The media has done a real good job of jumping on data, data science, big data, Hadoop, Spark and all the rest of the words that associate themselves around the core word, “data”.

What I’m finding more and more is that we’re expected to accept what is presented to us as verified and right. Guess what, that might not be the case. Your TED talk, your piece in the Economist and so on is all very well but if you can’t publish your data, your model and your path to getting to the conclusion then why should I believe you?

For any article I’m looking for the evidence, a link that takes me back to the beginning of your thoughts and processes. What was your hypothesis? “We mined 55,000 variables….”, great! What are they, where can I see them? Can I give you some feedback?

As we pedal more data stories (let’s put infographics to one side, they tend to be rubbish most of the time anyway) and expect the masses to accept as truth what you’ve presented, I’ll be the outlier on the sides, shouting and poking a stick annoying at your side, “where’s your raw data and where’s the model you used?”, why? Because I’m interested and want to know, but I want to verify it for myself.

“Do not accept what you cannot verify for yourself……..”