Data Crush

“Data Crush”

The basic sources of data today are mobile devices, primarily mobile phones – of which there are already more than 6.8 billion worldwide. Smartphones and their apps – 25 billion apps have been downloaded from Apple alone – create and consume vast amounts of data, fed additionally by “mobility, virtual living, digital commerce, online entertainment, cloud computing and Big Data.”

Four “drivers” stimulate the increasing production of data from these channels:

1. “Pervasiveness” – This is the “network effect.” You can communicate from anywhere with anyone anywhere else. In the US in 2012, people spent 2.3 trillion minutes talking on mobile phones and sent 2.27 trillion text messages. While the number of mobile phone users increases, 34% of households gave up their landlines. They carry their communication with them everywhere they go.
2. “Connectedness” – You aren’t alone. If you want to talk, “it is highly likely that someone is willing and able to listen”; around the clock some six billion people are in the mobile network. To see the impact of this change in your professional life, note how the workday has expanded outside the...