I didn't get many cards for my birthday this year: actually, I only got one, and it was from an insurance agent in Utah. I live in Illinois; I guess I won't get any when their #notsobigdata specialists clean up his mail list. In the bigger scheme of things, I guess the ~seventy-five cents this agent probably spent on this card isn't any big deal. However, when one considers the cost of bad data (and in this instance, my name is bad data) on a larger scale, its easily into the millions of dollars when one considers how many (postal) mail lists exist. In my current role, I have the opportunity to look at all sorts of mailing list data. Just last Saturday I was doing a quality check on a segment of a job, and I ran across some bad data. In this particular instance, the program looked for the addressee's (member's) first name (fname) and last name (lname). This particular customer has a couple of places where the lname is used and the fname is not. The customer wants verbiage like "To the lname home", in some places and "To the head of the lname family" in others. Its really a nice, personalized rewards mailpiece, but it breaks down when the data are incorrect. As in, when the member puts their lname in the fname field, and vice versa.
Lets face it, you and I fill out lots of forms. For our favorite stores, there may be some sort of loyalty or rewards program: we agree to give the store certain information, and in return, they pass along some savings. Jennifer and I (and Daniel) are members of a number of these, and for the most part, the paltry amount of personally identifiable information (PII) that we surrender is a fairly small price to pay in return for the savings on merchandise that we realize. There are other programs that we participate in, though, where we have some options as to our input, and in these we further limit our exposure. Yes, we reap some benefits of the programs, but we do not share all of the data they request.
In other data news, Jennifer and I have been going to the gym recently, and now that we've been going for a few weeks, its time for a report.
It only took us about a week to recognize many of the "regulars" at our local Parks and Recreation Department Fitness Center (a.k.a. the gym). There is what I suppose is the usual assortment of 40- and 50-something folks wanting to get (back) into shape, some 20- and 30-something women.... mostly women who hit the cardio equipment hard, and then there are the runners, lifters and other sundry amateur athletes.
Among the lifters, I'm the only one who keeps a log book. At least, I've never seen anyone else there with a logbook. My logbook goes back about two years, and documents my previous intermittent attempts to become a more physically fit human specimen. Now that Jennifer and I are working together, the plan is finally starting to come together. My logbook has blood pressure, weight, and exercise activity. It is going to get transferred to a spreadsheet pretty soon- and that's the #notsobigdata. #notsobigdata really is important, especially if it pertains to you or to someone you love. Don't be a victim of big data. Use #notsobigdata to make a positive impact on your life!
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
**I almost forgot: time to post links to some *ahem* golden oldies!
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