Using information technology to make data useful is as old as the Information Age. The difference today is that the volume and variety of� available data has grown enormously. Big data gets almost all of the attention, but there’s also cryptic data. Both are difficult to harness using basic tools and require new technology to help organizations glean actionable information from the large and chaotic mass of data. “Big data” refers to extremely large data sets that may be analyzed computationally to reveal patterns, trends and associations, especially those related to human behavior and interaction.
The challenges in dealing with big data include having the computational power that can scale to the processing requirements for the volumes involved; analytical tools to work with the large data sets; and governance necessary to manage the large data sets to ensure that the results of the analysis are accurate and meaningful. But that’s not all organizations have to deal with now. I’ve coined the term “cryptic data” to focus on a different, less well known sort of data challenge that many companies and individuals face.
Cryptic data sets aren’t easy to find or aren’t easily accessed by people who could make use of them. Why “cryptic?” As a scuba diver, I donate time to Reef Check�by doing scientific species counts in and around Monterey Bay, Calif. Cryptic organisms�are ones that hide out deep in the cracks and crevices of our rocky reefs. Finding and counting them accurately is time-consuming and requires skill. Similarly, it’s difficult to locate, access and collect cryptic data routinely. Because it’s difficult to locate or access routinely, those who have it can gain a competitive advantage over those who don’t.
The main reason cryptic data is largely untapped is cost vs. benefits: The time, effort, money and other resources required to manually retrieve it and get it into usable form may be greater than the value of having that information.
By automating the process of routinely collecting information and transforming it into a usable form and format, technology can expand the range of data available by lowering the cost side of the equation. So far, most tools, such as Web crawlers, have been designed to be used by IT professionals. Data integration software, also mainly used by IT departments, helps transform the data collected into a form and format where it can be used by analysts to create mashups or build data tables for analysis to support operational processes. Data integration tools mainly work with internal, structured data and a majority have little or no capability to support data acquisition in the Web.
Tools designed for IT professionals are a constraint in making better use of cryptic data because business users are subject matter experts. They have a better idea of the information they need and are in a better position to understand the subtleties and ambiguities in the information they collect. To address this constraint, Web scraping tools (what I call “data drones”) have appeared that are designed for business users. They use a more visual user interface design and hide some of the complexity inherent in the process. They can automate the process of collecting cryptic data and expand the scope and depth of data used for analysis, alerting and decision support.
Cryptic data can be valuable because when collected, aggregated and analyzed, it provides companies and individuals with information and insight that were unavailable. This is particularly true of data sets gathered over time from a source or combination of sources that can reveal trends and relationships that otherwise would be difficult to spot.
Cryptic data can exist within a company’s firewall (typically held in desktop spreadsheets or other files maintained by an individual as well as in “dark” operational data sets), but usually it is somewhere in the Internet cloud.;
