Dark Data: Opportunity or Threat

Author(s): Adam Ross Nelson

Originally published on Towards AI.

A visual analysis of the dark data phenomena

Organizations suffer from what is often known as the dark data problem. This article reframes the issue as an opportunity: the dark data opportunity.

Dark data presents a challenge for businesses and organizations. In the imagination of data-driven leaders, this “dark data” lurks in the shadows. Dark data is often perceived as a menacing threat. Exploring this kind of dark data could metaphorically look and feel like crawling through a cave that is rich in hidden data resources.

Worse, data professionals sometimes merely dismiss dark data as an inconsequential and unavoidable wasteful byproduct of data-related work. Discussions around dark data are frequently tinged with a sense of dread about the potential risks it harbors.

In this article the term “dark data” is referring to information that organizations collect and store during routine and ordinary course of business. However, this dark data is data that organizations too often fail to use for additional, and what could be valuable, purposes.

Image Credit: Author’s Illustration created with DALL-E.

Often, this dark data is overlooked because it is not immediately applicable to a task at hand. Otherwise, it’s buried in unstructured, obscure, antiquated, and generally difficult-to-use formats. In some cases, they may be on a storage medium that modern… Read the full blog for free on Medium.

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Published via Towards AI