“Data is the new oil” is a phrase that’s made its way into the public forum over the last years, a bumper-sticker line to highlight the value of information (data) in our technologically constructed reality. As many point out, though, the use of the word ‘oil’ is perhaps somewhat (purposefully?) ambiguous, since real, unrefined oil from under ground or sea is precisely that – unrefined. Without treatment, its value is far less in raw form.
The astute reader will see where we’re heading with this – petabytes of random data are rendered nonsensical until meaning is derived from connections within. Making sense of data is what people like Christopher Ahlberg are all about, and throughout the episode, we explore a couple of use cases where these connections manifested in real-world decisions and impact.
The Secure in Mind Project
There is a longstanding and distinct disconnect between the way information is packaged and presented to the public and the effectiveness of this presentation in terms of generating informed, considered debate.
If we can take complex, important topics and present them, as best we can, in a manner that can interest people from outside the specialty, then we have surpassed our expectations.
