{"id":1106,"date":"2013-04-08T16:52:52","date_gmt":"2013-04-08T20:52:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/?p=1106"},"modified":"2013-04-08T16:52:52","modified_gmt":"2013-04-08T20:52:52","slug":"goldilocks-and-the-three-bowls-of-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/fieldnotes\/2013\/04\/goldilocks-and-the-three-bowls-of-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Goldilocks and the Three Bowls of Data"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Goldilocks\"<\/a>Barring residence under a rock or an other-worldly state of bliss, it is unlikely that you have escaped the phenomenon of \u201cbig data.\u201d What is big data? Everyone knows that, right? Not so much<\/a>. Gartner<\/a> offers a helpful definition:<\/p>\n

Big data [are] high-volume, high-velocity and high-variety\u00a0information assets that demand cost-effective, <\/em>
\ninnovative forms\u00a0of information processing for enhanced insight and decision making.<\/em><\/p>\n

Good! Three very important dimensions, but we\u2019re not quite there. SAS<\/a> boils it down a bit:<\/p>\n

Big data is a popular term used to describe the exponential growth, availability and use of information, both structured and unstructured.<\/em><\/p>\n

The big data \u201cconversation\u201d reaches into all aspects of contemporary society: from commerce to open government to philanthropy and yes, nonprofits. Many writing about big data understandably begin with quantifying the ever-accelerating mass of information (petabytes! Trillions upon trillions of bytes!) that can easily overwhelm any manager, especially those in a sector where many organizations find it difficult to invest sufficiently in information technology. Yet, the siren call of learning more about our audiences, donors, employees and other stakeholders remains. What opportunities are there to surface new information that might help us run better organizations and achieve our missions?<\/p>\n

In a recent Harvard Business Review<\/em> blog post, Jacob Harold (President & CEO, Guidestar<\/a>) suggests nonprofit leaders master “medium data” before tackling big data. There, he acknowledges both the possibility (there are 371 platforms for gathering data about the nonprofit world) and the limitations of big data for nonprofits. He offers three suggestions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Don’t freak out.<\/li>\n
  2. Focus on what nonprofits have in common.<\/li>\n
  3. Default to openness.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This is a helpful filter for analyzing the potential impact of big data for your organization and worth a read.<\/p>\n

    Nonprofits: Master “Medium Data” Before Tackling Big Data\u00a0\u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Additional Reading and Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n