LeWeb 12: the Data of Things

liveblogged – there will be mistakes

Dr. DJ Patil, Data Scientist in Residence, Greylock Partners

Le Web Paris Dec 2012

It’s about the data of things, rather the internet of things. The power of the things is that they produce data. The phone, the tablet, the PC. But there’s more. The fitbit, the jawbone. Things that measure sleep or activity – things that have a goal of measuing you. You can measure blood pressure and heart rate with the phone (and add-ons). We are becoming the internet of things.

Insights come from the blend of data and sensors. It starts to be about everything around you. The car, the planes. Plane engines are connected. Trains are connected. Internet of things is not just the things, it is also the processes associated with them.

Sensors are getting smaller and faster. Data we have loads, lots of information. But on Insights and Action, we score low. We are not drawing the conclusions and acting on them. We are not taking the next steps. We need to have 3 steps to make process.

We need to follow the best practice for design and interaction. So what do you want people to take away, what do you want them to do and how do you want them to feel . Stuff needs to lead us to the next step.

We need to make superpowers. We need to provide data and apps that make people feel good, that makes them feel in control. And if it goes away, it makes people feel powerless. Our internet of things needs to act like superpowers. They empower you to interact in a new way. to see the world differently. This thinking drives you to new products, a different ways of interacting with world. This is about augmentation, not just replacement. How do the devices augment you, make a superpower for us

Have to start thinking this as a new set of skills. A different way of analysing the data. Which needs a different type of Data Scientist. Who understand the things underneath the data. And how to put the human back into the data. How the human works in the lifecycle.