Got Data? What is it Worth?

By: | January 29th, 2017

Data Visualization

Data Visualization (Image Courtesy Wikimedia https://goo.gl/images/iLB7Wj)

Data: The Future of Everything

Data in and of itself isn’t worth anything, at least according to Jim Porcarelli of NeueVu (see video below). According to Porcarelli, the value of data depends on how it’s used or what analytics can extract from it.

The average consumer is likely not up to speed on understanding data plans and what they really mean. Data and data storage services are somewhat arcane topics. Most people just expect them to work. And most providers want to put a rate on use (as well as overuse), and most of us don’t really understand how that works either. But to the makers and deliverers of data in whatever form – music, text, audio, video, etc. – making sense of data and determining its value is at the heart of today’s and tomorrow’s successful businesses.

Collecting Communications Information

Today, TV is delivered via satellite, the Internet, and over copper wire and fiber optics. Whatever the delivery platform, measurement companies such as Nielsen, long in the TV ratings business, must partner with companies such as AT&T to obtain anonymized viewing data so that it’s ratings make sense across all platforms.

As we enter the “big data” era, every organization large and small will need to connect their businesses or organizations to quality streams of data to measure and assess how their services or products are being received.

Leveraging Information to Improve Delivery of Public & Private Services

For example, in the US, Medicaid beneficiaries are placed into comprehensive risk-based managed care organizations (MCO) and each state’s Medicaid agency measures the quality of plans based on data collected during medical visits. A medical procedure such as the widening of coronary arteries, for example, to help patients get healthy levels of oxygen in their brains, is not always necessary or effective. Complex medical studies measuring the myocardial fractional flow reserve (FFR) must be undertaken so that decisions to do the procedure or not can be made on solid data.

In business, companies are increasingly using information analytics to help improve business processes while reducing waste. The challenge is to choose the right information to measure and analyze. If a company looks at data that doesn’t matter, lots of time and resources can be wasted. One interesting new approach to ad targeting is YouTube’s use of Google account details that will use demographic data, search behavior, and algorithms which will deliver targeted advertising.

The following video is “Jim Porcarelli on the Value of Data.”

David Russell Schilling

David enjoys writing about high technology and its potential to make life better for all who inhabit planet earth.

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