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Social Media and the Fourth V of Big Data

“Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all.”

–Charles Babbage

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the difficulty in defining Big Data. In that way, it is like obscenity and porn. I stand by that position, although general consensus does exist around the three V’s of Big Data: volume, velocity, and variety. In short, more data from more sources are coming at us faster than ever. But is there a fourth V?

IBM and Oxford’s Said School of Business recently published the results of a global  Big Data survey of “more than 1,110 business and IT professionals in 95 countries.” Among its key findings, fewer than half of the organizations surveyed collect and analyze data from social media. I’m not shocked at that discovering. From personal experience, I’ve seen organizations use Websense and other filters on corporate networks to prevent employees from wasting time on “The Twitter” and Facebook. Of course, in a world of BYOD and smartphones, it’s an exercise in futility. If you want to tweet on company time, you’ll find a way.

Delving Deeper

So, why do so many organizations ignore such a potentially valuable data source? As Peter Cohan writes in the aforementioned Forbes‘ piece:

One reason is they don’t know how to manage data uncertainty that goes hand in hand with the fourth V in the IBM study, Veracity—information about “weather, the economy, or the sentiment and truthfulness of people expressed on social networks.”

In other words, because there’s so much noise around social media, organizations don’t attempt to find the signal. By this rationale, no data is better than mostly inaccurate data. Charles Babbage is rolling over in his grave.

Simon Says: Think Different

This line of thinking is hooey. Yes, most tweets, Facebook likes, Google +1′s, and other unstructured forms of data probably don’t mean that much to your organization, department, and team. None of that matters. Increasingly affordable Big Data solutions help organizations dial up that signal and reduce that noise. There’s a veritable gold mine out there, even if you have to sift through some dirt and sand to find it.

Moreover, traditional notions of data quality, master data, and data integrity are rooted in structured, transactional data. Every field in every record should be accurate and have meaning. With unstructured and semi-structured data, however, it’s time to think different. (This is especially true with data from social networks.) Sentiment–and degree of sentiment–are never going to be precise. Sufficiently large sample sizes and the law of large numbers obviate the need for precision.

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This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

NMHC Keynote: The Age of the Platform

In this 60-minute talk at NMHC in Dallas, TX, I discuss The Age of the Platform and the platform as a business model. I then take about 15 minutes worth of questions.

Keynote at Forum Innovación de Coparmex

On November 14 of this year, I’ll be speaking at the Forum Innovación de Coparmex in Mexico City, Mexico. I’ll be talking about innovation and The Age of the Platform. Janine Benyus will also be speaking at the event.

Vamos!

Data is Location-Agnostic

The cloud is all the rage these days–and not just for newfangled startups. Even mature enterprise vendors are on board. Case in point: Microsoft’s latest version of its flagship Office doesn’t require CDs and 20-digit registration codes. You just go online.

If that doesn’t signal a tectonic shift in technology, then I don’t know what does. Cloud computing is going mainstream. Deal with it.

Truth be told, many consumers are using cloud services and they probably don’t even know it. Netflix streaming services run off of Amazon Web Services (AWS). Google Drive, DropBox, and other non-Office productivity tools run off of “the cloud.”

So, just how big is the cloud? Gartner Research reports that:

Consumers spend over $2 trillion a year on content, devices, and services, and the emergence of personal clouds reflects their desire to access content on any device without complications or restrictions. Business leaders must meet consumers’ cloud expectations in order to win customers in 2012.

Of course, most of us never give architectural considerations like those much thought. And, in a way, that’s the point of the cloud and mobility. Consumers don’t want to have to go home to read or send an email, look at a spreadsheet, and the like. We just want things to be easy.

Data Doesn’t Care

Now many consumers are also employees–or prosumers. When we go to work, we switch hats. We worry less about watching movies and more about work–or at least we should. In either case, though, we’re using the cloud more and more.

Professionally speaking, don’t for a minute think that the cloud is some type of elixir. Internal politics, broken business practices, and data quality issues don’t magically go away just because you moved from an on-premise CRM application to Salesforce.com. In cases like this, you’re just making your existing data and application more accessible; you’re not fixing underlying issues that make your business suffer.

In other words, data is location-agnostic. It’s not purified when it moves to the cloud. There’s no omniscient filter that prevents mistakes just because it comes from an iPad or iPhone, not a traditional desktop or laptop.

Simon Says

The Consumerization of IT means that businesses have to meet customers, not the other way around. It’s not 1997 or even 2007. Organizations that fail to embrace new technologies like cloud computing can no longer expect customers to wait for them. (Hence, Microsoft’s move.)

Once you “arrive” at the cloud, though, expect the same problems, especially with your data.

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This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

Inc. Article #17: Facebook Still Knows How to Fail Fast

My 17th Inc. Magazine article is now live. Here it is.

