Word of the Day (Month!) - Could technology be a "Gister?"

I'm reading another of Dan Brown's fast-paced and thought-provoking novels. (Brown wrote DaVinci Code, Angels & Demons) It's an earlier one, titled Deception Point, and it features a character whose job is my new favorite word, even though the word seems to be made up by the author.

The character (Rachel Sexton) is a "gister" or data summarizer for the National Reconnaissance Office. A "gister" reduces complex reports into single-page briefs. After reading a few Federal OIG audit reports for Research Universities, I'd like to have Ms. Sexton's help, as even the OIG's executive summaries need a little "gisting."

Perhaps a bit like an audit executive who presents the last three months of their audit staffs' activity into a briefing for the Audit Committee. Or the auditor who uses analyzes 100,000 expense reports and uses a query tools to identify how many comply or don't comply with a particular policy.

How are you and your team reviewing complex data to get to the gist of an issue? Are there any tools that you are you using? Why? Let us know...

Joe Oringel
Visual Risk IQ
Charlotte NC, USA