As coder is for code, X is for data

February 11, 2011 in Ideas and musings

For code we have the term coder, as in, “he’s a great coder”, but what do we use when talking about data? datanaut, datar, data wrangler, data hacker, data geek …?

Suggestions (and votes) please in a comment or tweet! (@okfn or @rufuspollock)

Would also be nice to have equivalents for the many variations that code has: hacker, geek, codesmith, programmer …

Update: 14h in …

So far have the following list. Many of these are 2 word versions of form data + ‘something’. I personally have a preference for just one word (as in coder versus software developer …).

Single words (generally newly coined!):

datasmith (x5)
datamancer (x2)
datar
datanaut
semanengineer (@rupertredington)
datacist (@jluismarin)
datonator (!) @leogaggl)
datumologist

Two words

data wrangler (x3)
data geek (x2)
data nerds (Hjalmar)
data cruncher (Conrad)
data juggler (Conrad – job description!)
data artist (@psychemedia)
data mechanic (@exmosis)
data engineer (@Laura_B_James)
data scientist
data prospector (Francis Irving)
data researcher (may be a bit different)
data ninja (Ted Smith)
data investigator
data shepherd (Eric Hellman)
data analyst
spreadsheet monkey

Other (existing general word but possibly applicable here):

curator
statistician
learner (Benny Daon)
donor

Clear Climate Code, and Data The following guest post is by David Jones who is, among other things, a curator of the climate data group on CKAN (the OKF’s open source registry of open data) and co-founder of Clear Climate Code (which we blogged about...
Clearer Climate Code GISTEMP is a crucial open data set, because it contains the historical global temperature record. Not very important right now, but in the medium term absolutely vital for the continuing functioning of our society given the likelihood of adverse climate...
Code Open Shakespeare is distributed as a python package. At present there are several ways to get it: Use easy_install Download it from subversion. See ‘Getting the Source’ below. Using easy_install easy_install is an automated package manager for python packages. Install...

← Open Bibliographic Data Challenge

DataMarket.com Launches with 100 Million Open Data Time Series – remains firmly commited to open data →

21 responses to As coder is for code, X is for data

Conrad said on February 11, 2011

Thought the generally accepted lingo was cruncher, ala data cruncher?

Although my job was advertised as a data juggler.
Hjalmar Gislason, founder and CEO DataMarket said on February 11, 2011

At DataMarket, we call ourselves “Data Nerds”.

Even had some shirts made with the slogan “Big Data Nerd”, see: http://twitpic.com/3yp3fm
Chris Wallace said on February 11, 2011

I like datasmith – partly because it would work well as a surname, should we want a new round of occupation-based names , mostly because it invokes a sense of forging useful things out of intransigent raw material
Ted Smith said on February 12, 2011

We have used the term Data Ninja
Francis Irving said on February 12, 2011

We’ve been toying with “data prospector”.

I’d love a more common word for this!
Lisa Evans said on February 13, 2011

My job was advertised as ‘data researcher’ but I like to be an ‘investigator’.
Hans Overbeek said on February 13, 2011

A coder gives code, like a donor (Latin for giver) gives data (Latin for given). Therefore X = donor. @HoverBee
Ady Coles said on February 14, 2011

I think the term ‘curator’ captures the requirement well. A curator is literally someone who cares, and the push for Open Data requires people who care about the data – its quality, veracity, timeliness.

There is also a need for wranglers and statisticians – those who take the data and make it make sense to the greater public – but the data needs to be curated.
Eric Hellman said on February 14, 2011

The only one of these I’ve actually heard used is “data wrangler” which has the virtue of being accurate. I sort of like “data shepherd” as well.
Dan Smith said on February 14, 2011

I think Datasmith is the one – will be using it as my new surname.

I can only really add Dataphile. This is a good question for the Quora community to have a stab at.
Benny Daon said on February 14, 2011

We need this role definition, but I think it has to be a bit broader – we need to find a word to describe someone who enriches DIKW – data, information, knowledge and wisdom.

My word would be learner and a great learner is someone who artfully enriches a given DIKW.
SubtleBlade said on February 15, 2011

This would not be popular, but surely it’s ‘clerk’?
Acme said on February 16, 2011

Datumologist
Alex Skene said on February 17, 2011

In one of my old jobs, officially I was a “data analyst”, or more colloquially as “spreadsheet monkey”…
Campbell said on February 18, 2011

What about byte tuner
Angelica Peralta said on February 21, 2011

I propose term datasolver and datadelver (as in excellent @michelleminkoff series) and love DATA scientist as a concept for high end BIG DATA crunchies
Marcus Dapp said on February 25, 2011

Coder -> Dater Hacker -> Miner
freeswitch guy said on February 26, 2011

I like data miner, or byte master?
Keith McDonald said on February 9, 2012

Have to enter this albeit a year late – with such a great conceptual brain storm having gone on – I’m going to talk about this on our blog space (which wasn’t around last year). The “Data Journalist” is the new news gatherer and we’re finding them in media everywhere. I guess in a company, a “Data-ite” might work or “Data-vangelist”or even “Dater” (as opposed to your “Datar”). That works especially well with your analogy of code … coder … data … dater ….
ethang said on February 10, 2012

How about datician?
Jonhnny Weslley said on February 22, 2012

+1 datar. shorter and simpler is better!