You may not have noticed, but Facebook recently removed its home-grown attempt at a Pinterest-like feature. The company took Facebook Collections down from its site after just a few weeks of testing it. Meanwhile, TechCrunch reports that Facebook has only “paused” its test on Collections temporarily and may build it out in the future. In a formal statement Facebook explain, “for many of the product tests we do, we periodically pause the test to assess how to best progress with the product’s rollout.”

So, why is this noteworthy? A few reasons.

First, I’m not sure that Facebook even needs a Pinterest clone. (Must the site do everything?) Plus, it made a little deal a while back for Instagram that increased its mobile photo-sharing footprint, but forget that for a moment. More than 250 million photos are uploaded every day to the social network. It’s not like people don’t “use” Facebook for photo sharing.

Or maybe the move signals that Zuckerberg would rather just buy Pinterest outright? Marissa Mayer is starting to make acquisitions at Yahoo and I’ll bet you she’s seriously thought about it.

Ultimately, Facebook testing and then quickly pulling a new feature is noteworthy for another reason: Yes, it is a huge public company but Facebook is keeping its start-up DNA in tact. It still knows how to fail fast–and that’s something that any business can learn from.

It’s more important than ever for the company to move quickly. Zuck, of course, has to worry about things like his company’s mobile strategy and its stock price now.

But he also has to worry about spreading the company too thin, a huge danger for a company that needs to keep driving growth. Remember Yahoo’s Peanut Butter Manifesto? Even Google has had to grapple with the reality that it can’t tinker as much as it used to. The company recently suspended its famous 20% rule for engineers. No longer can all techies play around with whatever they like one day per week.

Google killed many projects like iGoogle and GoogleHealth when Larry Page took over as CEO nearly 18 months ago. The reason: Experimentation is great, but focus isn’t too bad either. The key in the Age of the Platform is to strike a healthy balance between the two.

Simon Says

So, what happens when a product doesn’t gain any traction? How do you know when to pull the plug? It’s a question that I’ve been asked more than once after my talks. There’s no formula to it. If, after a year, you’re getting no traction, it might be time to reevaluate. But after a couple weeks? Depends on the nature of your business.

Think about your current financial and human resources, as well as your other priorities. If a side project or another plank in your platform is worth pursuing, go for it. If the risks and costs don’t match up to the benefits, it’s probably time to retire a project for now, no matter how interesting.

Click here to read the article on Inc.

 

 

 

Big Serves and Big Data

Readers of my blog know that I’m a technology buff. After all, it’s big part of how I keep the lights on. Lesser known, though, is that I fancy myself a respectable tennis player and a pretty big fan of the sport. Each September, I spend a decent amount of time watching the US Open.

Well, at this year’s Open, IBM unveiled an exciting new SlamTracker feature. The Keys to the Match tool:

provides insight into what each player needs to do in order to have a higher likelihood of winning. We analyzed 39 million data points covering Grand Slam matches over the past seven years to provide analytic assessments of players and what they need to do to succeed.

Based on head-to-head games in the past, the system filters and ranks the top three keys to the match for each player. Examples might be the need for an individual player to return a certain percentage of second serves in order to win or whether longer points favor one opponent over the other. Take a look at the keys before the match, then follow a player’s performance against them as the sets progress. You’ll see in real time that they keys are a great predictor of success.

For more on the tool, check out this short YouTube video:

Now, the USTA no doubt worked with IBM on developing SlamTracker and some of its bells and whistles. And tennis is hardly the only sport to benefit from Big Data. I watch quite a bit of golf and some of the statistics tracked these days will make your head spin. (Spoiler: it’s about far more than “greens in reg”, putts per round, and average score.)

Endless Possibilities

The main point here is that Big Data means big possibilities for organizations of all sizes–and this hasn’t always the case. I remember 15 years ago, only the very biggest of companies could afford state-of-the-art technology to even attempt to analyze comparatively tiny data sets.

Not anymore.

The rise of open source software, cloud computing, and other emerging technologies mean that mid-sized organizations can do far more with far fewer human and financial resources. Sure, a few folks get to analyze the business impact of golf swings and tennis serves and call it work. But what about discovering nascent sales trends? Identifying production problems? Determining which departments are on track to exceed their budgets?

Simon Says

Big Data represents a big opportunity for tennis players and mid-sized organizations alike. If Big Data helps Rafael Nadal understand that he’s better off serving to Novak Djokovich’s forehand in the ad court, imagine what embracing Big Data can do for your organization.

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This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

WP Engine Interview on The Age of the Platform

I recently sat down with WPEngine co-founder Ben Metcalfe to talk about The Age of the Platform, WordPress, and a host of other topics. It goes for about 16 minutes.

Inc. Article #16: The Case for a Videographer

My 16th Inc. Magazine article is now live. Here it is.

Speaking at conferences is an excellent way for authors and entrepreneurs to share their expertise, and in the process, brand themselves as experts. I try to do it whenever I can.

