Always write code that can be maintained by anyone who may end up working on your software. To that end, here are several programming principles to help you clean up your act.
1. Decisions are the unit of work to which BI initiatives should be applied.
2. Providing access to data and tools isn't enough if you want to ensure that decisions are actually improved.
3. If you're going to supply data to a decision-maker, it should be only what is needed to make the decision.
4. The relationship between information and decisions is a choice organizations can make--from "loosely coupled," which is what happens in traditional BI, to "automated," in which the decision is made through automation.
5. "Loosely coupled" decision and information relationships are efficient to provision with information (hence many decisions can be supported), but don't often lead to better decisions.
6. The most interesting relationship involves "structured human" decisions, in which human beings still make the final decision, but the specific information used to make the decision is made available to the decision-maker in some enhanced fashion.
7. You can't really determine the value of BI or data warehousing unless they're linked to a particular initiative to improve decision-making. Otherwise, you'll have no idea how the information and tools are being used.
8. The more closely you want to link information and decisions, the more specific you have to get in focusing on a particular decision.
9. Efforts to create "one version of the truth" are useful in creating better decisions, but you can spend a lot of time and money on that goal for uncertain return unless you are very focused on the decisions to be made as a result.
10. Business intelligence results will increasingly be achieved by IT solutions that are specific to particular industries and decisions within them.
I'm going to share with you common pitfalls when learning to program (or mastering programming). Many of these affect both beginners and professionals.
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December 7-8, 2007—This weekend, 30 open government advocates gathered to develop a set of principles of open government data. The meeting, held in Sebastopol, California, was designed to develop a more robust understanding of why open government data is essential to democracy.
The Internet is the public space of the modern world, and through it governments now have the opportunity to better understand the needs of their citizens and citizens may participate more fully in their government. Information becomes more valuable as it is shared, less valuable as it is hoarded. Open data promotes increased civil discourse, improved public welfare, and a more efficient use of public resources.
The group is offering a set of fundamental principles for open government data. By embracing the eight principles, governments of the world can become more effective, transparent, and relevant to our lives.
Instead of the usual predictable predictions, I thought I would ring in the new year with five principles that I believe will guide the ongoing transformation of media companies.