Unstructured data
Clare
I could suggest two warnings about this
statistic.
First, there was a (rather lengthy) thread about it in
another discussion list a few years ago (sorry I cannot be precise). The
eventual consensus was, as I recall,
-
the statistic was attributed to an old (and now very
old) study purportedly carried out by Price
Waterhouse;
-
nobody can be identified who was involved in that
study;
-
nobody can find a copy of the original
report.
So it appeared then that this had become folklore with an
unknown source. I acknowledge of course that other references (such as the
TKM journal quoted by Janette Young) may claim a better source.
Second, and perhaps more importantly, what on earth does
"80% of information/records created by organisations"
actually mean? What is the information content of (say) a file about
a project, or of the latest Board minutes? And if you succeed in measure
this information content, how do you compare it to the information content of
(say) a relational table which is constantly changing? I fear that the
whole concept is flaky. At best, it can be used as a suggestion to foster
qualitative thinking about the situation; but it would be a mistake to believe
it is quantitatively true.
Marc Fresko
It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little
useless information - Oscar Wilde
Dear all,
There's a lot of talk these days about the 80% of
information/records created by organisations which comprise unstructured data,
while c.20% only is structured into databases. Does anyone have the source
for this? I believe it was Gartner, but can't find the actual source
document anywhere.
It's a powerful argument for records management, but
not much good unless it can be substantiated (other than through the evidence of
our own eyes).
Clare
Clare Cowling
Records Manager
The Law Society
113 Chancery Lane
London WC2A 1PL
Tel 020 7320
9541
(internal ext 4605)
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