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Jul 31, 2005
"People don't change. They may add faces & characters to their repetoir over time, but the root for their motivation to act remains the same."
"We are who we are. We may express who we are in different ways at different times, but at every time we are who we are."
Those two quotes I came up with today are the same thing, I just haven't figured out which I like better.
"The Information Age" - A misnomer... for today.
I've been talking about this concept for a few months now with friends and colleagues of mine. Referring to today's "age" the "Information Age" is a misnomer. As far as I'm concerned, "information age" implies the proactive use of information. It implies that we are using information in ways not known to people prior to the "information age."
We have not yet ascended from the "Information Gathering Age." We are still gathering tons of information, more than we ever have before, faster than we ever have before, but we haven't figured out how to make this information useful. Information is spread out more easily - for example those of you who are reading this blog are reading it as a result of the advent of the Internet. But I'm sure you didn't find this blog easily.
As Google develops their technology such as Google Desktop, their search engines, their language tools, etc... (you can find all this and more, at Google Labs), and Amazon tries to figure out how to use all the information they gather about their customers (every time you visit the site they are watching every move you make - in the hope of knowing what you want to buy before you do). Even CRM companies like Salesforce.com, Peoplesoft, et. al. are all trying to help companies figure out how know more about their customers... Autonomy is even trying to have computers figure out what's on a piece of videotape, without having a person look at it. By feeding the computer with lots of data, it should be able to pick apart what's on the video. Peoplesoft writes: "Customer Behavior Modeling integrates enterprise-wide customer data with behavioral metrics and demographic information from third-party providers. With this data, you can define and select populations of customers, use data mining to build predictive models, and score your customers based on relevant criteria."
While some of these companies (and others) are trying really hard to make sense of all of information we are gathering, we have no wide-scale use of the information we are using - that is any different from what we've done before.
Yes, we can compile and analyze data faster. We have more data available, it is cleaner, and it is more readily accessible. But we still haven't put the data to work. At the same time, there are still black holes for information. For example, in the medical industry. It boggles my mind that there isn't a central database of all of the health history for everyone - if not throughout the US, then at least throughout a given state... It doesn't have to be mandatory, but there should be something like that - a for-pay service, that lets people like myself who aren't scared of the truth, to have my data accessible by any doctor who may be taking care of me. I will say that my view may be skewed because I'm very healthy and have no health problems - not even one cavity in my teeth. But I have yet to hear a reasonable argument for why a medical database connecting private doctors, pharmacies, hospitals, and patients doesn't exist.
Once more information is available, and when we get to the point where computers tell us what information is imperative to come to better conclusions, and when the computers can figure out what to do with that information - we will be in the information age.
P.S. OK, maybe computers won't tell us what to do, but I have more faith in man-made computers figuring out what to do, in the near-term, than I do in men (and women) figuring it out.
| 8:08 PM |
If only my friend had known the facts about life insurance, he probably wouldn't be in the predicament he's in now.
| 8:08 PM |
Auto club to move from S.F.
The California State Automobile Association, a San Francisco fixture since 1900, will begin moving most of its operations outside the city by the beginning of next year and sell off more than half a million ...
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Jul 9, 2005
Chillin on a road between the Hamptons & Montauk - waiting on some great seafood.
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