The discussion was very interesting. I agree with the fundamental terminologies used (master data and metadata). I have learnt this already and propagate these ideas to my clients. Recently, as you rightly said, some vendors are come into the E&P domain and are confusing this with terminology such as ‘data mining,’ ‘data warehouse’ and ‘business intelligence.’
Olabode Ojoade, Schlumberger.
~
I
thought this was an interesting piece. What a shame we are here in 2008
and it is still required, but I see why, it is those horizontal vendors
messing up our already complicated vertical. Here are a few comments. I
find the term Master Data very misleading and I’m not sure
you have clarified here. You say ‘master data is what ties
different data stores together’ and is confused by
‘the fact that the concept came, not from E&P but
from the data warehouse community.’ I think we have an
opportunity to clarify and differentiate. We talk about
‘master tapes’ and remastering. Surely this term
means the accepted best copy. Therefore I suggest that raw data is the
data as the acquisition company captured it. Master data is the
accepted best version i.e. what the expert produced from the raw
version once it was corrected and quality controlled. Reference data is
the data that ties different stores together. Wells, licenses, seismic
surveys etc. should all have a standard accepted set of reference data
values. We can have strings of reference values, a well log referenced
to the ‘well name’—the well to the field,
field to license, license to country, country to division of company.
Meta Data—is data about data (ouch I got punched!) and should
contain the reference value if there is one. Master data management as
a discipline has to include the maintenance of both reference and
master data. I’d suggest it should also ensure each data type
has a ‘Data Definition’ which would define the
quality, naming, meta data, storage standards and security
classification. On a lighter note, I’m currently consulting
in Copenhagen—my Danish colleagues here have asked me to
point out that words such as obfuscation only adds to the obfuscation,
but you have no need to worry as they have not got pugilistic
tendencies!
David
Lecore, Schlumberger.
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