How ‘Bashups’ Transform Understanding
John Corbett turned me on to a good article at Tech Target about business-focused, web-based, location-aware data mashups, which the author terms ‘bashups.’ Here’s the nut:
BI systems are already very good at sifting through (and/or aggregating) huge volumes of data and turning it into information. If we combine this with mapping, we can get a huge increase in the understandability of the information for very little effort.
What’s the nuance?
This transformation of data to information is a critical step. And I think the author actually under-sells it. I think this kind of business mashup is more about turning information (spreadsheets are the information, each cell is the data) into knowledge. And this knowledge unleashes some new context for decision-making.
John’s comment, on his BEye blog, points out that just putting static data on a map is a great first step, but when you can ask that map questions, change the parameters, toggle between visual layers (each representing different info like census data, your sales data, annual weather data, WalMart’s RetailLink and more), as AWhere’s softare enables, then you can turn knowledge into understanding. And with that understanding, you can make business decisions that change the future of your company. (for the better.)
