Happy Birthday DoBlog

The DoBlog is 3 years old today. For 3 years I’ve been sharing my thoughts on topics information qualitarian and other things with a captive audience (I locked a few neighbours in the shed with an old PC and a packet of biscuits). I’ve also managed to attract a reasonable ‘free range’ following.

 

 

In that time I’ve won an “attaboy” award from my peers in the Irish blogging community (but never an official Irish Blog Awards nomination… not even a mention in dispatches. Woe is me)

The DoBlog would not be what it is today without the help and support of a number of people:

• Mrs DoBlog. For putting up with me sneaking downstairs in the dead of night when an idea hits me.
• Simon and Fergal over on Tuppenceworth.ie for giving me encouragement to carve out my niche in this space, and for being quick to point out errors or opportunities to improve. And also for the Obsessive Blogger award.
• My colleagues on the Board of Directors of the IAIDQ, for their encouragement and their insights into good stories.
• My colleagues in the Irish Computer Society (ICS)
• Damien Mulley for creating the wonderful motiviator for self-expression that is the Fluffy Link  (an honour I still crave… c’mon Damien… give us a nod…please? Validate me!)
• The Irish Ministers for the Environment since 2006 (Dick Roche TD and John Gormley TD), for the original and on-going issues in the Irish Electoral Register (which got me my award)
• The Irish Ministers for Communications since 2006 (Noel Dempsey TD and Eamon Ryan TD) for the continued failure to implement a post code system in Ireland. 
• My fellow Information Quality Bloggers – of whom there were very few in 2006 but now there is a growing community. (yes, I’m sure I’ve missed some of you out… ping me a mail or a comment to get added to my list here)
  • Jim Harris (ocdqblog.com)
  • Steve Tuck (datanomic’s DQView)
  • Beth Briedenbach (DataGeekGal)
  • Steve Sarsfield (Data Governance and Data Quality Insider)
  • Vincent McBurney (Tooling Around in the IBM InfoSphere)
  • Jill Dyché (JillDyche.com)

Thanks also to everyone who has commented (either on the blog or over beers at a conference), contributed, cajoled or prodded me into writing about information quality issues. I’d particularly like to thank Tom Redman, Larry English, Danette McGilvray, Lwanga Yonke, and my IAIDQ editor-in-chief who prefers to stay in the background but has helped me hone my writing immensely.

Finally, I’d like to thank all the people who create, process or consume information in their day to day existence, and in particular I’d like to thank everyone (me included) who has had a hand in creating some IQ trainwrecks that may have inspired posts here.

If I’ve forgotten anyone… there’s always next year. 

And, to cap things off… here’s a look back at the very first post on The DoBlog on the 18th April 2006.