A couple of days ago, I read the excellent post by Bob Rudis about data ethics and the importance of keeping users’ data safe. In this post, Bob recited the mantra I have heard for the past several years that “data is the new gold.” Comparing something to gold implies that it is scarce, unchangeable and has zero utility value. Data is neither, it’s ubiquitous, ever-changing and has some utility value of its own.
I think that oil (petroleum) is a better analogy for data. Much like the oil, data has some utility value by itself but is most valuable when properly distilled, processed and transformed.
Regardless of the analogy, I highly recommend reading Bob Rudis’ post.
I caught a mention of this project by Pete Warden on Four Short Links today. If his name sounds familiar, he’s the creator of the DSTK, an O’Reilly author, and now works at Google. A decidedly clever and decent chap. The project goal is noble: crowdsource and make a repository of open speech data for…
Boris Gorelik 
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