Piles of Bits

" I don’t think enough people study the measurements that have already been made. Hiding within those mounds of data is knowledge that could change the life of a patient, or change the world. If I don’t analyze those data and show others how to do it, too, I fear that no one will.”–Atul Butte, Stanford, available at http://whatsthebigdata.com/2012/07/13/big-data-quotes-of-the-week-13/

I'm at IOD 2013, waiting on the start of the morning General Session, and on the screen are various stats - #of Tweets sent, etc.  It brings home what situation we're in as we try to make our way through the forest of data.

Without inferring anything (and please don't,  because coffee #1 isn't yet halfway gone) I'm reminded of the old scenario of taking a large number of chimps and putting them in a room filled with typewriters, with the result being that one of them would write a best seller.

What I mean by that is we are beyond the days of carefully crafted communication,  as well as the mysterious art of divining tone and undercurrents from a small piece of communication. We stand in front of a data cannon, loaded with birdshot (large numbers of small projectiles).

That isn't a bad thing.  Instead of worrying about nuances, those are fairly gone (as are grammar, spelling, and civility filters), so we only need to gather the right pieces in front of us and see them where they are.

This is the butterfly effect writ larger - larger because of the potential financial impact, which is the driver of most everything. 

I could write the same again, instead here's an earlier post reflecting what's up here.  http://www.cicsworld.org/blogs/ctuite/2013/10/edward_tufte_and_samuel_morse.html#