Data ghettos....

Some random rambling thoughts...

Fellow Floridian Matt Waite has coined a new term: "Data ghetto."

"The Data Ghetto is that one mishmash page where all of that site’s databases are lumped together."

I think Matt hits on some great points here. I've gotten that feeling that most of the industry is just plain confused. Sometimes it seems like we want stuff online just for the sake of having stuff online, but we don't have a clear mission.

Chalk it up to the tumultuous time in our industry, I suppose. But the confusion can't last long. Or we're in trouble.

At the same time, I am a bit of a fan of the data ghetto for some reasons, a lot of it having to do with public service. I think we should take advantage of the ability to bring the power of public records to our readers --- and add some transparency to what we do.

"That said, here’s how we can get out of the data ghetto: add some journalism to it."

I agree. And I think a lot of us are trying to figure out how to do it.

Like one of Matt's readers points out, a lot of this is version 1.0. Hopefully we keep going to version 2.0 and beyond.