Data Governance Matters

Tonight I’m having dinner in Cambridge with Beth Gold-Bernstein , who runs the ebizQ Virtual Conferences, and Peter Aiken, who teaches at Virginia Commonwealth University and runs DataBlueprint.

One of my all-time favorite dinners ever with Peter, March two years ago in Orlando at a Metadata-themed conference fun by the inimitable Davida Berger. Peter and I joined a small group for dinner and conversation about trends and best practices in data management, metadata,and data governance and stewardship.

A young woman at our table was asking questions, and my friend Denise Sparks of Exeros kept the laughter flowing by keeping a mock “tab” for the answers provided by all the consultants at the table.Peter and I kept finishing each others’ sentences, and finally the young woman commented on how we were giving the same answers to her questions.

“How long do you think Gwen and I have known each other?” Peter asked, and she guessed quite a few years. Peter’s response brought chuckles from the table, since he had to consult his watch (or was it phone?) to give her the correct figure… in minutes. (We’d actually met just an hour or so before dinner.)

Beth and Peter and I were all at the Independent Analysts Platform in Phoenix two weeks ago, where this photo of Peter was taken on Peter’s iPhone.

In case you don’t recognize the pose, it’s paying homage to Darwin the Data Dude, the fictional guide to the humorous side of Data Governance on the website of the Data Governance Institute. (www.datagovernance.com)

Shortly after Darwin debuted In the summer of 07, a rumor got started that he was modeled after Peter.The truth is that the artist was given a photo of John Lennon and told to “make it look like he works with IT, but cares more about data, systems, wine, and people than techie, geeky stuff.”

So there you have it. Evidently, if John Lennon were alive, well, and working in Information Management and Governance, he would be… Peter Aiken.