Ryan, Director of Digital Production engages in a conversation around Big Data.

1. big data, your data,
and the singularity

2. first. an apology.
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3. impressive sounding
statistics slide
2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated every day.
In the last 2 years alone, we’ve accumulated over 90% of the
world’s data.
51% of the traffic on the internet is now non-human.
80% of the world’s data is unstructured (ie. useless)
twitter & facebook alone generate 17 terabytes of data a day
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4. big data - what is it?
in short, it refers to untapped data resources. it’s information that
can’t be processed or analyzed using traditional tools.
and we store everything: environmental data, financial data,
medical data, surveillance data, etc. This data can be organized to
better understand customers, businesses, markets, the list goes
on.
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5. big data - why is it
important?
it’s a gold mine... figuratively speaking.
better predictions: “what are the precursors to failures?” “how are
these systems related?”
better insights: we can already measure sentiment by
understanding what people are saying about a brand. what we
can’t currently understand is why they are saying it.
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6. the cute girl paradox
OK Cupid dating site - constantly analyzes the data that their
members provide them and publish their findings on their blog.
the mathematics of beauty findings:
the more men as a group disagree about a woman’s looks,
the more they end up liking her
guys tend to ignore girls who are merely “cute”
having some men think she’s ugly actually works in a
woman’s favour
“we now nave mathematical evidence that minimizing your
flaws is the opposite of what you should do”
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7. isn’t this stuff we already
know?
well... yes.
Eg. google analytics
livemetric
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8. isn’t this stuff we already
know?
and... no
NY Times study on red meat eating
“If people in the study had eaten half as much meat, the researchers estimated, deaths in the group
would have declined 9.3 percent in men and 7.6 percent in women.”
“your own data + public health record could kick science’s ass”
Sorry, but I forget why this can’t easily happen. It’s something to
do with Lou Gehrig’s disease and insurance companies.
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9. where are we going to get
this information?
Consider: Bizarro Facebook.
A social network that is created not to connect you with friends, or
potential employers, but directly with brands.
The more validated data you provide, the more complete your
profile, the more valuable you become to certain brands.
With the right value proposition human’s have proven that they’re
willing to do just about anything.
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10. josh harris - the wired city
We Live in Public Documentary
The Wired City, a crowd sourced Internet TV station where all the
viewers are also the broadcasters, multicasting to each other and
the World Wide Web.
For brands like Crest, the wiring in our homes will herald the next
golden age of advertising.
“You just have to get over those sociological barriers and
advertisers can convince you it’s just not a big deal. The one thing
I’m very sure of is that people can be convinced of anything if you
find the right gratification schedule.”
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11. privacy + data portability
yup, privacy is a huge issue
the current examples are all creepy
the platforms that win the web moving forward will be those with
the most transparent and fair policies around their users’ data
data portability is the concept that people should have control
over their own data and be able to carry it with them across the
internet. this will unlock immense value in their online
experiences.
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12. do immortal software-
based humans care about
privacy?
The inventor of chess vs. the emperor of China
- there have been slightly more than 32 doublings of
performance since the first programmable computers were
invented during World War II.
The singularity is coming:
“There’s even exponential growth in the rate of exponential
growth. Within a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass
human intelligence, leading to The Singularity — technological
change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric
of human history. The implications include the merger of
biological and nonbiological intelligence, immortal software-
based humans, and ultra-high levels of intelligence that expand
outward in the universe at the speed of light.”
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13. this is all very
uncomfortable
haters gonna hate
the multitude of sensors gathering data through the super-
computer sitting in your pocket might say otherwise. especially
when it becomes your wallet.
“Whether the device is in you or on you is at this point arbitrary.”
- R. Kurzweil on the merger of biological and non-biological
intelligence.
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14. the end
“the future of marketing is
context. ambient data translated
into intimate, contextual
experiences expressed through
the currency of content &
conversation”
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