I ran across a phrase that reminded me of "the spice must flow" line that rings in the head of any fan of Dune.
enabling the flow of data in such a way as to make its location immaterial
What a great way to describe our recently proposed architecture principle relating to data:
Leveraged Data - Data is an enterprise asset that should be leveraged across the organization over time.
The phrase came from an article entitled "The Marriage of Social and Business Applications", posted to the Read/WriteWeb blog. The article combines several topics related to social software's impact on business collaboration software, and the importance of identity. While I don't agree with some of the conclusions about the email metaphor, the author's point is that something as simple as whether or not an email message has been read, is a flag only viewable by the email recipient. And yet how useful would that simple bit of data be to other participants in the discussion. However, such sharing of data requires an intelligent management of identity.
In any case, when we described the desire for "leveraged data", we were probably thinking about significant sources of redundant or siloed data needing to be made useful, not a single email flag. However, the understanding of how social software is allowing a flow of information between individuals and groups broadens my perspective of the potential applications of the "leveraging data" principle. I have been saying for a while, its isn't just about putting the data in a repository where everyone can get to it, we must allow for the natural flow of information throughout the organization through both organic and intentional means. To continue with the poor analogy, its not until the spice stops flowing, that the great houses go to war.
