I was reading through this post talking about trends in data platforms and was intrigued by Data Socialization. But is it really viable?
Here’s a link to the post
(Note: I realize I’m extrapolating here.)
My question though is whether that’s even a legit overall destination for information. I think there is real value in data sharing across organizations. You start to see this today with address verfication and even caller-id services (my cell phone offers this – interestingly, I opted OUT).
Sharing data “for the good of the many” though – I can’t imagine, with people’s desire to control their own information and the inherent intellectual property value of data for companies – that people will be jumping up and down, looking for ways to share information on a general scale.
It’s something I’ve thought about quite a bit, particularly relative to medical scenarios – I think there is massive learning to be had by feeing arrays of medical records, treatments and outcomes into a really smart (Hello Watson) system so that it can see inferred relationships and possible resolutions that we just wouldn’t see as humans. I know, long sentence. But I think it could be a tool and machine learning environment that would be hard to underestimate.
There are many systems that would benefit from huge assortments of data so that trends could be validated or alternate scenarios recognized. In nearly every field imaginable, systems could benefit.
But how could that really work with information? We’d have to have such strict (and, really, unenforceable at scale) rules and guidelines that it could make the data too simple, too anonymous.
Can you see the day (or a way) that your company would share information that would be combined with other information? Even if it were the case that you could be the beneficiary of the learnings, it’s hard to imagine, at least for me, and I’m a believer!
I have talked with several people (note: not 100’s, just people I know) off and on about how this might work and I have yet to have someone simply say “I’m in!” Usually I can convince them that it’s intriguing and has possibilities, but convincing them to the point where they’d share real information and real data? Nope.
You also have to combine this with the fact that the SOURCE of information – all of us out here living life – we all need to be ok with it too. Otherwise, all those privacy policies, all those privacy laws – they could all become moot if ignored to allow for non optional data sharing.
Granted, things change over time. But I think this one is a bit more in the future. Perhaps if we can show huge benefits with some initial data sets, the hesitations will start to let up a little.
What do you think? Are you ready to share information at that level? Perhaps more importantly, share YOUR information?