Working closely with semantic web technologies every day, a common refrain we hear is “Talk to your data”. Talk TO your data? Kind of like talking to a wall, then? Talking to your data, much like talking to a wall, undoubtedly reflects a desperate and frustrating attempt that, unless data talks back, is ultimately futile. Hopefully, your data won’t just talk back, but sing!
For a discipline whose fundamental building tools are (programming) languages, we, software engineers and statisticians, are notoriously bad at putting metaphors to work - if for nothing else, then to tell better stories with and about (not TO) our products.