November 19, 2019

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Data relativism and the rise of context services

Data relativism and the rise of context services

The traditional data warehouse of the 1990s was quaintly called the single source of truth. Joe Hellerstein explains why today we take a far more relativistic view: the meaning of data depends on the context in which it is used.

Talk Title Data relativism and the rise of context services
Speakers Joe Hellerstein (UC Berkeley)
Conference Strata + Hadoop World
Conf Tag Making Data Work
Location London, United Kingdom
Date June 1-3, 2016
URL Talk Page
Slides
Video Talk Video

The traditional data warehouse of the 1990s was quaintly called the “single source of truth.” Joe Hellerstein explains why today we take a far more relativistic view: the meaning of data depends on the context in which it is used. As a political example, note that a single raw dataset of social media posts can be used to target fundraising appeals, screen potential protesters at rallies, or guide policy statements: each application takes a very different view of the citizen and their recorded properties and behavior. New technologies like end-user data wrangling make this “data relativism” increasingly accessible to a variety of people with different incentives and viewpoints. Joe explores the significant new technology challenge this relativism raises: how can software services help us capture the many contexts and uses of data in an organization, and what could we do with that nuanced, multifaceted knowledge?

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