Information Technology; that’s what we do and of those two words surely the most important is Information.
I like Gregory Bateson‘s definition of Information as ‘Difference which makes a difference’.
As we start to move into the realms of ‘Big Data’; we should remember what we are really trying to do, we are not analysing ‘Big Data’ to boast about the size of our data-sets, how much data we are analysing; we are looking for information, the ‘differences which make a difference’ to our companies, our lives and the general world.
We should also be concentrating on trying to do this as efficiently as possible; what technology is enabling us to do is to analyse ever bigger samples in ever shortening time-scales but it does not always correlate that the bigger samples will enable us to spot ‘Differences which make a difference’ any better.
Make sure the driver for better technology is Better Information and not simply better technology. The siren song of bigger is some which could smash us onto the rocks; if someone can make the same decisions with less and do it even quicker, the competitive advantage can be lost.
I personally would have been much happier if the ‘Big Data’ meme was actually ‘Better Information through Technology’, not as catchy maybe but more relevant and real in my opinion.
But don’t get caught up in the Cult of Big! Remember it’s not all about the Data, it’s about the Information.
