Category Archives: Consider this

The Complexities of Brexit

02 Wednesday Aug 2017

Posted by in 4th generation Data Warehousing, Brexit, Conservative Party, Consider this, Europe, European Union, Federalism, Globalisation, Labour Party, Plaid Cymru, Politics, Remain, SNP, Trade

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Image1Martyn Richard Jones

Düsseldorf, Germany – 2nd August 2017

Last year I was asked if I would contemplate taking on the management of Brexit. It was a hypothetical question. No one is actually going to offer me the job. I had no qualms in stating that, given the complexity, uncertainties, risks and costs, I would hope that I would have the good sense to turn down such an offer. With the recommendation to the client that they should not to undertake such a reckless, costly and strategically stupid project.

So, that’s my going-in position. As other strategists will have picked up on. Continue reading →

Big Data: And it’s all gone quiet over there!

29 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by in 4th generation Data Warehousing, All Data, Big Data, Big Data 7s, Big Data Analytics, business strategy, Cambriano, Consider this, dark data, data architecture, Data governance, data science, Data Supply Framework, Data Warehouse, Data Warehousing, Good Strategy, IT strategy, pig data, Strategy, The Amazing Big Data Challenge, The Big Data Contrarians

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Big Data is all pervasive, all seeing and all knowing.

Everyone is doing Big Data, and if they aren’t then they will.  It’s inevitable.

Big Data will revolutionise the worlds of data, decision making and business.

Am I right, or am I right?

Continue reading →

A data superhero is something to be

02 Wednesday Mar 2016

Posted by in 4th generation Data Warehousing, Consider this, Data Supply Framework, Data Warehouse, Data Warehousing, DW 3.0, EDW, Excellence, Good Strat, Good Strategy, Information Management, Information Supply Frameowrk, Knowledge, leadership, Methodology, Professional Networking, The Big Data Contrarians

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SuperHeroA data warehousing superhero is something to be

Not all that glitters is Big Data, and Big Data has a long way to go before it can deliver anything like the same satisfying results, tangible benefits and organisational agility that a properly implemented Inmon Enterprise Data Warehouse can provide.

Therefore, I have a question for you.

Continue reading →

12 Amazing Big Data Success Stories for 2016

22 Tuesday Dec 2015

Posted by in 4th generation Data Warehousing, Big Data, Big Data 7s, Big Data Analytics, Consider this, Data Warehouse, Data Warehousing, Good Strat, Good Strategy, IT strategy, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones, The Big Data Contrarians, Uncategorized

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If this piece tickles your fancy, then please consider joining The Big Data Contrarians on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8338976

Every year I ask myself the same question. Will there be any tangible, coherent and verifiable Big Data success stories in the coming year? Every year I come up with nothing. Nothing at all. “Sorry, no rooms at the Big Data Success Inn, as we are closed for vacations.”

However, this year things are different. More positive, more alive and more fantastic. Continue reading →

The Big Data Contrarians at 1000

07 Monday Dec 2015

Posted by in Big Data, Cambriano, Consider this, Good Strategy, goodstart, goodstrat, Martyn Jones, The Big Data Contrarians, Uncategorized

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First things first. The Big Data Contrarians (“a hype free Agora for Big Data dialogue”) is now a community of over one thousand professionals.

Since its LinkedIn group registration on the 1st of July 2015, the Big Data Contrarians has grown to become, without a shadow of doubt, the nicest, friendliest and most well informed Big Data group that you will ever come across in your entire life.

The Big Data Contrarians is a community of professionals who enjoy talking about data, statistics, analytics, data-centric applications, ideas, opinions and insights.

The Big Data Contrarians is a great place to contrast ideas about data. It is a group that passively encourages discourse. Especially discourse that comes with a touch of humour, a hint of disbelief and a delightful bouquet of subtle cynicism.

