment in social media.

Social Networking Starts the Relationship, Face to Face Clinches It – Terri Rylander reminds us although social networking allows us to interact with more people, it is always best to be able to follow-up the on-line greet with an in-person meet.

Book Quotes

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

From Why New Systems Fail: An Insider's Guide to Successful IT Projects by Phil Simon – “It's all about the people making the decisions, using the applications, and running the projects. No technology, regardless of moniker, implements itself.”

From Pull: The Power of the Semantic Web to Transform Your Business by David Siegel – “Another word for semantic is unambiguous. In the semantic web, we declare what we mean in precise, standardized terms. Data that is semantic means exactly the same thing to any system or person who uses it.”

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.”

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