Data Sharing – A Recipe for Success

We humans have always shared data. Even early on, when a caveman’s communication of data consisted of grunts, screeches and finger pointing to let his buddy know that a Wooly Mammoth was sneaking up from behind, sharing important facts has been integral to our existence. Maybe the technology that has developed around data sharing over the centuries makes it seem complex. At the end of the day, it’s just computer applications doing what we’ve always done.

Sometimes, data sharing is informal and off the cuff like power-ranking sports teams by weighing opinions about players and speculating on future performance. On the other end of the spectrum, lab technicians use extreme precision when recording an experiment. The temperature in the lab, duration of experiment, and demographics of participants are a tiny sample of details that might be important in a scientific outcome.

For an everyday example of data sharing, we need look no further than a recipe. Passing recipes probably started with the cave-people. For instance, Cave-person Chris may have carved a recipe in stone for Cave-person Jo, and recipe sharing became a thing. Fast forward through the evolution of paper, ink and the smart phone and we’ve been sharing recipe data, ingredients, cook-times, etc. for centuries. Only the formats have changed.

WHY DATA SHARING IS IMPORTANT

In the beginning of the computer application, the focus was automating specific processes to reduce human error and complete tasks faster. Up until the nineties, people entered data into computers, and computers spit data back out to people. Results could be printed, shared and examined, and it was good.

It was so good, in fact, that the number of computer applications exploded, serving every function under the sun. They supported drawing, designing, writing, organizing, selling, buying, accounting, delivering – you name it.  Today, most large organizations wake up to find they have literally hundreds of computer applications,.

Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.

– Dalai Lama XIV

This is where data sharing gets super important. Processes have multiple steps. For instance, when making cookies, you mix together eggs and sugar, before you add the flour. Processes themselves daisy-chain together into a string to accomplish an overall goal. Again, you purchase the ingredients for the cookies before you make them, and you need to make them before you serve them to your book club.

Herein lies the rub. When talking about data and computers, some processes happen in a single application. However, most often they span two or more separate applications. Data doesn’t live in a box. Data generated by one application becomes the food for other applications. Not all data is shared at the same rates, and the amount that data is shared will often reflect its importance. The more data is shared between processes, the more powerful it becomes.

In those early days, while each computer application carried out distinct processes and spit out data, it still fell to people to enter those outputs into the next application. This wasn’t a great solution, and as the number of computer applications grew, it became clear that the applications needed to be able to share data on their own.

NOT THAT LONG AGO

Let’s look at a real-world example of data sharing.

In 2018, I bought lunch for a large meeting I was leading. I called in an order for several pizzas, ordering a mix of vegetarian options and meat options. Because we are in Oregon, I ordered a gluten-free pizza as well.

When it was all said and done, the whole lunch with non-alcoholic beverages and cookies came to $253 which I paid for with my company credit card. When the order arrived, it came with an itemized receipt printed from the restaurant’s system. I put that receipt in a safe place because it was required for me to get reimbursed.

The following Tuesday, I did my expense report which was due the next day. The process was such a hassle that I always avoided it until the last minute. I entered the data about my pizza purchase into an expense reporting application. I then taped the physical receipt, along with the other receipts for that month onto an 8×10 piece of paper.

The next step was to inter-office mail the taped receipts to the accounting department. As usual, there were no inter-office envelopes available in the mail area. So, I walked to the mailroom in a different building, and got a handful of envelopes, the rest of which to stash in my desk drawer as a future safeguard.

After about a half-hour of effort, I mailed the receipts and submitted the expense report.

THE OPPORTUNITY

In this example, when I purchased the pizza, the restaurant sent the itemized data to the bank that manages the company’s credit cards. This alone is an example of how data sharing has advanced. I mean, in the distant past, that credit card would have been physically imprinted on paper and mailed to the bank for processing. Now, the restaurant system captured the data electronically and communicated the entire transaction directly to the bank’s system.

Data sharing happens when one computer application systematically provides its data to another computer application. The technical term for this is “integration.”

THE BENEFIT

The data sharing between the restaurant and the bank streamlined the process of purchasing the pizza. But now, another link in the daisy-chain has been created.  

The bank now passes the detailed data it received from the restaurant directly to the expense reporting application as a digital receipt. The physical receipt is no longer required. The company and I save on paper, tape and most of all time and sanity.

When the expense reporting software manufacturer made it possible for the transactions on my company credit card to be shared and sucked directly into my expense report, it was a game changer.

It now takes seconds to finish my expense report instead of half an hour. Considering that I do my expense report monthly and that I am one of many employees in the same boat, the increase in productivity is substantial.

DATA SHARING – CONCLUSION

This is the power of sharing data. Data doesn’t live in a box in the real world and it can’t live in a box where systems are concerned either. Look at the things you do, the applications you use. How do your processes and applications weave together and share data? The progress of data sharing is moving fast, allowing you to do everything from deposit a check with your phone, stream live video to your television and even remotely preheat your oven.  

This is the digital world. Data sharing is advancing rapidly. What could possibly go wrong? That will have to wait for another post!