Editorial
Jean Barrère
Partner, Accuracy
Debating data
As Victor Hugo did for the toilers of the sea, we must start with a homage to all toilers of data.
Observe the chief data officer setting out the fundamental difference between ‘raw data’, ‘information’ and ‘knowledge’ and reminding us of the oh-so complex nature of switching from one category to another.
Watch the CIO mobilising exponential technologies through connected platforms to capitalise on the organisation’s digital and information assets more quickly.
Pause for a moment to appreciate the grace of a Baudelairean gesture. The data scientist isbinfusing data with art: ‘You gave me your mud and I have turned it to gold’, he proclaims!
Pick up speed again with the decision-maker, on the lookout for some form of informational advantage. Embark on a trip with the CEO over rough seas, taking the organisation on a path to difficult data-driven transformations!
The HR director might be in charge of creating dedicated paths to attract and retain these rare profiles, but the head of finance is more interested in the multiple forms of data value: economic, financial, utility, market, exchange… How can we assess this intangible asset?
Time to move on and applaud! At the front of the stage, the politician sets limits to all things digital and tidies the mess made by the use of our private data!
Make room for thought. Behind the curtain, the philosopher disturbs the order of our digital lives and challenges the Data-Being. Is binary now the language of truth? Is it possible to translate all human experience into 0s and 1s?
When a topic as multifaceted as data mobilises so many profiles and so much knowledge, capital and liquidity, intelligence and technique, material to argue for and against… when this dialectic gives rise to so much wealth and so many new forms of living together, it is because there lies, at its heart, an essential debate that must be brought to life.