Welcome to the DSC Weekly Digest, a production of Data Science Central. Every week, we pick out the newest and brightest articles on the topic of data … and how it informs our lives, powers our applications, and provides insights into our world.
From the Editor’s Desk If you are involved in the creation of data assets, remember that simply because data happens to be stored in a certain way that this may not be the best way to model that data. In theory, when databases are created, they are created by people who have a fairly deep understanding of data modeling and design. In practice, most databases are set up by programmers who have optimized them for their particular applications, who may not actually have a lot of training in data design, or who got their data design from an even more ancient legacy system. Good data design takes time, and brings value at all levels – cardinality is properly captured, time is well managed, dimensions are maintained. In other words, the data is consistent with reality, even if it takes some work getting there. In a world where you have a lot of compute cycles, it may seem easier to just let the machines handle modeling, but what comes out of that may be comprehensible only to the machine in question. Data modeling matters This week, we have a good selection of articles, some informative, some thought-provoking. If you are interested in writing for Data Science Central check out our guidelines here, and as always let us know what you think. DSC Featured Articles |