Big Data? Nope, Bad Data
December 3, 2015
I have been skeptical of surveys generated by mid tier consulting firms in search of customers. I shudder when I read about customer surveys conducted using online Web data collection forms tossed open to anyone who stumbles upon the survey URL. The results are usually a source of amusement. I am sorely tempted to highlight some of these Fred Allen radio show scripts, but I don’t need letters from legal eagles threatening my continued existence here in rural Kentucky.
I did read “This Isn’t ‘Big Data.’ It’s Just Bad Data,” and it seems a handful of other folks share my concern about bogus studies. The write up appeared in a Bloomberg service. I am starting to think that the Bloomberg outfit is as skeptical as I am about the Big Data revolution. In today’s economic environment, a friendly convenient store selling essentials like baloney is a welcome sight to storm tossed managers.
The write up says:
With response rates that have declined to under 10 percent, public opinion polls are increasingly unreliable. Perhaps even more concerning, though, is that the same phenomenon is hindering surveys used for official government statistics, including the Current Population Survey, the Survey of Income and Program Participation and the American Community Survey. Those data are used for a wide array of economic statistics — for example, the numbers you read in newspapers on unemployment, health insurance coverage, inflation and poverty.
The key point in my opinion is unreliable. Academics are concerned as well. Hey, these folks have their own challenge with the reproducibility of results issue. Oh, well.
The article points out that some Federal survey funds may be allocated elsewhere. Yikes.
My view is that the bad data thing is a growing problem. As self service systems like using Cortana to get business intelligence become more widely available, fewer and fewer folks with worry about the validity of the data upon which the “intelligence” is based.
Is this a problem? Yep. Will the feisty Big Data cheerleaders take action? Nah. Revenue, baby.
Stephen E Arnold, December 3, 2015
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