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Dave Wells on data literacy

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Few people in the data industry today are better qualified to opine on data literacy than Dave Wells.

He’s had a decades-long career with data, including TDWI education director for eight years, now the education director at eLearningCurve, and most recently an industry analyst with Eckerson Group. He and I developed and taught a TDWI course on data storytelling.

He has given data literacy and related issues more thought than almost anyone else I know. I asked him for his thoughts on it.

I think data literacy has been a need starting with the introduction of self-service tools. But it hasn’t had much attention until recently.

… Read the rest “Dave Wells on data literacy”

Bad stories stop good data at the water cooler

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We agree by now that data’s a good compass. One neglected question is tougher: Which map?

Everyone’s known the kind of “grouchy guy” TDWI instructor Kellee M. Franklin, Ph.D tells about. This guy knew better than most of his co-workers about how their Washington, D.C. defense agency worked. And he was frustrated.

Over the years, he had offered a series of genuinely beneficial ideas over years — and saw each one ignored. He had become known as a complainer. No matter what he said, no one listened to a single word anymore.

Ignoring relevant data

“We have blinders on,” she said.… Read the rest “Bad stories stop good data at the water cooler”

Conversation: data’s roots

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Is time spent at a TDWI conference worthwhile? How would a prospective exhibitor or attendee judge beforehand? Perhaps the data would dictate — if the data could really tell the whole story.

At the recent TDWI conference in Boston, I counted a mere 18 booths in the exhibit hall. Most of the big names had stayed away, including Tableau, Qlik, and MicroStrategy. Only IBM planted itself there on the Hynes Convention Center’s big floor.

Even with much of the cavernous hall draped off, the stage designers still had a large space to fill — done with what seemed like overly abundant banquet tables.… Read the rest “Conversation: data’s roots”