The Professionalization of Data Science

There has been much discussion and debate about the definition of data science and the new rare breed of sexy bird called the data scientist. The Data Science Association defines "Data Science" as the scientific study of the creation, validation and transformation of data to create meaning; and the "Data Scientist" as a professional who uses scientific methods to liberate and create meaning from raw data. While these definitions may appear overbroad, think about the definitions of a lawyer or physician. A lawyer is a legal professional who can help prevent or solve legal issues and a physician is a health professional who can help prevent or cure health issues. Like the professionalization of law and medicine in the past hundred years, data science is at the very beginning of becoming a profession - with competency standards and a Data Science Code of Professional Conduct.