What the Sumerians can teach us about data - The Diigo Meta page

• 09 Feb 12
  

  Ted Parker

  data privacy power

• 05 Feb 12
  

  Michael Schmalenstroer

  antike information

• 04 Jan 12
  

  John Lowell

  Fascinating! @petewarden riffs on Sumerian data & culture, inspired by the British Museum's Mesopotamian collection. http://t.co/Rj4zM0fJ

  twitter

• 03 Jan 12
  

  Jim Peterson

  "That's still true today. Gathering data is not a neutral act, it will alter the power balance, usually in favor of the people collecting the information."

  data grades power

  • That's still true today. Gathering data is not a neutral act, it will alter the power balance, usually in favor of the people collecting the information.
  • As soon as records become vital in arguments about who gets what, people will figure out how to falsify them. The more important the outcome, the more temptation there is to fudge or fake them. Written records remove the problem of fallible memories, but replaces it with a second-degree question of provenance. How do you know the data accurately reflects what happened?
  • We still have a disturbing tendency to trust anything that's recorded, without understanding the subjective process that went into creating the record.
  • In the absence of real answers, we'll take bogus ones painted with a veneer of data, just like the Sumerians.
  • If there's any way you can, please think about how to open up data you control, it's the best way to pass it on to posterity.

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