Data Archaeologist

Imagine, if you will...

You're alone in the middle of a desert. Sand as far as the eye can see.

Off in the distance you spot a pyramid. Shrugging off the heat and your thirst, you make your way to the base of the pyramid.

You notice a small crack in one of the enormous stone blocks. You step closer and begin to examine the crack. As you brush off some of the sand, pieces begin to fall away from around it, revealing a tunnel just large enough for you to fit through it. You take a deep breath and wriggle yourself in.

A few feet beyond this small opening, you see the passage becomes taller and wider. It's a tunnel. You make your way to this tunnel, stand up, take a look around. To your right darkness. To your left a faint flicker of light. Left it is. You had toward the light.

Along the way you pass a large dusty sarcophagus, every few feet a slew of skeletons line the ancient walls, huge spiders crawl around their carefully woven, up-until-now-undisturbed, cobwebs. The flickering light grows brighter. 

You reach the source of the flicker. It's a flaming torch. Who lit it? How long has it been lit? You take one final step and reach for the torch. You lift it off its base. You wave it around you. From the darkness a brilliant chamber comes into focus. It is filled with mounds of gold coins, ancient artifacts, sparkling jewels, and other timeworn treasure.

You've become an accidental archaeologist.

Our work as nonprofit data administrators, managers, and directors is often like the work of archaeologists.

We become organizational archaeologists digging through the past to uncover treasure that has been locked away in our database for centuries, covered with dirt, dust, and debris with critters crawling in and around it. We blow off the dust, shine it up, present it to the world, and move our mission forward with new discoveries under our belt.

And just like an archaeologist...

• You have to dig.
• You must explore.
• You have to practice patience as you brush away years of ick to get to the good stuff.
• You have to live in a state of creative curiosity.
• You have to follow your intuition - gut reaction- to come to initial assumptions that eventually lead to your final findings.

It's good work. Keep digging.