Happy Mother's Data!

The headline: Data is only useful if it’s captured. Almost 328.77 million terabytes of data is created every day. That’s over 9,500 years of 1080p video. How much more data is never used because is was left uncaptured?

Why it matters: Data is happening every day. Temperatures. Sounds. Sights. Conversations. Counts. Totals. Times. Coordinates. These are all data. Whether your phone records your latitude and longitude at 3:24 PM on a Tuesday or not, you were there. It happened -- even if it doesn’t become data.

My mom loved data. She shared her love for data with me. She loved to capture data. She captured everything in her Franklin Planner. She inventoried every article of clothing she owned. She recorded each day she wore it. She logged every meal in her repertoire and when she prepared it.

She passed on June 10, 2016. Ovarian cancer is brutal. Her Franklin Planner sits on the bookshelf in my office. I flip through it on occasion and am amazed at the data she kept. This wasn’t a diary with life's stories. It contained structured data.

Here’s why: She didn’t want to repeat wearing the same shirt too soon. She didn't want to prepare Porcupine Balls too often. She had a reason for capturing the data. As simple as it was, the use case was important to her.

I track my runs. I enjoy the same health benefits either way. The data is happening either way. My latitude and longitude are changing every second, whether my phone captures it or not. But I enjoy counting how many miles. I like remembering where I ran. It's fun being able to analyze it.

I started to analyze my data. My phone captured 1.5+ million coordinates over my runs the last four years. Every second, during each run, my phone captured my latitude, longitude, and altitude. It’s fascinating. Stay tuned. More to come.

The takeaway: What data are you missing? What data are you not capturing? What is happening around you, in your organization, at your home that could become data? That could be useful, even if only to you. Capture it and use it.

Where to start: Step back and decide what's important. What will you use to make decisions. For my mom preparing the weekly dinner menu, that meant knowing the last time we had Porcupine Balls.

Final thoughts: I debated posted this. I’m blending my personal and professional worlds. Sometimes they’re inseparable. What greater joy than to be comfortable being who you are -- and not just on the weekend. Who am I? I love data. My mom loved data. Happy Mother’s Day.

This article is part of my blog, Running Thoughts on Data. My first post, The Story My Data Cannot Tell, shares the genesis of my blog. The views and postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent those of Plante Moran.