In a recent PC World article analyzing the potential effects of Google Chrome OS, Keir Thomas states:
Money isn't the currency of the Internet. Data is. Micropayments aren't made in cents or pennies, but in details about your shopping habits, or where you plan to go on vacation.Content and information are no longer scarce, and therefore have little value. Scarcity now exists in the data produced by users in the form of demographics, geo-location and personal interests, all of which are time-sensitive.
Collecting and analyzing this data will provide value to businesses who wish to provide services at the right time in the right place.
A quick example: You need to leave work at 5 pm, but have a meeting at another location at 6 pm. Where can you get a quick yet nutritious dinner between the two without being late? What routes have both a meal and light traffic? Oh, and you're a vegetarian. Your apartment is on the way to the next appointment, do have have some leftovers in the fridge?
This example may seem trivial but play the idea out across multiple situations and time-frames. To anyone who understands the nature of data and the potentials inherit in it's analysis, the possibilities are endless.
The hurdle is our culture. Few are willing to provide enough detail about their personal lives to allow data-oriented services to suggest such information. Or are they? "What are you doing?" asks Twitter. "What's on your mind?" asks Facebook.
Future generations, who will have grown up in a world where information scarcity no longer exists, will create a culture that strengthens the value of data analysis.
