Author Archives: Jonathan Callahan

Data Volumes

Despite what they say, size does matter. Successful data management is all about finding the proper tools and formats for dealing with your data.  There is no one-size-fits-all solution.  And the very first question you should be asking yourself is: …   read more …

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Data Management Questionnaire

Sometimes merely filling out a questionnaire can cause you to think about problems in a new way.  When asked to answer a question that has never occurred to you before, you may find yourself reevaluating some of your core assumptions …   read more …

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Two Minutes with Vivek Kundra

We recently had the privilege of attending Vivek Kundra’s talk when he spoke at the University of Washington.  We found his assessment of federal government information technology issues to be refreshingly frank.  After his talk we had a chance to …   read more …

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Standard Country Names

What’s in a name?  That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet. Ahhh love.  Juliet speaks lovely poetry but we learn, as the story unfolds, that names and the identification they impart are in …   read more …

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Zero vs. Missing

On the left we have zero, our integer measure of nothingness.  On the right we have missing value, aka N/A, aka NA, our signal that the value of a datapoint is unknown.  Everyone who deals with data has to deal …   read more …

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