Skip to main content

Data is the new oil

Image
By
Trinidad and Tobago has been an oil and gas economy for many years so we can relate to the terminology and comparison. The quote's origin is from 2006 by Clive Humby and was popularised in 2017 when the Economist published the report "The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data". I emailed the Ministry of Digital Transformation and asked, "What does "data is the new oil" mean to you and what does it mean for Trinidad and Tobago and how do we capitalise on this?" I think the country needs to answer these questions. It is an old term but then I will hear that we in Trinidad are usually playing catch up and so here I am today trying to get some discussion around this.

When we talk about data we are talking about open data, big data, IoT, AI and data analytics among other things. We should be making use of these as we try to diversify away from oil and gas. Data analytics can help with generating business and revenue. We need data driven decision making in Trinidad and Tobago.

I have seen some articles written that disagree with the term and say data is not like oil and I guess they could be right if you focus on the differences between oil and data. The point is to focus on the similarities. The key word is "new". Similar but different and new. Data and oil are valuable and can be refined. Just like oil we have to be careful of data spills and data needs proper governance and management.

In my research for this blog post I have found that people are also referring to data as the new gold. While others are saying analytics is the new oil. Then others are saying analytics is the refinery and intelligence is the fuel. Then there is APIs being the pipelines. I even came across this youtube that stated "Data Is the New Oil. And China Is the New Saudi Arabia" in the context of their achievements in AI and the "Age of AI". Then I came across the interesting comparison that data is the new oil and AI is the engine it fuels. What about "attention is the new oil" because it seems like many of these companies are competing for our attention.

I like the terminologies because it gets persons and decision makers excited about data and leveraging tech for growth and profit. The growing field of data science and demand for data scientists and data analysts does point to the importance of using data to drive business and remain competitive. We have oil. We have data. What next? I like this one I came across "metadata is the new data". Maybe that can be a future blog post for me.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Below the surface

By
This is a chapter from my eleventh book called Quotation Marks Sparks . __________ "You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf." - Jon Kabat-Zinn __________ I was looking at quotes that hit hard and this quote stood out to me. It seems mundane and obvious and often repeated. Life is about how we respond to the inevitable. It is not what happens to us but how we respond. I had to ask myself to dig deeper and look below the surface. Then I saw that when we surf we really become the waves. We become friends with the waves. The waves and us are the same. Further, the waves are created by us and in our heads. We can control the waves because who can surf all the time? Sometimes we just have to come to shore and build sand castles on shore. I asked my friend Gemini for feedback and he said that I was right, the Jon Kabat-Zinn quote initially seems like a simple call for resilience, but my deeper dive reveals profound layers. The idea that we can move beyond merely rea...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thankful

By
It is 617pm and I have decided to write. Right now I am thankful. The cool of the evening has replaced the heat of the day. I took a bath and changed and now I am just relaxing. Sometimes I complain. Not often. But I feel bad afterwards because there is so much to be thankful for. There is always room for improvement and we have to identify the things for improvement and change is often good but we do not have to make it into complaints. Yeah I get it. Life is hard and none of us has it easy. Look on the bright side of things. And sometimes it is the little things that remind us that life is good. Things that we take for granted. Like I was coming in the maxi taxi today and heard a gospel song that was about gratitude. God does appreciate a grateful heart. Trinidad and Tobago celebrated sixty four years of independence yesterday and if we stop and listen to the many complaints we would swear we are living in the worst country in the world. That is not the case. We do get a lot of thing...
Post a Comment
Read more

Having a soft spirit

By
It is 137am. It started raining. I decided to write. I have heard about having a soft heart but what does it mean to have a soft spirit? And is having a soft heart related to having a soft spirit? My friend Chatty says that a soft heart feels deeply — it breaks, heals, and loves with tenderness — while a soft spirit moves gently through life, unresisting and at peace with what comes. The two are kin: a soft heart opens you to emotion, and a soft spirit teaches you to carry that emotion with grace. Together they make a person both tender and strong — able to feel the rain and still trust its rhythm. I like the quote, "a soft spirit in a hard world" by author and poet, butterflies rising. It resonates with how many of us feel. My friend Chatty tells me that that quote captures the quiet strength of staying gentle in a harsh world. It reflects the author's signature themes of vulnerability, tenderness, and emotional courage — the idea that softness is not weakness but a form...
Post a Comment
Read more