Also, no data, analytics or visualisation related subject, for as tenuous as the relationship might be, is out of bounds. This is a forum by professional adults for professional adults, with all its attendant facets and all that this implies. Indeed, who knows what the next topic of conversation will be on The Big Data Contrarians forum. But here’s some ideas:

  • We may call it Big Data, Smart Data or Small data, but in reality isn’t the only intrinsic quality of data is in its being and in its symbolism, if indeed it has any?
  • If data were a religion would Big Data be a craven image, a sect or a schism?
  • Does ascribing qualities to data, such as Big, Small or Smart, places us at risk of outdoing the degrees of anthropomorphism of some pet lovers?
  • To be a Big Data guru, is it necessary to know the difference between Hadoop and Spark?
  • Did Big Data hype fall off the radar because it’s gone, or did Big Data hype turn ‘pro’?
  • How do we measure the qualitative and quantitative value of data?
  • Do we really need The Big Data Contrarians community?

After four weeks of the group’s existence, I wrote a piece for Data Science Central (July 23rd, 2015), in which I itemised some of the reasons why I believed that The Big Data Contrarians groups was necessary. Those reasons were:

  1. To alert people to interesting but ultimately dubious Big Data claims
  2. To share lessons learned, good sense and practical data and Big Data principles
  3. To connect professionals in overlapping disciplines, for example, in statistics, data architecture and data management, project management, solutions architecture, database administration, data science, risk management, technical, management and executive management roles, and a long list of etceteras.
  4. To educate, inform and entertain each other about the practical world of data and Big Data
  5. To weigh up the pros and cons of data technologies and techniques applied to solving business challenges
  6. To minimise the hype surrounding Big Data, covered in part by the first item, but more so
  7. To engender critical thinking, healthy scepticism and reasoned contrarianism

I genuinely believe that those reasons are as valid now as they were then. Perhaps even more so.

So, to get back to basics, I will leave you where I started.

The Big Data Contrarians. Is quite simply the best Big Data community on the whole wild-wild-wild internet, anywhere? Yes, anywhere. The Big Data Contrarians is an amazingly great data community that promotes inclusivity, interaction and coherence in data, statistics, analytics and Big Data discourse.

Anyone who is anyone in Big Data and data is a member of THE BIG DATA CONTRARIANS, either now or in the near future.

So, don´t be left behind. Join today. Be the Big Data smarty amongst your Big Data party.

Many thanks for reading.

 

Join The Big Data Contrarians: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8338976

10 amazing reasons to join The Big Data Contrarians

11 Wednesday Nov 2015

Posted by in 4th generation Data Warehousing, All Data, Big Data, Consider this, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones

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You love data. You eat, breathe and sleep data! You source it, clean it, integrate and then analyse it until it confesses. You represent, invent and present results. Data is your life and Big Data is your prophet. The Big Data Big Top is the place to be, and (passively) that is where you are headed. For you, Big Data drives everything we do! Is that the case?

Yes?

No worries, in spite of all of that, you too can also be a useful member of The Big Data Contrarians.

You may have heard of us before, we are the group that others dare not name, but let me go over some of the remarkable benefits, features and side effects of joining in the fun.

As well as giving you access to some of brightest, most well informed and experienced practitioners in the fields of statistics, analytics, data management, architecture, data governance, data technologies and a plethora of etceteras, there are other amazingly fabulous, exciting and compelling reasons for joining The Big Data Contrarians.

