Putting a Dollar Value on a Database

Data has value. I would put $5 on the bet that 20% of speakers at EDW will utter the phrase, "Data is a corporate asset." But if accountants can put a dollar value on "goodwill" and "future tax savings," why is it we have no value on databases?

What is the right way to measure the value of a thing if it replicates faster than a rabbit? How can we value it when we won't sell it? Is there a practicality to measures?

A formula is proposed, but the details are available at http://www.google.com/patents/US20130151423, so the focus will be on the reason to reach for this valuation.

Bob Schmidt is a Data Steward, Business Systems Consultant at a HUGE bank, the author of "Data Modeling for Information Professionals" (Prentice Hall, 1997), as well as numerous other articles, the inventor of “a method for valuing data” (US patent:20130151423), an occasional speaker at various national and international conferences including DAMA since 1997, and the National winner of Oracle Developers and Users Group best speaker and separately best paper.

Bob has labored for decades in an industry that has spawned thousands of millionaires, and yet he remains not too big to fail. His experience spans everything from Life Sciences to the mortuary industry, the Extractive sector to debt collection, and Michelin man to the Minute Maid can. He has been everywhere, man.