Good Introduction to 'Data Culture', but Too Uncritical

In “Data Driven - Creating a Data Culture”, the authors explain what they mean by a “data culture”.

The authors explain the significance of data in human organizations (primarily companies, NGOs (non-governmental organizations), associations, etc.) and that it should be used by as many people as possible. Traditional data warehouses were organized bureaucratically; there was a small “information elite,” and normal users often had to wait a long time for the implementation of their requested reports. Big Data relies on “democratization,” meaning the data should be made available to as many people as possible.

It is a pleasant start, but unfortunately far too optimistic and not fully thought through. Where are the dangers? What about data quality? If it is poor, are the conclusions drawn from this data also poor? How do you teach statistics to your employees? Facebook and Co. probably have no difficulty hiring very intelligent “data scientists,” but smaller companies likely do. There are also many ways to draw the wrong conclusions using statistics; see, for example, the book “The Flaw of Averages” by S. Savage.

Overall, it’s short and worth a look, but too uncritical.

DJ Patil, Hilary Mason
Data Driven - Creating a Data Culture
O’Reilly
2015