Content area
Full text
ORGANIZATIONS IN ALL SECTORS ARE RECOGNIZING THE NEED TO MANAGE DATA THROUGHOUT ITS LIFE CYCLE, AND PART OF THAT PROCESS INVOLVES ADDING VALUE.
In a recent column In the Wall Street Journal titled "Data Crunchers Now the Cool Kids on Campos." Carl Bialik ("The Numbers Guy") discussed the growing interest in statistics courses and majors at U-S- universities, a trend he attributed to two factors: the 1997 launch of an Advanced Placement exam on trie subject, and the tremendous increase m data being made available to businesses and orgarii7ations- Although some educators Bialik interviewed were skeptical that statistics would remain popular, they expressed r» such doubts about the need to interpret and re-purposedata.
As far back as 2009, in fact, Google's chief economist, Hal Varían, had remarked on the ongoing demands posed by data, *Data availability rs going to continue to grow," he tokj the McKifisey Quarterly- "To make that data useful Is a challenge. Ir/s generally going to require human beings to do it."
Varian was indeed prescient, the dramatic increase in data generated and captured by academic research, government and business is driving a growing need for data crunchers and statisticians. In addition to the rapidly growing number of professionals necessary to analyze this data, entire support teams are now required to store, archive, preserve and curate the data. This is a new source of demand for properly trained information professionals in the public, private and academic sectors.
Curating data is somewhat différent that curating your wardrobe or your CO coilection. Whiie you might share your clothes or your CDs with friends, the handoff usualty requires an in-person visit. ? critical component oí data curation is facilitating the sharing of data across a wide range of possible consumers, most of whom are never seen. Plus, no matter how messy you are, with time and patience you'll always be able to find that certain pair of sandals or that special Grateful Dead bootteg. With data, a small mess can turn into a bjg mess pretty quickly, and poorly tagged dataseis can be lost forever, Finally, at some point you might say, "I'm never going to wear that again" or "I'm never going to listen to that again" and donate a coat or CO...