With respect to data, there seem to be a few types of companies:
- Those that do fairly little with the value of their data. I've consulted for quite a few.
- Those that maximize the value of their data, often controversially. Facebook and Google are squarely in this group.
- Those that maximize the value of their data behind the scenes. Axciom is perhaps the prime example.
Of course, these are generalizations. Many companies fall somewhere in between. As the data deluge continues, we're beginning to see new types of business-model experimentation emerging, particularly with directly monetizing data. As the Chinese say, in crisis there is opportunity.
This is why I found the recent Propublica announcement so interesting. It has launched a Data Store, much like Apple's AppStore. (Like Angry Birds, maybe you'll be able to buy Angry Data one day?) The main difference: you can buy data, not apps. From the site:
In the Data Store, you'll find a growing collection of the data we've used in our reporting. For raw, as-is datasets we receive from government sources, you'll find a free download link that simply requires you agree to a simplified version of our Terms of Use. For datasets that are available as downloads from government websites, we've simply linked to the sites to ensure you can quickly get the most up-to-date data.
Like the AppStore, anyone can freely access much of Propublica's data. For some datasets, though, you'll have to pay. This is the freemium model at work.
I find this fascinating. We're seeing the emergence of data journalism right before our eyes. Ask Elon Musk about the NY Times. (See What the Tesla Affair Tells us About Data Journalism.) What's more, directly monetizing data may very well help journalists survive.
Simon says
If you're reading this, you probably don't work in the journalism business. I'm hard-pressed, though, to think of another industry hit as hard by the internet as print media. Perhaps your company or industry is not in crisis. Consider these questions:
- Why wait for that day to happen?
- Why not ask yourself if there are ways to ethically take advantage of your existing datasets?
- What new sources and types of data would benefit your users, customers and partners?
Feedback
What say you?
2 Comments
Phil,
I'd like to hear you develop your thoughts more completely, grouped by public and private entities – they have different fundamental needs.
In the case of Pro Publica creating a clearinghouse for links to government data, they're trying to keep our public officials honest – they want to expose data that, in theory at least, doesn't have the spin built in, that doesn't need much context in order to understand the outcomes.
In the case of private companies, there is little incentive to release their own data – why give your competitors information that will be used against them? That's not to say that you shouldn't do your own publicly available data mining – sentiment analysis could tell you a lot about your own business, and about your competitors as well.
My own opinion (and here's where I'd like to hear yours as well), is how to determine a cost/benefit analysis on sentiment analysis? Wouldn't your resources be better spent sending follow-up questionnaires to your customers, to help better understand their needs and emotions? It's hard to justify a Big Data project for the former if you're not doing the latter.
CH
Well, I will say this. Companies like Twitter allow others to access their information via API. While this may not be confidential information, other companies like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck have extended twitters core offering. No doubt that at least some of Twitter's lofty valuation stems from the fact that other companies are doing interesting things with this data.