ANDREAS WEIGEND SPEAKS AT SAP
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
3:30pm Networking Mixer (refreshments will be provided)
4:00pm - 6:00pm Presentation and Discussion
Building D, Southern Cross Room
SAP Labs, 3410 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304

The production, aggregation, distribution, and consumption of data is changing dramatically. Traditionally, paid specialists actively collected data for a specific purpose. Now, we are flooded with data streams of intention, attention, situation, and location of individuals, plus data about personal relationships. In addition to these implicit traces of behavior, people contribute data explicitly on platforms for mapping, housing, automotive, and salary data.

The money is where data influence decisions. Most firms believe in internal transparency, basing decisions on data they collect. Few understand how they can benefit by extending this transparency to the outside. What data should the firm share with its customers so some of them can actually help the firm? A sound data strategy has become central to most firms.

Barriers to data business used to be high, including expensive infrastructure and complex business relationships. Infrastructure has now been commoditized; information asymmetries are being reduced by those companies that understand the new consumer data revolution. Relevant questions in today’s marketplace include: How can we set up a system (including incentives) so that people actually do contribute useful and truthful data? What properties does the market need to have so that collective intelligence emerges? What value can the firm create for the contributors to drive participation? It is their perception of this value that will decide whether they demand to be paid for their contributions, or whether they are willing to pay themselves? Finally, what should be the currency of the payments: money, attention, or even more data?

BIO: Dr. Andreas Weigend is passionate about people and data. Until 2004, he was the chief scientist of Amazon.com where he helped create a customer-centric, measurement-focused culture and focused on understanding customer behavior.

Andreas now works as an independent consultant with exciting firms including Alibaba, Lufthansa, MySpace, and Nokia. He helps them leverage the principles of the new consumer data revolution for innovating products and business models. He also serves on boards and advisory boards of startups, and is a limited partner at Founders Fund, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm.

In his spare time, Andreas shares his insights in speaking engagements and in his courses at Stanford (Data Mining and Electronic Business), UC Berkeley (Marketing in Web 2.0), and Tsinghua/INSEAD (The Digital Networked Economy). He lives in San Francisco, Shanghai, and on weigend.com.

mp3 recording of the talk (81MB)

 

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