  1. The Big Data Contrarians is the most fascinating data-community in the ‘whole wide world’ – forget what you’ve been told elsewhere, this group is just quite possibly the most sophisticated, friendly and enlightened data and Big Data community that you’ll ever have the privilege of being a part of.
  2. Being part of The Big Data Contrarians lets you tell the world just exactly what you think – If you think the hype has gone way for far, bring the offender down a peg or two, no matter who they are, or what they profess to know. So, do your own thing, without fear nor favour. If the pundits and their mates threaten you, do not worry, Rab C Nesbitt knows where they live.
  3. Associating yourself with The Big Data Contrarians places you amongst the Big Data elite – you will stand out as not as just any ten a dime fad-follower but as a thought-leader, a professional and a critical-thinker. People will come from far and wide, just to hear what you have to say.
  4. The Big Data Contrarian groups is unique and universal – There are many groups with Big Data in their titles, but they are little better than anaemic and poverty-stricken representations of the worst data unemployment centres in the world.
  5. The Big Data Contrarians is a convergence of opinions, ideas and more – but it isn’t a melting pot, neither is it about conformance or value-sapping integration or uniformity. We are all unique and wonderful, and we don’t need to be fed through a cookie cutter.
  6. The Big Data Contrarians can question everything – For example, you don’t like this piece and have a question, then fire away. If we can’t handle the questions then we shouldn’t be creating them in the first place. Just ask away… “Mart, why is Bernice telling Big Data porkies again?”, “Mart, why are Cloudera talking out of their arse?” or “Mart, why do the same babblers like Java, Agile and Big Data hype?”
  7. The Big Data Contrarians is quite possibly the sexiest group on the internet – but that’s not the point, the point is I don’t care, we shouldn’t care, because that sort of talk is for the trashy blogs, the Big Data society dopes and the socially confounded and confronted.
  8. The Big Data Contrarians are not the best – I’m not stating that the Big Data Contrarians are the best, even if we are, but that we should look at this position as one of responsibility as well as power, and take it from there.
  9. The Big Data Contrarians can redesign, reframe and reposition the whole Big Data debate – and we will.
  10. The Big Data Contrarians is the nicest smelling data community on the world wide web – We all know that, right? However, what are the wider ramifications for Big Data? I don’t think we need to answer that rhetorical question. When one knows, then one simply knows.

Has that whet your appetite?

Do you want to know more about the group?

Do you want to learn more about the disciplines we cover?

Do you want to interact with some of the best independent minds in their respective fields?

Want to be an integral part of a group that the Big Data BS babblers, flim-flam artists and snake-oil medicine merchants auto-exclude themselves from?

Join The Big Data Contrarians, today. Only on LinkedIn.

Many thanks for reading.

Who’s afraid of the Big Data Contrarians? Here’s 500 reasons not to be

11 Wednesday Nov 2015

Posted by in 4th generation Data Warehousing, All Data, Big Data, Business Intelligence, Cambriano, Consider this, Good Strategy, Strategy

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If you enjoy this piece or find it useful then please consider joining The Big Data Contrarians:

Join The Big Data Contrarians here: https://www.linkedin.com/grp/home?gid=8338976

Many thanks.

When I first started The Big Data Contrarians group on LinkedIn I was thinking that maybe we would get 100 members within three or four months. Well, I was mistaken. Since the 1st of July, the membership ranks of The Big Data Contrarians has risen to over 500 members. However, it’s not about the quantity it’s about the quality, and The Big Data Contrarians is ‘the nicest Big Data community that you are ever likely to encoun Continue reading →

The Million-Dollar Big Data Briefing

11 Wednesday Nov 2015

Posted by in 4th generation Data Warehousing, agile, Big Data, Consider this, Data Lake, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones

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If you enjoy this piece or find it useful then please consider joining The Big Data Contrarians: https://www.linkedin.com/grp/home?gid=8338976

Many thanks, Martyn.

Big Data, together with Cloud computing, the Internet of Things and Machine Learning, are topics that are very much to the fore in contemporary trends in Information Management. But is Big Data really the revolution that people have been waiting for or is it simply about the next steps in the evolution of business data architecture and management?  Continue reading →

Top 20 Big Data Bafflers

11 Wednesday Nov 2015

Posted by in Big Data, Consider this, Quiz

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If you enjoy this piece or find it useful (or something) then please consider joining The Big Data Contrarians: https://www.linkedin.com/grp/home?gid=8338976

Many thanks, Martyn.

For your amusement, delectable enjoyment and delight, I bring you the first in a series of Big Data Quizzes from The Big Data Contrarians – the nicest, most civilised and congenial Big Data community on the entire World Wide Web. Continue reading →

Stuff a great data architect should know

16 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by in Consider this, data architecture, goodstart, goodstartegy

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Stuff a really great Data Architect should know

If you enjoy this piece or find it useful then please consider joining The Big Data Contrarians:

Join The Big Data Contrarians here: https://www.linkedin.com/grp/home?gid=8338976

Many thanks. Continue reading →