How We Get a Hold of Data
In the first chapters, we have learned a lot of theory about data: What it is, its impact on society, and what kind of technology is involved.
In this and the following chapters, we are going to provide a more practical perspective. You will learn where and how you can obtain data, how you can go about making it usable, and ultimately: how you actually use data.
We begin, in this chapter, by looking at where and how we can find useful data. But before we get started: You need to know what you really want to achieve by collecting data in the first place.
What is the destination?
Sometimes you want to travel for the sake of the journey, and see where the wind blows and the road takes you. Usually though, travelling needs a destination for it to make sense. Similarly, data collection also needs a goal. Therefore, the first thing you have to do if you want to get hold of data, is to know what you want to achieve.
In other words, you need to be able to identify a situation, a problem or a challenge where data can help you. Then you can see what data you need and what you should do with it. Identifying problems is often the first thing you do in a data-driven project, as this helps you to ensure that you are moving towards the goal you have set in the best possible way.
Suppose you work in the construction industry and your goal is to make a construction project more efficient. A problem could be that the company performing the work is spending too much time finding documents, reading invoices, reporting and registering. Perhaps its machines are idling? Perhaps you find that decisions are made based on gut feeling or experience, that instead could be based on data?
Once you have identified a problem, you know what direction to go in. You might think we are being a bit too problem-focused here. But actually, it is quite nice to pause and think about problems we can solve from day to day—and whether we can do things even better.
These problems could be large and publicly important problems that we encounter in hospitals, schools, critical infrastructure, or the rainforest. Or they may be small problems that we encounter in our everyday work. For example, projects in sales and marketing, product development, operations, consulting, repair, and education have all been supported through the careful collection of appropriate data.
Chapter 3
What you will learn
With this in mind, we can look at how to get a hold of data. We have already seen how data is generated and used. But what types of data exist? Where do you find it—and how can you collect it? You will learn about this in this chapter.
Last but not least, we will look at what data you are allowed to collect. There is so much you can accomplish when you can find exciting new data sets and know how to analyse them in a sensible way. But it is equally important that you know how to handle the information legally. If you haven't already guessed it, we’ll be taking a closer look at the GDPR.