Introduction

Data is sometimes called the "new oil", a source of new-found wealth that is mined from the depths of corporate and government archives. Some accountants are so excited about the potential value of data that they account for it in the same way as a physical asset. While it is indeed true that data can increase the value of an organization, this resource has no intrinsic value. Just like oil, data needs to be mined and must be refined to the right quality. Data needs to be transported through information networks before it can be used to create new value. The value of data is not in the information itself but occurs during the transformations it undergoes.

The analogy between data and oil is only partially correct in that data is an infinite resource. The same data can be used many times for a sometimes originally unintended purpose. The ability to use data for more than one goal is one of the reasons data science has gained popularity around board tables....