Quality and Innovation

Point 1: Transparency in business and in government means that you know what’s going on (or can find out). You have access to information about the organization’s processes and results, it is clearly presented, and it is understandable. It is difficult, if not impossible, to understand accountability when transparency does not exist. In the emerging ISO 26000 standard for social responsibility, both transparency and accountability are important.

Point 2: In data management, we struggle with the concept of provenance: how to track what happened to your data at every step of its journey – from being collected, to being operated upon by a host of processes and algorithms, to being evaluated, analyzed and visualized.

McClatchy reports today that the U.S. government is having problems with both. In “Where did that bank bailout go? Watchdogs aren’t entirely sure”, Chris Adams describes the murkiness of the issue:

Although hundreds of well-trained eyes are watching over the $700 billion that Congress last year decided to spend bailing out the nation’s financial sector, it’s still difficult to answer some of the most basic questions about where the money went.

Despite a new oversight panel, a new special inspector general, the existing Government Accountability Office and eight other inspectors general, those charged with minding the store say they don’t have all the weapons they need. Ten months into the Troubled Asset Relief Program, some members of Congress say that some oversight of bailout dollars has been so lacking that it’s essentially worthless.

Bottom line: achieving transparency requires successfully managing provenance. But in the case of the bailout, are transparency problems an information technology issue, or a policy issue?

Michael Davis (@yellowfish_md) and I were talking last night about effective email and other electronic communication.  We were discussing the utility (importance?) of making twitter updates/tweets clickable.  (I really don’t like saying “tweet,” but I’m getting used to it.)  You can make tweets clickable by adding URLs, using hashtags when appropriate, and using @twitter names whenever you can.

So Lance (@dmmandil) says, on twitter,

It’s meteor time. Grab your blankets, and get your view on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning for best view. #Perseids

I click on “#Perseids” which gives me a search across twitter.  A guy in Sweden (@maltesk) posted:

(So many folk twittering about the #Perseids coming next week – they’re here now people. Deal! http://www.imo.net/live/perseids2009/)

… and I check out http://www.imo.net/live/perseids2009/ — which is an amazing breakdown of meteor sitings.  (BTW, this site is a great example of reporting data points and geo summaries — refer to it for good vibes in your project.) The page/site says to send feedback to Geert Barentsen.  ”That’s a familiar name,” I thought.  ”I know that guy.” Sure enough, I do.  I spent a week with him in Santa Fe; we spent a lot of time hanging out and headed out about the city.

So in this social+technical network, a guy I don’t know (@maltesk) in Sweden was connected to Lance (@dmmandil) because they both used the same hashtag (and used it very well).  That guy in Sweden (@maltesk) is connected to Geert at least in that he uses Geert’s tool.  I’m connected with Geert through past experience. I discovered all of this in 15 seconds thanks to clickability.

PS – Be sure to check your links after posting if you want people to find who/what/where you are discussing.