This morning I received an early call from a friend who had seen me post an update to foursquare at 6.20am and thought I was waiting for a train. We got to talking about how it is easy to misinterpret things in these days of the 140 character status update and it got me thinking about data. Those of you who know me, know my mantra about the need for good quality data. Anyway, Matt’s retort was that data without intelligent analysis was meaningless and I have to agree. So this week’s focus is on companies and people who have generated a platform for intelligent interpretation of information to good effect.
Enjoy. Oh yes, and good luck to England for Sunday.
Google has been pretty active of late. First came the announcement that Google Voice has shifted from Beta to freely available. Then came the news that the Google Street View team are now sending photographers out to capture the inside of business premises for Google Places. With the ever increasing mix of acquisitions, this means that on pretty much a live basis, Google now has the to identify who you are (from a combination of search and facial recognition), where you are (from Google Maps, Street View, geo-tagging) and intelligently guestimate what you are doing (looking at status updates from Facebook, LinkedIn and sites like foursquare). That a hell of a lot of information for one company to hold… (and powerful for our clients if they know how to use it).
I came across this site a couple of weeks ago: Mixergy is a social networking site for Entrepreneurs. It seems to be a philanthropic counterweight to Venture Capitalism, which is an interesting notion. I have nothing against the notion of VC-funded firms, simply that the goals of a VC firm and those of entrepreneurial management tend to be very different. I’ve worked with some entrepreneurs before and they can be a tough bunch to work with – passionate (zealous even), determined and in many cases highly destructive. Most entrepreneurs will have gone bankrupt more than once in their life… and they tend to drag other people with them . However, their zeal can be incredibly infectious and I think that people like to work somewhere where the owner is truly passionate about the ideal. And as they quite poetically state, the world isn’t changed by people who have an eye on the exit.
A few years ago, I left my bag on a tube train. It was one of those dozy daydreaming moments when you walk out of the carriage, realise you’ve left your bag inside, sprint back only for the doors to glide firmly shut in your face. Anyway, I was concerned about the tube network being shut down (it was pretty soon after the July bombings and it WAS a dubious-looking rucksack) and dutifully reported my error to the tube station manager. Unconcerned, he simply accessed a section on the TFL Intranet which showed exactly where my train was and then called the driver in the relevant train to let him know what had happened. I pointed out that having such information (specifically live data of exactly where tube trains were at any point in time) readily available would be fantastic. We then had a chat about terrorism and why the management at TFL were worried about releasing such information. Anyway, I digress. Some smart Alec has now done exactly what I suggested back then – provided a live map of all tube trains running in London. OK. The interface is quite ugly but as tends to be the case with such things, the creators have provided the source code for all to see, so expect to see modifications on the horizon.
Finally, you can’t move anywhere without someone asking you about social media these days. Given the breadth of applications out there and the pace of both adoption and cast-off, it can be pretty tough keeping up with the game. Anyway, I came across this blog that is pretty useful, outlining what you need to know in easily digestible chunks.