Ellie Craven
Aug 9, 2017 · 1 min read

Thanks Mark Watson — this is a really good point, and a really complex problem, I think. We’ve had a lot of discussion in our team about this problem of ‘nullism’ — what does a user interpret a blank to mean, and does that differ with context? Is a blank always indicative of a zero value, or does it sometimes indicate an unpopulated field. It’s tricky for the reasons you mention, clarifying which of these types it is still means auditing historic data, one way or another, and is a problem you have to address each time you evolve your schema/add new data fields.

Data sharing is a whole different ballgame, particularly in health and care, but something that we’re also looking at through a separate product offering — I’m sure I’ll mention it here or on twitter from time to time, would love to hear your thoughts as I do!

    Ellie Craven

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    I should have been Hermione. Instead, product manager at National Lottery Heritage Fund. She/her.