Trainwrecks serves a purpose that shouldn’t exist… to document the simple ways that this stuff affects people and how easily it can happen and/or be avoided. I’d really love if the IAIDQ didn’t have to have this site, or if I didn’t have the opportunity to fill my own blog with rants about Dell, the Irish Electoral Register or other things.

Your topic suggestion is inspired and very broad… I’ll have to make sure to get the January IAIDQ member email blast out early to encourage our members and perhaps one or two of our founders to contribute!

Here’s to a Happy High Quality Information New Year.

I’m hosting January’s edition.

Since the end-of-year issue focused on where we are and what we wish for, from a data quality perspective, let’s take the next step and start planning:

Topic for January: How will we Change the World with Data Quality.

As this (IQ TrainWrecks) site shows, data quality truly impacts our world. Let’s get down and dirty into how we will fix it. Entries can include: where we most need to focus our efforts this year (activities or research), best techniques to change/fix how we approach data quality, tactical and strategic approaches to get where we need to go. And, if anyone’s comfortable sharing, let’s include current initiatives to give a sense of how the world may already be changing.

I was glad to host the Carnival. The fact that we got some thought provoking posts was good – end December is always a very quiet time. My sense is that 2008 is a ‘breakthrough’ year for Information Quality people. My fear for 2008 is that with the momentum will come the bandwagon jumpers and snake-oil peddlers… I was there during the CRM gold rush and the first dotCom landgrab… A lot of people learned the hard way that CRM <> Software but was more than that. We’ll see the same with Information Quality, unless we have some clear voices reminding people that quality is a bit like a puppy… It’s for life, not just for Christmas.

If you can get along to DQ Asia Pacific in Sydney next May we’ve got a number of IAIDQ people presenting at it (including the two Keynote speakers).

Happy New Year to all the Carnivallers!