Addiction to data collection

I was recently attending a planning meeting outside university.

The aim was to provide some input as a user in a project to establish a new public service to be provided by private and public organisations.

It felt as if we were having a good discussion, and I was feeling somehow proud to have been able to convey some key ideas on how the new service should run.

And then the question that unconsciously I was dreading to hear came:

• So what sort of data are we going to collect from service users? 

Followed by its natural sibling:

• How can we make sure that the data collection is not intrusive? 

We live in a time where data is the uninvited but essential guest.  Like the lost relative that always shows up to spoil the party.

We have become addicted to data.  And to collect it.  But all in an almost secret manner.  

We need data to keep a trail, to know who is doing what, to infer why they did or did not turn up. 

And we act like the browser cookies. 

I am sure a good number of jobs have been created in for profit and non-profit organisations in order to manage the data.  In these jobs essential requirements are the ability to capture and analyse data, followed by the ability to sum up data and present it to key decision makers.  

I hope the data analysts that are reading this post forgive me.  Nothing wrong with the job.  What seems to be wrong in my view is the addiction processes that keep feeding this and other jobs.

So the discussion in the meeting turned into a kind of design of how the management of data was to proceed.  Naturally (yes, naturally) then the next question that followed was:

• How can we capture the data using existing systems?

Because yes, there could be more than one system that already captures some data.  And we don't want to duplicate efforts.  We cannot afford to do so.  

Listening to the last question, I almost jumped onto the conversation to say that I had a few ideas about databases and information systems.  

But I stayed silent.  

Because it takes a supplier to keep the addiction going on.  

All I can think now to tell my students is that if data emerges, let it emerge, but don't force its collection or analysis.  If there is someone who is keen to collect data, then there is a hidden motive. Try to get to the bottom of this.  Try to block the cookies if you see what I mean.  

The data to be collected should serve a much higher purpose than just keep a memory of what goes on.