Datamology Defined

The Roots of Datamology
I apologize for the mix of Latin and Greek, but it is in the spirit of these learned traditions that I use the term datamology to describe the study of information. The Greek word logos, which is the root of the English word logic, means study. The Latin word datum, which is the root of the English word data, at least in its most common usage, means information.

Literally, however, datum means gift or present. I think of datamology as a methodology for the systematic and careful acquisition of these gifts. This is the critical activity between the collection of data and the publication of results based on that data.

Knowledge Acquisition
The gifts which are acquired through datamology are knowledge. It is this knowledge that can then be shared with others directly or published in a more general manner.

There is an interesting rhetorical debate as to whether knowledge is discovered or made. The computing industry, perhaps reflecting a common perspective of the scientific community, tends to talk of knowledge discovery. Others, especially in academia, tend to speak of knowledge making. I choose not to take sides in this debate and officially use the more non-committal perspective that knowledge is simply acquired. However, for consistency with the industry and to play long with the exploratory analogy, I occassionally speak of discovery … the goal of any exploration.

So, in the end, I believe that it is in the true study (analysis) of information (data) that one acquires knowledge.

A Datamologist My target audience, therefore, is comprised of those people who are serious about the analysis of their data. I think of such a person as a datamologist, though you might use the term researcher or data analyst. This person is one for whom answers are not immediately obvious or available, but is willing to take the time to analyze the data to obtain those answers. This is a person who has expertise in a particular field of study (though not in computing or mathematics) and undertakes data analysis to acquire knowledge.

VisiCube
My first software offering through The Datamology Company was VisiCube, a tool to assist the datamologist in the activity of data analysis. Specifically, it is a tool with which you can explore your data universe to find pertinent parts of that universe and build accurate and intuitive visual models to represent those parts. By doing so, VisiCube assists you in analyzing the phenomena represented by that data.

VisiCube is no longer supported: Please visit Antaeus for a more advanced version of the same product!