Banish the thumb drive: a call for better internal data sharing History
Title | Banish the thumb drive: a call for better internal data sharing |
Content | Some people’s pet peeve is loud chewing; others hate the Oxford comma. Here’s mine: thumb drives. First of all, can we choose one name for these things? They’re also referred to as “flash drives,” “jump drives,” and “USB drives,” plus a few other names. Let’s choose one! Secondly and more importantly, for years whenever I’ve seen someone walking around the office with a thumb drive, I’ve gotten nervous. What data is on that thumb drive? Why is the data being transmitted this way? Who is getting access to that data? Of course these days, many fewer of us are walking around the office (stay safe everyone!) and with so many people working remotely, the thumb drive is being used less often. Now, we have to share data differently, so it’s a good time to consider better ways that we can share data: ways that protect security and privacy while allowing the organization to better understand what data is critical to its operations. So what’s wrong with thumb drives? Well here are a few things that come to mind:
Before we go much further, let’s just consider: are email attachments better? Not much. There’s a record of the sharing, but there are still issues with privacy and version control. It’s also a pain to go back and find the right email message with the right attachment. Is it the one I sent you three months ago with attachment named quarterlyReport(1).csv or the one I sent two days later with attachment named quarterlyPull_FINAL.csv? Who knows! So sharing using thumb drives is a problem. Why do we do it? (And I will 100 percent fess up that I have done it.)
So, what can we do about this? Ideally, this is something to address with your data governance group. Developing a policy for internal data sharing is a classic example of what governance can do.
If we do this effectively, we stand to gain a lot. We can foster collaboration among staff while avoiding issues with privacy and version control. We can prompt people to develop data dictionaries and documentation, ideally in concert with consistent data standards. We can establish an environment where people find and use data not based on informal connections, but on agreed-upon rules. Colleagues will share data with confidence, knowing that they’re doing the right thing. And the thumb drive can join the floppy disk in the museum of outdated technology. |
Post Date | 2020-08-24 14:17:42 |
Title | Banish the thumb drive: a call for better internal data sharing |
Content | Some people’s pet peeve is loud chewing; others hate the Oxford comma. Here’s mine: thumb drives. First of all, can we choose one name for these things? They’re also referred to as “flash drives,” “jump drives,” and “USB drives,” plus a few other names. Let’s choose one! Secondly and more importantly, for years whenever I’ve seen someone walking around the office with a thumb drive, I’ve gotten nervous. What data is on that thumb drive? Why is the data being transmitted this way? Who is getting access to that data? Of course these days, many fewer of us are walking around the office (stay safe everyone!) and with so many people working remotely, the thumb drive is being used less often. Now, we have to share data differently, so it’s a good time to consider better ways that we can share data: ways that protect security and privacy while allowing the organization to better understand what data is critical to its operations. So what’s wrong with thumb drives? Well here are a few things that come to mind:
Before we go much further, let’s just consider: are email attachments better? Not much. There’s a record of the sharing, but there are still issues with privacy and version control. It’s also a pain to go back and find the right email message with the right attachment. Is it the one I sent you three months ago with attachment named quarterlyReport(1).csv or the one I sent two days later with attachment named quarterlyPull_FINAL.csv? Who knows! So sharing using thumb drives is a problem. Why do we do it? (And I will 100 percent fess up that I have done it.)
So, what can we do about this? Ideally, this is something to address with your data governance group. Developing a policy for internal data sharing is a classic example of what governance can do.
If we do this effectively, we stand to gain a lot. We can foster collaboration among staff while avoiding issues with privacy and version control. We can prompt people to develop data dictionaries and documentation, ideally in concert with consistent data standards. We can establish an environment where people find and use data not based on informal connections, but on agreed-upon rules. Colleagues will share data with confidence, knowing that they’re doing the right thing. And the thumb drive can join the floppy disk in the museum of outdated technology. |
Post Date | 2020-08-17 14:10:03 |