This year is the 13th anniversary of the phrase, “data is the new oil”. A round of applause and let’s get ready to celebrate with a nice cake and a big party!
If its creator, mathematician and Tesco Clubcard guru Clive Humby, had copyrighted the expression in 2006, he would be an even richer man today given how often it is used in business conversations, presentations, blogs and articles. A quick Google pulls up a quarter of a million hits in English alone, so imagine the royalties he’s missed.
However, I can hear your groans about what has become one of those data clichés that plague our profession. To satisfy any bloodlust against this one, you can read some comprehensive demolitions of how data isn’t the new oil from data scientists and others.
Our industry is, alas, very good at creating clichés that give birth to yet more clichés. The data warehouse gave birth to the data lake, for example. So, what’s next?
Here’s a game to play. Take the word data and add a body of water after it. You instantly have a selling message - a new cliché to convince the market with (try it: how you would sell a data delta? A data glacier? A data waterfall, even?)
Many years ago, I created the term data archipelago as an April Fool’s joke. In my definition, the archipelago’s myriad islands were devices and the water the connecting network links. Within months, a well-known technology vendor launched a video marketing campaign on a data archipelago concept.
Thank you for your input
Thank you for your feedback
DataIQ is a trading name of IQ Data Group Limited
10 York Road, London, SE1 7ND
Phone: +44 020 3821 5665
Registered in England: 9900834
Copyright © IQ Data Group Limited 2024