Labels

My "2013 Meh List" - Well, Sort Of...

I started off making a "2013 Meh List" (ala NY Times - Not hot. Not not. Just meh.), but it quickly turned into a list of things from 2013 which I'd like to forget about, and then some...


The things from 2013 I'd like to forget about...
  • The US Government: mining "our" data & metadata (all of it), contractors going "rogue", healthcare.gov, shutdowns, sequestrations, and budgets
  • Organizations ignoring their data - data quality and billing issues are sooo 2012, figure it out already...
  • The lackluster response of corporations to data breaches and data privacy concerns
  • Microsoft asking us to "be brave", Windoz 8, and Ballmer's Retirement
    (Microsoft was kind of "meh" for me this year)
  • The Yahoo! mail upgrade was possibly the most annoying software upgrade in my entire life...
  • Blackberry continuing to fail
  • Airline fees and the overall lack of consumer advocates for continually feeling like every company is "nickel and diming" us to death
  • Celebrities misbehaving, people twerking, and people doing the Harlem Shake...
  • Whatever the fox is saying!!!



    It wouldn't be cool just to vent, so here are some things I did like about 2013...
  • Increased visibility for data management in organizations (Chief Data Officers, Data Scientists, etc.)
  • Data Visualization and Infographics (I'm obsessed with these two things lately)
  • "Feel good" stories like the San Francisco "BatKid"
  • The fact that someone figured out that the 2013 Country Music all the same
  • Electric cars with style, like the Tesla
  • Oracle won the America's Cup, but otherwise they were a bit "meh", right?


    Some things to watch out for in 2014...
  • Data, data, and more data (I WILL NOT INCLUDE THE "Grandes Datos" TERM IN THIS POST ONCE!!!)
  • BitCoin
  • Amazon: it's products, and leading position in the "cloud", but the delivery drones are kind of "meh" to me right now
  • Companies going global, it's a must-do for 2014 and certainly includes "cloud" technologies. Imagine small to midsize companies having zero IT footprint (BYODevice, BYOLaptop, etc.), is it possible?
  • "Internet Of Things" gaining traction
  • Someone figuring out how Google Glass (or "similar" devices such as "iWatches" and sensor devices) might add significant value to us normal people, every single day
  • Technology in education (A laptop or tablet for every student!)
  • Open Data, leveraging it and publishing your own


    And last but not least, here are a couple things I'm hopeful for in 2014...
  • I'm hopeful that a few more people like Nate Silver pop up and make some positive/exciting advancements in data and statistics. Silver significantly raised the visibility for "doing cool stuff" with data in the last US presidential election, I'm hoping some other folks can do something similar in different domains.
  • I'm very much hopeful for some organization to step up and become an advocate for personal data privacy and data security. Here in the US we have a federal government organization (the FDA) who are supposed to be ensuring the food and drugs we are sold are safe. We also have the non-government groups who are watchdogs for other types of things. I can't help but think we need someone out there helping us watch our digital backsides (data privacy and security), and the scope/reach has to be global, it can't be "just another US federal organization".



    All this said and done, I wish you a "Happy New Year" and continued success in 2014.


    Until next time...Rich

    • Labels:

    Comments

    Post a Comment