Maintaining a database of postal mail addresses requires them to be maintained over time and validated. Conventional wisdom is usually that an address database should be largely static and never change after data entry unless someone physically moves. However, as in many cases, conventional wisdom is not correct in this case. Both the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the United States Postal Service (USPS) recommend that physical street addresses be maintained at least once a quarter via a process named geocoding, which includes street name, city, state and zip code validation.

The success of any company is becoming more and more dependent on unlocking the value of data and turning it into trusted information for critical decision making. The ability to deliver the right information at the right time and in the right context is crucial. Today, organizations are bursting with data, yet most executives would agree they need to improve how they leverage information to prevent multiple versions of the truth, improve trust and control and respond quickly to change.

If you are an IBM customer, it is very likely you have received some level of education about IBM’s Information Management solutions platform, which includes IBM’s Big Data strategy.

As a much younger writer and marketing guy watching the database technology boom of the 80’s and 90’s, I was fascinated with the advent of the data warehouse surge that started about twenty years ago. I saw it coming and watched it bloom. The promise of a “sandbox of meaningful data” for quicker and easier use by line of business managers was exciting.

This blog entry was published on TIBCO Spotfire’s Business Intelligence blog, by Linda Rosencrance, of the Spotfire Blogging Team. Here are 13 of her favorite data quotes – gathered from a number of sources on the web – from CEOs, statisticians, authors and even Sherlock Holmes.

I thought it was really cool!