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The Dow of BI

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I don’t mind long lines at trade show buffets. All else being equal, the length roughly equals attendance, which roughly indicates industry fizz. For an indicator, though, the analytics/business intelligence industry can do better than that.

How do we take the pulse? What if those who promote the technology, advise the clients, and build the systems actually measured their collective progress with a number? It would be an ongoing, forever-updating, simple benchmark. It would be the industry’s Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Four or five years ago, when the industry seemed simpler, I envisioned a number like this. Why not?

First hurdle: the lack of complete public data.… Read the rest “The Dow of BI”

You know it when they dance

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Here’s that eternal question again: how do you know when whatever you’re working on is good enough? Today, two perspectives.

The Oscar-winning sound designer Walter Murch, speaking Friday night at the Rafael Film Center in San Rafael California, told about talking shop with Michael Jackson’s engineers. They told Murch that they had no special insight, they just tried one mix after another as Jackson sat in the back, silent. They knew they had it right when he got up and danced.

The other way was the General Motors way. They took forever, and sometimes simply stopped trying when the bureaucracy’s deadline came.… Read the rest “You know it when they dance”