I’m taking a big step with my social networking persona…I’m starting a hashtag. Do I have to register it with ICANN? Biz Stone? Jimmy Fallon & Justin Timberlake? The new hashtag is #itsnotbigdata. My reasoning is this — big data (or Big Data or “Big Data”) is at the peak of inflated expectations on the Gartner Hype Cycle. That means that every blogger and her brother is using the term so that it’ll garner more hits on the interwebs. Problem is, it’s not always used accurately and consistently. Now I like data…I like technology…I like software…but I don’t like when buzzwordy terms get thrown around haphazardly with no regard for the downstream effects. And what are the downstream effects? It’s article after article incorrectly utilizing the term Big Data thereby propogating the misuse for future researchers. It citogenesis all over again! I don’t have my own pet definition of Big…
Author: Mike Sharkey
Your Secret Sauce is not so Secret
In the predictive analytics space, there is always talk about secret sauce. The roots of it make sense to me. Think about the financial industry…if you built a model that could predict future trends in stock prices, you’d probably want to keep that a secret. In the education space, though, the logic starts to break down. First of all, education is a highly collaborative space and it represents a social good. Keeping a valuable secret that might help students succeed is antithetical to the nature of education. Second, education is a complex ecosystem of people, processes, policies, content, etc. I would have strong doubts about anyone who claimed to have a formula that worked for a wide variety of institutions. Third, I think it creates an element of distrust. Having recently switched from the institution side to the vendor side, I’m keenly aware of the delicate balance in the…