Recently, I dusted off my soapbox to respond to Thomas C. Redman’s post  Get Responsibility for Data Out of IT:

“As companies devote increasing time and energy in gathering massive quantities of data, many neglect a critical first step: Get most responsibility for data out of the IT Department.”

…”Since this step flies in the face of most current practice and may seem counterintuitive, I want to explain carefully. First, it seems obvious enough that one ought to put management of data (or anything else for that matter) as close to the action as possible.”

…”In a somewhat different vein, management responsibility should lie with the parties that have the most to gain or lose. Business departments gain mightily when they create new value from data. In contrast, IT reaps little reward when data is used to improve a product, service, or decision.“

I disagree with Redman on two points. Read about them at HPIO: Getting data responsibility out of IT is dangerous – Input Output.

Why, oh why, didn’t I come up this point:

“Organizations that capitalize on big data stand apart [because] they pay attention to data flows as opposed to data stocks.”

I highlight this concept, and the source article, in this week’s active information post: Shifting from data stockpiles to flows, thats the… – Input Output.