The optimistic belief that our data is the holy grail and is going to solve all our problems is a pipe dream. The singularity is not becoming real by technology itself, and data is not going to solve world hunger. To make any impact on the world, we need data, but most importantly we need people and seniority and experts to make sense of data and make sure the data is placed in the correct context. Data is always just what we or our computer wrote down on some paper or in some database. It gets written down for a certain purpose, in a context and with a very specific meaning. Do not expect miracles or nightmares when only considering this data and some technology.

With Fact Oriented Modeling, the model describes how knowledgeable people communicate about their data in natural language. This is in a way a humbling realization, there's no magical potion available that can accomplish that and take the effort out of our hands and heads. Making data unambiguously clear is just hard manual (or mental) labor. It is inconceivable for Hollywood to make a movie about that anytime soon, yet we have to realize that this is the reality of the life we live. Understanding each other can be difficult, as anyone explaining their job to an outsider will confirm. Understanding data and making everyone understand the data, is extremely difficult. With FCO-IM we hope to take away the 'science fiction'-like aspects of working with data by making it concrete.

 This license allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.

CC BY-NC-ND includes the following elements:

• BY – Credit must be given to the creator
• NC – Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted
• ND – No derivatives or adaptations of the work are permitted