10 Reasons Why 2017 Will Be the Year of Data Literacy Posted on : Dec 05 - 2016

The growth in data analytics and governance is leading to an increase in the workers that manage and master it all. The result will be a new level of ‘data literacy’ in 2017. Here are 10 reasons why.

Predictions for the coming year

As we close out 2016, we’ve seen an explosion of data, an increase in processing, and a move toward information ‘activism,’ according to Dan Sommer, senior director and market intelligence lead at Qlik. “Coupled with the increasing numbers of employees actively able to work with and master the huge amounts of information, such as data scientists, application developers, and business analysts, the importance of data literacy has grown. As a result of this shift, he offers the following 10 trends for 2017 that will help lay the foundation for increased data literacy.

Governance will become more important than ever.

“Having more data available can lead to conflicting data points, and in some cases, polluting good data with bad data,”. “To avoid this potential crisis, there will be more calls for governance.”

More data will be external and generated in the cloud.

“With more data sources available, looking at data without external context won’t be as valuable,”  “This means that making combinations of data will be the most ideal foundation for forming new business ideas.”

Self-service visualization will become accessible to all.

“Freemium is the new normal, making 2017 the year when users will have easier access to their analytics.”  “With more people beginning their analytics journey, data literacy rates will increase — and as a result, information activism will as well.”

Data discovery will scale more broadly.

“As data discovery is now considered modern business intelligence, self-service will need to become more available to users, putting large requirements on factors such as scale, performance, governance, and security.”

Hybrid cloud and multi-platform will emerge as the primary model.

“With users needing access to their data on the go, there has been an accelerated move toward cloud.” “This means that organizations are no longer keeping their data in just one location, and are instead using a hybrid approach of cloud and on-premise data.”

The focus will shift from ‘advanced analytics’ to ‘advancing analytics.’

“Advanced analytics will continue to grow, and eventually be brought into self-service tools.” “With more users advancing their analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) might play a bigger role in organizations. But that means AI will also need to have high levels of usability as well, since users will need it to augment their analyses and business decisions.”

We will learn the other side of ‘personal analytics.’

“There are two aspects to personal analytics: how information activists utilize information for their personal benefit, and how information is utilized about the information activists,” Sommer explains. “The overlap in these use cases of personal analytics is fast becoming a marketer’s dream. By understanding the user’s preferences and behavioral patterns, companies can consume such data to tailor more personalized products, services, and messages. However, consumers will increasingly realize the value of personal information as it becomes more available to others.”

The digital and physical worlds will begin to meet in analytics.

“Analytics won’t just be everywhere, but increasingly in everything,” Sommer says. “Pokémon GO is an indicator of the next-step change after mobility. This will mean that analytics will start appearing in the context of virtual reality, and will continue on the path of being connected to devices.”

The focus will shift to custom analytic apps and analytics in the app.

“Users will soon have the ability to have rich explorations in data, leading to an increase in more contextualized and customized analytic applications so users can have an experience tailored to them,” Sommer says. “As such, open, extensible tools that can be customized by application and web developers will make further headway.”

We will move from ‘only visual analysis’ to include the whole supply chain of data.

“We will eventually see visualizations in unified hubs that show us more data, including asset management, catalogs, and portals, as well as visual self-service data preparation,” according to Sommer. “Further, visualizations will become a more common means of communicating insights. The result of this is that more users will have a deeper understanding of the data supply chain, and the use of visual analysis will increase.”

What does it all mean?

“These trend predictions lay the foundation for increased levels of information activism and widespread data literacy,” Sommer says. “Emerging platforms and technologies will support users in their analytics journeys, enabling them to use data for their personal and professional needs. We’ve been ushered into an era where data literacy will reach more people, connecting data with people and their ideas—putting us on the path toward a more enlightened, information-driven, and fact-based era.” Source