Analog data is not entirely useless

To paraphrase The Boy Wonder of the classic 60's American TV series Batman, "Wholly I.T., Batman, data in the blog title!"

Yup, 'tis true, we're talking data today... and an epiphany about data, as well.

I was at the gym yesterday, pumping iron while the snow swirled outside (say that with your inner Arnold Schwarzenegger voice). I have a logbook which probably holds two or more years worth of lifting and cardio data. It's all very good, clean, raw data- ink on paper. I kinda feel Indiana Jones is ripping through my stream of consciousness, "It belongs in a database!"

Yes, it does. And therein lies a fundamental problem of data: no matter HOW good it is, it is no good if it is not accessible. And if it is accessible, it needs to be usable. The problem has an immediate partial solution: even though the data is analog, it is still searchable- it only requires a bit of patience on the part of the end user. And potentially a good amount of page turning, not to mention deciphering the gibberish written after a particularly intense training session.

As the person who is the owner of the data, the DBA and the end user, I should have a great deal of clarity here. After all, I recorded the data, and I have a rough idea of what I want the data to show me. Its just that... well, often in the data entry phase of my little databases, things change. Ad hoc queries lead to different ways of looking at the data, and so even though Jennifer would be the far better candidate for data entry, she will not do a better job because she cannot provide the feedback I need from perusing the raw data.

And so, this task falls upon my shoulders... more to follow.

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.

Don't forget to check some golden oldies-

http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2013/02/only-page-3-in-google-search.html
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2013/02/it-isnt-data-entry-exactly.html
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2013/03/midnight-at-noc.html
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2013/03/midnight-at-noc.html
http://hochspeyer.blogspot.com/2013/03/dont-panic.html