Humpty Dumpty Words with Tweedledee Logic

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone," it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master — that's all."

"Contrariwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic." — Alice through the Looking Glass, Louis Carroll

Many times when I review product data, I can't avoid the impression that the product descriptions were written by Humpty Dumpty following Tweedledee logic. So, “which is to be master?” That’s the challenge of product data quality.

Data Quality, Fairy Tales, Dragons and Knights

"At this moment her thoughts were interrupted by a loud shouting of `Ahoy! Ahoy! Check! and a Knight dressed in crimson armour, came galloping down upon her, brandishing a great club. Just as he reached her, the horse stopped suddenly: `You're my prisoner!' the Knight cried, as he tumbled off his horse." - Alice through the Looking Glass, Louis Carroll


A recent post on the Data Governance blog mentioned this entertaining and thoughtful video about a dragon named Data Quality — indeed an innovative way to spread the data quality message. It’s a nice fairy tale with knights, dragons and all that stuff, and there’s even a moral to the story.

But in this fairy-tale, it took a costly knight with a bag full of tricks — and a really long time — before he succeeded in controlling the dragon. But it’s still a fairy tale. The problem is that in real life, there are many such knights, complete with shiny bags and glossy appearance, who all promise to conquer the dragon with almost no effort. Well, real life is no fairy tale. It takes more than a lone knight, no matter how shiny he looks, to conquer the problem. It takes powerful technology and experienced fighters to get control (and keep control) over the Data Quality dragon. No magic, no knights, no shortcuts.