Smart Data: Enterprise Performance Optimization Strategy

Foreword

Information is the lifeblood of civilization. It has always been so. Many thousands of years ago information was transmitted primarily as the spoken word. Inevitably, ways of recording information were created so that it could be retained and passed on. Thus humans evolved their ability to convey not just data but their thoughts and meanings, their knowledge, through recorded information. The desire to unlock knowledge and put it to use is a compelling impetus for human advancement, and while development of alphabets and writing forms moved on, the literacy of the common person surely lagged behind. Ancient recorded information was likely barely accessible only to a very few in the upper classes. Enter the first wave of mass production of information. The advent of printing made information widely available and, by the end of the 15th century, an estimated 15 million books had been printed on presses. But information still spread slowly down through the strata of society. Even in America during the mid-19th century, books were difficult to access in the rural parts of our young and expanding country. During his youth, Abraham Lincoln sometimes walked miles just to find a book. Fast forward just one century and libraries dot the landscape from shore to shore. In the mid-20th century books were widely available, and most people could read them. Information was available to everyone. But the country was poised to enter an era that would produce a literal explosion of information, ...