by Adrian Chan and Andreas Weigend

This post has been translated into German (GDI Impuls 2/2010),
Spanish, and Chinese (simplified).

The social data revolution

We live in an age in which social data has become the air we live and breathe. As individuals, our actions, preferences, habits, and even friendships, leave behind a wake of data. Not only data about us, but data that captures our communication and connections. Even our conversations are now data. Conversations that can be captured, stored, and re-distributed as data. Data that connects to us, and is shared with companies and brands with whom we have relationships. Like it or not, the social data revolution is the new business environment. Smart analysis of this social data demands a new mindset.

Business in this new environment has already been profoundly affected by the new datascape. Adaptation is an imperative. But for those who will do more than survive and actually thrive in this environment, the question is not one of adaptation. It is a matter of how best to respond to the world of social data,  how to metabolize it, and incorporate it as if it belonged to the very company DNA. Read the rest of this entry »

We are excited that Ashvin Kumar, CEO of Blippy, will join the Social Data Revolution class this Thursday May 6, 2010. In preparation to what I expect to be a great discussion on the future of creating and sharing purchasing data, Dan Goodwin, Rob Cosgriff , and I created a 17-min mp3 with our thoughts on the game changing nature of the service. Please leave your comments here or on our facebook.com/socialdatarevolution page before class.

And here, added right after class, is the unedited 1h17min mp3 (72MB) of the lively discussion on broadcasting your finances and other taboos with Ashvin Kumar, ending with the longest applause this quarter so far.

PS: Somewhat related, I am giving a talk at the Intuit Innovation conference on May 3, and have put up pdf, pptx, and slideshare. If someone has good experiences liking the audio to the slides afterwards, please let me know.

On April 20, 2010, the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab held the event The Real Time Web: Imperative or Insanity? that I moderated. The packed, standing room only auditorium participated enthusiastically in the lively discussion of the panelists:

• Kevin Burton, CEO and founder, spinn3r
• Todd Levy, Head of Product and Engineering and co-founder, bit.ly
• Jan Pedersen, Chief Scientist for Core Search, Microsoft
• George Zachary, Partner, Charles River Ventures

For those who could not attend, Jeremy Carr (course assistant for MS&E237, Social Data Revolution) and I recorded a 12-minute audio summary of the key points of the event. I also posted my 3-page outline of the kick-off speech.

Please tell us what you think! Leave a comment below or on facebook.com/socialdatarevolution.

Thanks!

Read the rest of this entry »

Listen to the Conversation with Kai Ryssdal (Marketplace) on the Social Data Revolution: Companies get smart on Digital Data. Produced by American Public Media. Broadcast by NPR and Public Radio International on November 18, 200.

• Play (publicradio.org)
• Download (weigend.com, mp3, 2MB)

And please share what you think… Comment (via Facebook Connect) below!

Transcript (from http://bit.ly/dataNPR)

KAI RYSSDAL: The data trail that we create every day is only growing. Every time we go online, every time we use our cell phones, companies log our preferences. They make suggestions, and they remember what we do. Even though a lot of consumers have gotten used to that, a lot of businesses are still trying to figure out how to use our data to the best effect. One of the first companies to realize the social potential of consumer data was Amazon.com. And Andreas Weigend used to be the chief scientist there. Welcome to the program. Read the rest of this entry »

Saturday, November 14, 2009, 6pm
4150 17th St, Unit 12, SF, CA 94114

Hi there! Read the rest of this entry »

How the Social Data Revolution Changes (Almost) Everything
Andreas S. Weigend, Ph.D.

Thursday, 17 September 2009
5:00 pm Lecture, 6:00 pm Reception
NTU (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)
Lecture Theatre 25 (South Spline 1, B2-1)

Visionary companies are starting to design products and services based on social data – data individuals generate and share about their attention, intention, location, and situation. Read the rest of this entry »

Download the mp3 of the World Marketing Forum keynote (45MB, 50 minutes, Mexico City, July 1, 2009).

Transcript:

Ladies and gentlemen, it is an honor for me to be here and to talk to you about what I think it the most interesting, the most exciting thing I can talk to you about. Read the rest of this entry »

Hi there!
As experiment in social data, we will use ustream today’s class, allowing people from both within the classroom and from the outside to participate in real time and Read the rest of this entry »

In 2009, more data will be generated by individuals than in the entire history of mankind through 2008. Information overload is more serious than ever. What are the implications for marketing?

Check out this article at http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/now-new-next/2009/05/the-social-data-revolution.html

by Ray Bradford and Andreas Weigend. Ray Bradford, currently a student at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, is taking Data Mining and E-Business (Stats 252)

You’re working on that big project when momentum stalls at 9:06 PM and you find yourself on Facebook staring at the news feed.  You are confronted by a stream of updates from that melodramatic train wreck of a former high school classmate, whose friend request you accepted out of guilt last week.  You couldn’t care less Read the rest of this entry »