On Ada Lovelace Day - Margaret Versteeg

Today is Ada Lovelace day, and over 1,500 people have signed up to blog about a women in IT who inspired them.

My inspiring woman is Margaret Versteeg, who was my mentor back when I started data modelling back in the early 1990s. Margaret taught me to think beyond the basic 'what data am I describing' level, and to think about how it would be used, and why, and also to give serious consideration to if it should be stored at all. She instilled a very firm belief that 'because we can' is NOT an acceptable reason for holding data, especially not about people. The report that came out yesterday about the appalling state of some of the UK Government databases illustrates why we must be careful (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7955205.stm). Margaret was a trained librarian (among many other skills), and taught me to order and store metadata with a view to someone getting it out again. (Very useful!)

Margaret also got me thinking about how data modelling and management is done, and why it works the way it does; this is the equivalent of a driver understanding what goes on 'under the bonnet', and has greatly enriched my work (and my enjoyment of that work).

So, on Ada Lovelace day, thank you, Margaret.