The Rock Bottom Data Feed

We are excited to welcome Nicola Askham to Rock Bottom. She is an award-winning Data Governance expert, coach, consultant, and trainer. Her website has a wealth of useful information, including a list of the 10 biggest mistakes companies make when implementing data governance. How many look familiar to you? In this episode, Nicola shares best practices and stories from the front lines of...

Principles and policies live at the intersection of Data Governance and Data Ethics. It's a place many companies could use some help. Providing that help in this episode of the Rock Bottom Data Feed is Malcolm Chisholm, President of Data Millennium, and author of Successful and Sustainable Data Policies. He introduces us to the Data Policy Lifecycle, required not only for Data Policies (...

In this episode, we return to the subject of Data Ethics. The title may have given it away. We are pleased to welcome to Rock Bottom Katrina Ingram, Founder and CEO of Ethically Aligned AI, and author of the Dataversity column Ask a Data Ethicist. We met Katrina at DGIQ in Washington, DC. She joins us here to share practical advice about making AI responsible, safe, and ethical.

We al...

This week we introduce Nick Guy, Data Detective. A knock at the door. A new client. And a mystery that will take us through the next several episodes. Maybe Nick wishes he had grabbed dinner earlier. Or maybe not. Joining John and Mark is Irene Dirks, one of the passers-by that sat down and actually talked with us at DGIQ. She has some very creative and engaging ideas for using Lego sets...

Will Todd Corporate and Senator Ostik come to blows or will they find common ground? Find out as the Secretary of Data confirmation hearing wraps up. This episode also concludes our three-part Data Governance arc. John and Mark welcome Bob Seiner, speaker, advisor, and prolific writer on the topic of Data Governance, including the recently published book Non-Invasive Data Governance Unle...

A recent CDO Magazine article begins, "Data governance, as it is currently practiced, is failing. Despite being positioned as essential for data quality, regulatory compliance, and strategic decision-making, data governance often falls short." In this episode we continue our exploration of how and why Data Governance isn't working out so well for most companies. We'll also check in on To...

Would anybody disagree that Data Governance isn't working out the way we had all hoped? Yes, we've seen successes, but for the most part it's been like trying to throw an angel food cake under water. As long as you're pushing there's movement. As soon as you stop everything falls away. This episode is the first in a three part series that takes a hard look at Data Governance. We are hono...

Recently, John and Mark brought the Rock Bottom Data Feed to the Data Governance & Information Quality (DGIQ) conference in Washington, DC. We let out our nets to see what we could catch, so to speak. Well, the nets came back full. So many great conversations, observations, and insights. Some folks sat down and chatted for a long time. We'll be hearing from a couple of them in upcomi...

Sometimes when recording interviews we ended up with more material than we could use. Certainly not because it wasn't interesting, but rather because we chatted longer than was practical to include or because we veered into topics beyond the scope of the particular episode. Never ones to waste anything, we have accumulated those interesting bits into an episode all their own. Perhaps hea...

Data is a new type of business asset from a legal perspective. The traditional legal methodologies don't fit. You have confidentiality obligations, licensing and usage considerations, and data quality requirements, especially when it comes to AI. A legal strategy for data needs to be top of mind for leadership. Before it's too late. In this episode we talk with William Tanenbaum, a pione...

When you look in the dictionary between "hard place" and "rock" you will find "analytics management." Data Consumers demand high-quality data. Data Producers say it's good enough to run the business so it's good enough for you. Management wants peace and quiet. When everything is running smoothly you're invisible. When it's not...

Our guest is Deep Sogani, Vice President and Chief of E...

Everyone says that data has value, but what does that mean? How do you measure that value? This week we talk a little less about people and a little more about business and monetization. Our guest is Doug Laney, author of the bestselling book, Infonomics.

Chapters

00:00 – Open & Introduction; 03:10 – Monologue; 06:03 – Doug Laney; 26:02 – Dispatches from Rock Bottom; 28:08 ...

According to some research, about half of large organizations are“Data Driven,” meaning they are "driving business innovation with data." According to other research, that number is about half of that. But wait, isn’t that what data is for in the first place? Not good enough! So in this episode, we call BS on Data Driven.

Our guest is Randy Bean, bestselling author of Fail Fast, Learn...

Data Debt is both a measure and a message. It helps businesses grasp how important data can be, because when all else has failed, many organizations have examined Data Debt and discovered a significant aspect of data resource management. To help explain Data Debt we welcome Barbara Forth.

Chapters

00:00 - Open & Introduction; 03:48 - Monologue; 07:04 - Barbara Forth; 22:...

For so many of us, Data Quality is like a healthy diet and daily exercise. You want the benefits, but you don’t want to do what it takes to get them. Interrogating the data is the easy part. Sustaining a Data Quality program requires discipline and culture. It’s what we’ve been saying all along. It’s people. And one of those people is Tom Redman, whom we are excited to welcome to Rock Bo...

So many times we get our words reversed when naming subject areas. Instead of Data Ethics, for example, we should be talking about ethics as applied to data. This ties our interest to the broader discipline. Our guest, Daragh O Brien, is an expert in the field and gives us a lot of food for thought both about how we use data and how we allow our data to be used.

Chapters

00:00 - Op...

The most common fears about artificial intelligence are from movies, and while there are reasons for concern, Skynet becoming sentient and terminating humanity aren’t among them. A lot of great progress is being made in several fields using artificial intelligence and machine learning. Our guest, Wendy Lawhead, shares her experience as a data science and AI practitioner for several compa...

Data is as much about people as it is about technology, if not more. It’s anthropology. We need a transformational approach to data that focuses on culture and discipline. For example, companies are jumping onto AI from shaky data foundations, then have the nerve to be surprised when it doesn’t work out as well as they expected. We need to do something different. To help us take a fresh ...

John Ladley and Mark Cooper welcome you to Rock Bottom. We recognize that the last thing the world needs is another podcast, but we aim to make this one different. We are going to take apart the data industry and have fun doing it. It seems that many companies aren’t taking data and analytics very seriously either, so maybe we’ll fit right in. We’re all at rock bottom, but at the end of ...