Speaking of Data…

The DataMarket Blog collected some humorous and intriguing quotes about the importance of data and information. Here are some favorites: • 11. Many have tried to describe the importance of data in industrial, or even agricultural terms "Data are becoming the new raw material of business." – Craig Mundie, head of research and strategy, Microsoft "Data is the new oil!" – Clive Humby, ANA Senior marketer’s summit, 2006  "Information is the oil of the 21st century, and analytics is the combustion engine.” – Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president at Gartner • 10. …others in terms of previous breakthroughs in IT "Data is the Next Intel Inside" – Tim O’Reilly, What Is Web 2.0 • 9. The love of data visualization is not new "There is a magic in graphs. The profile of a curve reveals in a flash a whole situation — the life history of an epidemic, a panic, or an era of prosperity. The curve informs the mind, awakens the imagination, convinces." – Henry D. Hubbard, 1939 • 8. First we have data… "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." – Sherlock Holmes, A Study in Scarlett (Arthur Conan Doyle) • 7. …the rest is built on top "You can have data without information, but you cannot have information without data." – Daniel Keys Moran • 6. He may not have always played by the book, but he knew what was needed to get the job done "The most valuable commodity I know of is information." – Gordon Gekko, Wall Street (1987) • 5. A reminder to be careful in your analysis and don’t stretch to get the results you’d like "Torture the data, and it will confess to anything." – Ronald Coase, Economics, Nobel Prize Laureate • 4. People take good care of data that is important to them "Data that is loved tends to survive." – Kurt Bollacker, Data Scientist, Freebase/Infochimps • 3. …and – as most good things – it just improves with age "Data matures like wine, applications like fish." – James Governor • 2. What use are statistics any way? "In times like these when unemployment rates are up to 13%, income has fallen by 5% and suicide rates are climbing I get so angry that the government is wasting money on things like collection of statistics!" – From Hans Rosling’s The Joy of Stats • 1. Finally, my very favorite data quote (and principle in life) "If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine." – Jim Barksdale, former Netscape CEO As funny as the last quote is, it crystalizes the need for data over opinion, no matter how high-ranking the opinion’s source. The EcoBlu Analyst2.0 environmental big data efficiency tool empowers data over opinion. It visualizes previously un-relatable deep data sets collected from numerous sources and puts them into easy-to-use dashboards accessible in your browser on a computer, or by tablet or smartphone. Now users can easily create custom mash-ups and visualizations to illustrate a wide range of ecosystem factors and conditions. Register Here to join us for the FREE EcoBlu Analyst2.0 launch webinar on September 22 and learn how easy it is to get answers when you have the right data.