Playing, The Numbers

E3, the biggest video game conference in the world, takes place this week in Los Angeles. In addition to raising questions about why violence and mayhem sell so well, it also offers insight into the datafication of play. Take Destiny, one of — if not the — most expensive games ever produced. If you’re not familiar […]

Writer, Interrupted

My achievements as a procrastinauteur seem to know no bounds. On June 1st, I said I would write something on big data every day for the entire month of June. I managed to keep that up for five days and then fell off the wagon for nearly twice that, going on a non-writing bender. As penance, […]

Data Is Not A Commodity

A common refrain among the digerati is that data is a commodity but insight is not. Or wisdom, or judgment — insert your favorite word for good thinking. It’s true that good thinking is in short supply. That’s why there are escape handles in the trunks of rental cars. And why Napoleon got his hat handed […]

There Is No Such Thing As Metadata

The USA Freedom Act, just voted into law, ended the government’s bulk collection of phone call metadata. While people of good conscience can disagree on whether this is a good or bad thing, here’s an uncontestable fact: There is no such thing as metadata. David Weinberger, Internet polemicist, former joke writer for Woody Allen, and all around […]

A Fireside Chat On Data Capital

Jason Pontin, publisher of MIT Technology Review, is a gentleman and a scholar. His Cambridge, MA office is decorated with meticulous stacks of books worth reading from the past few decades. He’s a man of letters in a world of bits. Totally my kind of guy. Yesterday at MIT EmTech Digital we sat down for […]

The Importance Of Being Vulgar

In French, there’s a great word for a person who popularizes ideas: vulgarisateur. A vulgarizer. It comes from the latin vulgo, “to spread among the multitude.” This is what events like TED and MiT EmTech Digital are all about — spreading ideas. But during the final afternoon of EmTech today, Jennifer Pahlka, CEO of Code for America gave vulgarization […]

30 Posts In 30 Days

I’m a slow writer. A deliberate, plodding wordsmith. All of that is true except the wordsmith part. And the deliberate, plodding bit. I’m a procrastinator. To fix this, I’m going to write something about big data every day for the entire month of June. Not just working days, every day. It won’t be genius. Much […]

Strategy In A Big Data World

Strategy is creating a unique value in a unique way. I learned this while working on a project with Michael Porter, the world’s foremost authority on competitive strategy. The video above tells the story. Or you can read this. If you create a unique product or service by doing things a rival could copy, you […]

More Is Different

What’s the difference between a hydrogen atom and the sun? Between a glass of water and the ocean? More. When we move from a small amount of stuff to a big amount of stuff, quantitative changes become qualitative changes. The difference between 8oz of water and 321 million cubic miles of it, between one hydrogen atom […]