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The “single version of the truth”

As a result of last night’s 5033 seminar, I’m still contemplating Bill Inman’s vision of the Corporate Information Factory and the Government Information Factory (and, especially, the potential ramifications of “The Single Version of The Truth” concept popularized in data warehousing literature.) Interestingly, it now has immense implications for me in the context of broader societal interests in the corporate (and governmental) information life cycle, mostly because someone asked about the “value” axis as I had adapted it from Inman’s original information life cycle curves. Whose values, indeed! Thanks, Dennis, for the query, and for suffering death by Powerpoint on this a second time!

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  1. February 13, 2008 at 9:45 am | #1

    While I’m not familiar with your adaptation, the original life cycle curves left one out (at least): that of spiking need over time. In other words, need could by cyclical — I only close out my acquisitions files once a year, and each year I have to refer back to the manual to be sure to do it correctly. So for eleven month of the year, that manual gathers dust, but it’s value is pretty high in the twelfth month.

    (BTW, did someone reference my blog in your 5033 class? Suddenly I’m getting hits from D2L again.)

  2. DocMartens
    February 13, 2008 at 11:26 am | #2

    Thanks for the “spiking curve” suggestion: I think Inmon didn’t include it because his curves are intended to illustrate time/value for data warehousing (storage) rather than for data marting (more current uses), but yours is actually an extremely useful addition to my adaptations, which are intended to illustrate more generic information life cycles (not shown here!)

    The hits from D2L are in response to your recent “writing” post, as I thought people in 5033 would find it useful. Thanks for that also!

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