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TDWI Conference Keynote: "The End of the Beginning: Looking Beyond Today's BI"

The media today are talking about the maturing of the information economy and how business intelligence has become a commodity. "Big data" hype says the relational database is a dead-end and BI is headed that direction too. They point out deficiencies in the scalability and features of technologies designed for a world of scarce information, not overwhelming data.

The tools of BI provide little functionality beyond querying data and presenting it on a screen. They don’t do much that was not done 15 years ago—they just do it better and faster.

From this perspective, the media are right.

Posted by Mark Monday, April 08, 2013 3:30:00 PM | permalink | (54) comments

Strata London 2012 Keynote, "Information Overload Through the Ages: What Can We Learn?"

The real challenge ahead of us is not accumulating more information, or processing more information, or analytics, or replacing relational databases, or scaling data (i.e. not the 3 Vs). The real challenge is solving the information glut problem. Big data is another code word for the technology underlying the information age. It can be directed to make information overload worse by surfacing everything, everywhere, all the time, or it can be directed at making information more useful by making it more manageable and directed.

This talk shows some of the history of information explosions and their subsequent effects on use, i.e. reading and writing, remembering, etc. and translates a few of the abstract patterns used in the past to the present era of big (and not big) data tools and technology. The goal is point out the still unfilled gaps in our information processing and delivery environments and encourage focus on these areas when doing a project or when considering what features to build into a new tool.

Posted by Mark 3:28:00 PM | permalink | (107) comments

Video of Strata New York 2011 Keynote, "First, Firster, Firstest"

History seems irrelevant in the software world, particular when dealing with lots of information. It isn't. Information explosions are not new. They've happened repeatedly throughout human history. A little looking will turn up prior incarnations of information management patterns and concepts that can be repurposed using today's technologies.

The first person to conceive of something is usually not the first. They're the first to re-conceive at a point where the current technology caught up to someone else's idea. We're at a point today where many old ideas are being reinvented. Come hear why looking to the past beyond your core field of interest is worthwhile.

Posted by Mark 3:22:00 PM | permalink | (10) comments