There are a number of analogies when it comes to data. The one I like is, “We’re drowning in data, but we’re thirsty for insight.”
We see that all the time. The data kind of follows Moore’s Law; it’s doubling every three years, and yet we can’t get a handle on it. It’s really difficult to make sense of the data.
Another analogy people resonate with is the concept of a “data cake.” We think about data in the context of wanting to get information, and that’s why I like to use the cake, because it’s the actual finished product that we’re looking for.
What we end up with is what I call “ingredients,” or data. Agencies serve us up the raw ingredients, but that’s not what we want. What we want is the actual finished data cake.
What you want is something that is laid out in a way that is structured and easy to put together. And that’s what we’ve done at Public Insight. That was always our mission, to put data together in a way that allows you to use it most effectively.
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