Is data the new oil?

It's a pithy statement, but is it accurate?

Introduction

A metaphor frequently bruited about is that data is the new oil. We are, the claim goes, sitting on vast oceans of a valuable resource—data—which we need to extract and refine. Having been extracted and refined, the metaphor continues, these oceans of data can be put to valuable use. Most recently, of course, that valuable use has been train…