Go to any conference website and more often than not you’ll see a “call for submissions.” To be sure, it’s incredibly difficult to speak at events like SXSW. You need to have a track record of speaking engagements, for one. But, just as important, you need evidence of those engagements when conference organizers try to research you online. In short, you need to get yourself on video, but far too few speakers take the step of posting professional-quality videos of themselves on their websites.

In December 2011, I gave the keynote speech in Manhattan at a media conference on my then-new book, The Age of the Platform. The Sunday night before the talk, I had a quick call with the conference organizer and discovered that he had no plans to record the talk. I had assumed that this was a given and was more than a little disappointed that my talk wouldn’t live forever on the Internet. What to do?

First, I asked the conference organizer if I could bring my own videographer. It’s always better to ask for permission, not forgiveness. Once I received the go-ahead, I turned to Craigslist.

God bless that site. I quickly searched for a professional videographer and found one by the name of Alvin whose ad and rate interested me. After viewing some of his work and negotiating a price of $300, I sent him half via PayPal to attend the event and bring his equipment. At the risk of being immodest, the result was excellent. In fact, this was the best money that I spent in 2011. My speaker bureau features that video on my speaker page and some of my most recent engagements were finalized after decision-makers saw that specific video.

The result was probably better than I would have gotten had the conference itself recorded the event. During the talk, Alvin smartly moved the camera in and out, capturing audience reactions at key points during my presentation. In other words, he did not record a passive video in which the camera remained inert. I typically walk around quite a bit on stage, and I like to think that my motion generates energy–all of which the camera picked up. A few days after the talk, Alvin put the video in a DropBox folder and I paid him the rest of his invoice. After a few clicks, I uploaded the video–and the talk was available for the entire world to see.

Simon Says

If possible, see if the videographer(s) can use A&B cameras. Sure, if you’re paying out of pocket, this will add to your total cost and you can spend a small fortune on video editing. Still, you’ll notice a marked difference in quality and, more important, so will others who view the video. Worst case scenario: Use the video recording software on your computer to record yourself. A mediocre video is better than no video, although I’d argue that no video trumps a truly bad video.

Bottom line: a professional video can pay off in spades.

Click here to read the article on Inc.

 

 

 

OCLC Keynote #3: The Age of the Platform

In this 45-minute talk at OCLC in Columbus, OH, I discuss The Age of the Platform and the platform as a business model. I then take about 15 minutes worth of questions.

Review: Sounds That Can’t Be Made by Marillion

Originally published on Huffington Post.

The English band Marillion just keeps plugging along. Guitarist Steve Rothery, keyboardist Mark Kelly, bassist Pete Trewavas, drummer Ian Mosley, and vocalist and jack of all trades Steve Hogarth are back with their seventeenth studio album, Sounds That Can’t Be Made, the subject of which I discussed with Hogarth on this site a few weeks ago. (To watch the entire video interview, click here.)

Sounds was finished at Real World Studios, and Kelly has remarked that working there let the band regroup and gave them a fresh perspective. The eight-song album debuted at number 43 on the British album chart.

I’ve listened to the album about 20 times now and here’s my review. In short, fans will not be disappointed. Sounds is a melodic and challenging album worth seeking out, the band’s most complete effort since 2004′s Marbles.

The first track, “Gaza”, is a layered and ambitious 17-minute song with many stops and starts. The subject is equally ambitious: in the Middle East. It’s no surprise that the song has engendered quite a bit of controversy. In expectation of this maelstrom, the band included an explanation of the song’s intent next to the lyrics. Rothery has called “Gaza” the most important track the band has ever written. In Hogarth’s words, “Temporary for over 50 years now, Gaza is today, effectively, a city imprisoned without trial.”

The haunting title track, “Sounds That Can’t Be Made” features one of the album’s high points: Rothery’s emotive guitar solo. It sends chills down my spine. “Pour My Love” is originally based upon based a John Helmer lyric from the band’s Holidays in Eden era. The song has a classic Marillion feel, espeically with Rothery’s rhythm guitar.

“Power” begins with a grooving bass lines by Trewavas and has really grown on me. The lyrics to the slow, epic, and powerful “Montreal” come right out of Hogarth’s diary. “Invisible Ink” offers some beautiful introductory chords by Kelly before morphing into a more of a traditional rock-and-roll song. The simple lyrics of “Lucky Man” underlie incredibly moving music. (The song is my personal favorite of this album.) Musically, it evokes images of “The Last Century for Man” from the band’s 2007 album Somewhere Else.

“The Sky Above The Rain” again features melodic chords and notes by Kelly. In the song, Hogarth tells the personal story of a complex relationship with an ultimate message of hope.

At a high level, there’s plenty in Sounds to keep traditional Marillion fans happy. At the same time, though, lyrically and musically the band continues to evolve.

Rating: 5/5 stars.