Inescapable Data (ID) isn’t a cookbook for start-ups, but you could read it to find the ingredients for a host of new businesses. Start with the simple premise of Inescapable Data; that data sources can (and will) be converged to produce new types of information, and that these data sources presently surround us. Then read the book to discover what these data sources are and how they can be converged. Once you get used to the Inescapable Data mindset, new business opportunities will start appearing to you frequently.
Here are some examples:
During a flight to Las Vegas from Manchester, I was reading a Business 2.0 magazine article that described “hotspotting” a process for embedding hyperlinks in full-motion digital video – i.e the convergence of hypertext, video, and sound in real time. According to the article, a “thin” layer of flash code is integrated with the video stream such that by “mousing over” regions of an image on a laptop screen for example, options will appear superimposed on the image, that allow the you interact with the image. The problem I find with the article is that the authors seem only to be able to envision web based advertising as the primary application of hypertext and video convergence (some business models never die now matter how uninspired they may be).
With an ID mindset, other opportunities come to mind immediately. In chapter 12 we talk about the use of OLED displays – computer displays that use organic, light-emitting diode materials. Unlike today’s screens, OLED displays can ultra-thin and flexible. Display substrates can be plastic or metal foil allowing them to be rolled up. Now, combine OLED displays with a PDA-like processing device about the size of an Apple iPod (complete with 40GB hard drive), and the hypertext/video convergence capability just described, and you have video text books, video training manuals, video travel guides …and the list goes on.
Chris Stakutis, my co-author, read a story in his local paper recently about a small start-up (Wildlife Acoustics) that provides monitoring devices that can digitally capture a bird song and compare it to a database of bird songs so that the person using the device will be able to identify birds without actually seeing them. You can buy this device now for $499.00. That’s a good start, but if you were to give this device a wireless connection to the internet and a GPS receiver, then populate the countryside with these devices, you would have a way to track bird migrations in real time. The same concept could be applied to air-borne chemical sensing devices for use by Homeland Security.
Once you get the ID message, the ideas will begin to flow. Read Inescapable Data, then get your favorite VC on the phone.
--John Webster
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